June 18th 2009

A Barn Owl flew across the A45 near the entrance to Onley Prison at 6:15 am and a Cuckoo near Woolscott at 6:40am was a good start for a long overdue visit to the valley and this continued with Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Sparrowhawk, 3 Red-legged Partridge and Great-spotted Woodpecker seen between Sawbridge and Flecknoe. Searching some of the larger gardens in Flecknoe eventually revealed a difficult to see Spotted Flycatcher along with Garden Warbler and 2 Tree Sparrow. Unfortunately there were no sign of any Turtle Doves at Wolfhamcote so moved on to the Flecknoe Rd where a Little Owl at Grandborough Fields Farm and 2 Grey Partridge near the Baesley smallholding were the best I could find.
By the time I reached Draycote Water the wind had picked up which kept most of the butterflies down but managed Large Skipper, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell and Common Blue. New birds were female Shelduck and Redshank while the regulars included Common Tern, Garden Warbler, 3 Sedge Warbler, 4 Whitethroat, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 5 Green Woodpecker and 4 Buzzard.
On the way home I tried for clearwings on a couple of allotments succeeding at the Thurluston Road, Dunchurch one with 2 Currant Clearwing.
On our way to the pub this evening we checked on the Hill and Flecknoe Rd section of the valley hearing many Whitethroats, one Yellow Wagtail in horse paddocks and a Hobby over Hill Rd.

Richard