Sunshine at last

After a pretty damp week it was nice to wake up to sunshine. I was a little later than usual after a late night at the Bromsgrove Folk Festival headlined by an excellent band called the Churchfitters. Dave arrived shortly before me, and we soon got a call from John to say he had seen two male Redstarts in the hedgerow at the flash. By the time we reached the area they had disappeared. However, there were nine Green Sandpipers showing well.


Two of the nine Green Sandpipers

Green Sandpiper numbers have increased steadily since the first one I saw here in April 2007. My record count is 11 in 2010, so these nine are a promise of further increases to come. I have a feeling the site record  was set by Matt Wilmott a couple of years ago and rivals the best counts for any site in the West Midlands.
Other birds seen included a Lesser Whitethroat, probably two Sedge and about four Reed Warblers, plus about 10 Swifts.

John was diligently counting butterflies, and we joined him doing so. We saw Small Skippers, a Comma, at least one Green-veined White, a Marbled White, and a Speckled Wood amongst numerous Meadow Browns and Ringlets. For once, dragonflies were much in evidence. A couple of large Hawkers were probably newly emerged Southern Hawkers, and we also saw several Black-tailed Skimmers, Four-spotted Chasers, and my first Common Darter, Emerald Damselfly, and Emperor Dragonflies of the year. The latter involved two males, one of which ended up stuck on the water's surface. It thrashed aoround vigorously at first, but gradually became weaker and eventually lifeless. I'm not sure how it ended up in that predicament, but I felt the other Emperor looked awfully smug!