Thursday 30 June 2016

Thursday June 30

A largely cloudy morning, but quite warm with some sunny intervals and a moderate south-westerly breeze. This was my last chance to add a year-tick in June, but unfortunately nothing new appeared.

I parked at the church and walked to Netherstead along the road before returning across the fields. The birding highlight was the large numbers of Swifts over the field behind the pool, over 100 again.

This gives some idea of the Swifts milling about
The pool itself contained a juvenile Little Grebe, but I am sure it has arrived from elsewhere and was not home-grown.

The young Little Grebe skulking at the back of the pool
A female Tufted Duck at Clowes Farm pool was accompanied by nine newly-hatched ducklings.


The Sedge Warblers at the dragonfly pools were again feeding young.


As for insects, there was plenty to see, but they were generally species I have already seen here this year.

A female Emperor calmly egg-laying
The egg-laying process for Azure Damselflies is rather more frenetic
Another deerfly. This one appears to be Twin-lobed Deerfly Chrysops relictus
Actually I am starting to realise these flies are harder to i.d. than I had thought, so I may need to seek some expert guidance.

Common Wasp
Yikes! A scary looking horsefly. Research underway.
Finally, I am pleased to say that the Robin nest in our garden now contains newly hatched young which are being well attended by both parents.

No comments:

Post a Comment