Sunday 27 August 2017

Sunday August 27

A hot sunny morning with hardly any breeze, what there was was westerly. I was joined by Dave and we began by checking the copse by Netherstead which contained a nice Willow Warbler and a few Chiffchaffs. Down at the road we managed to see a Blackcap, the first of two positively identified plus another five or six "tackers" which remained out of sight. A pair of Grey Wagtails flew over.

Blackcap
We continued to the pool, briefly diverted by a small Toad, which crawled through the grass. Shortly afterwards we spotted a Whinchat and a Wheatear keeping company at the edge of the sparsely weedy field. Further interest was added by a calling Yellow Wagtail which disappeared before we could see it.

Whinchat (left) and Wheatear
The pool and flashes contained the Black-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, four Snipe, and at least eight Green Sandpipers. In other words no change.

With the day being so warm there were inevitably plenty of insects to see. A very dark Darter was considered to be just a Common Darter. We also saw plenty of "normal" Common Darters, a few Ruddy Darters, a Southern Hawker, several Brown and Migrant Hawkers, an Emerald Damselfly, and numerous blue damselfly species.

Common Darter
Migrant Hawker
We struggled to find many more migrant warblers, recording just three Whitethroats. However, two (probably four) Spotted Flycatchers showed very well indeed.

Spotted Flycatcher
A very pale moth was some kind of Wainscot. Unfortunately I don't know enough about them to reach a positive identification.

Wainscot sp
Back at Netherstead we heard the first Meadow Pipit of the autumn and I counted at least 10 Common Buzzards.






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