August 15th 2010

Yesterday’s rain cleared leaving hazy conditions when Dave and I arrived at the pond early this morning so it was a struggled to see the centre of the reservoir clearly. The Goosander was on draycote bank which also had 50+ Pied, single Yellow and Grey Wagtail while the inlet held 2 juvenile Little Ringed Plover, the first of 6 Common Sandpipers, Little Egret and a Jay. The call of Golden Plover overhead was loud enough to locate the bird going straight through heading east and the only other birds of interest on hensborough bank were 2 Dunlin and a male Gadwall. On our return we flushed a juvenile Sparrowhawk off the inlet which then perched on the wall of draycote bank for five minutes giving stunning scope views and the brisk wind had brought in 50 Sand Martin.
A Nuthatch, 2 Green Woodpecker and 4 Bullfinch were in Draycote village.
After a cracking calorie busting breakfast at the Long Itchington Diner we then moved on to Brandon Marsh which turned out to be more of a social event as we met up with Keith, Neville, Colin, Sarah and Graham as we wandered around the reserve in sunshine. We had missed the Spotted Flycatcher and juvenile Peregrine that showed earlier but managed to spot an impressive 14 Buzzards also 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel and a Kingfisher. The rise in temperature brought out the butterflies and there were at least 6 Comma, 2 Speckled Wood, 20+ Large White, 10+Green-veined White, 8 Peacock, 10 Red Admiral, 7 Common Blue, 5 Brimstone and 2 Small Tortishell, plus a few moths - Coxcomb Prominent resting on the visitor centre, Silver Y feeding amongst some thistles and 2 Vapourer Moth.
Next stop was Lawford Heath but it was very quiet although we eventually managed a lone Swift heading north east with a few Swallows and House Martin and 2 Buzzard.
JJ rang with news of this Knot that had been found at the pond.

Knot by John Judge

Richard