July 10th 2008

A better day weather wise after yesterdays wash out but alas there was not much bird activity though the young Cuckoo being fed by a male Yellow Wagtail perched on its head in the valley this morning has got to go down as one of my highlights of the year and only the second time I have recorded this in over three decades of birding.
Met up with Bob and Francoise at Draycote Water to look for Butterfly's and managed similar species to Tuesday's blog adding a very pristine Comma while there were also a number of moths disturbed including Yellow Shell, Barred Straw, Large Yellow Underwing, Cinibar and a strangely marked Snout which took some identification as it was a variant I have not seen before. Thank god for the tin-ternet Mrs F.
Bird wise there were Great-spotted Woodpecker 2, Common Tern, Green Woodpecker, Common Sandpiper 3, Kingfisher reported, Skylark 5, Buzzard 4, Grey Wagtail including a very young bird so probably the third brood we have had this year and many gulls.
Dave managed to wake me from my slumber this evening so we wandered around the valley for an hour but very quiet with only 250 Lapwing grabbing our attention and a few Yellowhammers.

Richard