August 7th 2009

It finally stopped raining just before dawn leaving the garden in a very sorry state but at least the umbrellas put over the moth traps gave the hardy ones who were out and about somewhere dry to hang out. Started brightening up after 10am with a small passage of House Martins and Swallows heading south while over 300 Lesser Black-backed Gulls headed south west over the garden..
Met up with Francoise, Bob and Dave for coffee at pond in the afternoon watching 3 Black Tern and 2 Common Tern and another large movement of gulls then looked for Lee’s Red Underwing seen earlier in the day and found 5 around the rangers yard along with Buff Footman, Dagger sp and 2 Single-dotted Wave.
Next port of call was Napton Reservoir and as we passed Calcutt it was disappointing to see that four of the set-a-side fields that have had regular Barn Owls in the past have gone under the plough. At Napton we had 5 young Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, pair of Common Tern feeding young and a Common Sandpiper. Very few butterflies here due to the policy of cutting grass so short but many Common Blue Damselflies amongst the shoreline vegetation as well as a few Blue-tailed and Red-eyed Damselfly plus 2 Black-tailed Skimmer. Also 3 Brown Hawker.
This evening there was a sudden appearance of 40 Swifts over garden for 10 minutes feeding high up then just as quickly as they appeared – gone.

Richard