July - August

31st August
The last day of August and autumn migrants starting to arrive, the spotted crake in the Lee Valley was this evenings target, it showed very well upon my arrival. I was also able to watch it in flight when spooked by a moorhen and watch it swimming in deep water. Snipe, green sandpiper and greenshank were also of note. Of insect interest were lots of migrant hawkers damselflys were poorly represented with singles of both emerald and banded demosille

28th August
No updates this week so what have I been upto. Not much really busy with non wildlife things so just keeping an eye on my local birds. The house martins on next door's house (I have a bungalow!) have managed to lure the last fledgelings out and they have formed a large flock with the local swallows. The birds have returned to my garden in large numbers again (a sign of autumn) double figure counts of collared doves, starlings, greenfinch, chaffinch, house sparrows but no sign of my winter indicators jay, GS woodpecker etc. The large bird numbers have brought the sparrowhawks in, at least one every day. My tawny owls have been active having a few flight views in the evening. The turtle doves seem to have left the village and no sign of my chiff chaff or any of the local warblers for a while. Insect front, lots of common darters and migrant hawkers in the garden and lots of hornets. But only a few butterflies painted lady and small tortoiseshell being the highlight. Common shrews, field vole, house mouse, rabbit, brown hare, red fox and hedgehog have all been seen in the village.

20th August
With nothing much but a trip to the parents planned, I detoured via Whitecross Green Wood, the weather was not great for my target, brown hairstreak. A Hornets nest was located and I watched them come and go for a while, other insects were about some migrant hawkers a lone common darter and a rather sorry looking meadow brown A couple of brown hairstreaks flew by and high up in the trees. One was located very high up and digiscoped, full zoom on both scope and camera and the strong wind produced mearly a record shot, only bullfinch and a sparrowhawk trying its luck with a woodpigeon of note on the bird front. Onwards to Lardon Chase or Streatly Hill as I knew it in my youth. Here adonis blues were easily found among the common blues. The skies were full of red kites and the bushes full of spotted flycatchers. The weather was getting worse so I headed for some free food at the folks. The way home I had a mother and fawn fallow deer.

19th August
The departure of the Roller, left me with no plans so I headed to Norwich to find one of the Camberwell Beauties that had been present during the week. No sign on arrival and slowly the crowd dispersed, the weather was perfect for butterflies so I stayed. Just before 4pm there were two of us left, we were both looking to go, when the householder told us it was in his greenhouse. We were invited in and there was the Camberwell Beauty. We watched it and photographed it for 30 mins then helped it out of the greenhouse, it returned to the plum tree where it had been all week.

17th August
The lunchtime report of the aquatic warbler was tempting but nothing until 4.10 and by 4:45 I was leaving work and heading to North Kent. Alas so was everyone else including a turned over horse box blocking the M2. I navigated the back roads and finally arrived at 6:30, to those classic words "it was showing well a few minutes ago!" A few fleeting views were had but no enought to tick it, and I needed a good view to tick this one. Cetti's warbler and yellow wagtails entertained until eventually it did show, full view but only briefly, but good enough to finally tick my 400th species - aquatic warbler It had gone to roost in the reeds and people were starting to leave in the rapidly fading light, until a rabbit disturbed a sedge warbler and more importantly the aquatic warbler which showed well.

16th August
With nothing doing elsewhere, just looking in the field behind my house, a couple of grey partridges and hedgehog but large numbers of house martins and swallows overhead.

12th August
The regular monthly trip with the Stortford crew, we headed east to Norfolk, narrowly avoiding a big traffic jam due to and accident on the A14 due to our early start. First port of call was Salthouse, some artic skua's including one right over our heads, severalsooty and manx shearwaters a storm petrel and the usual stuff inc both velvet and common scoter. A brief shower was missed with the help of Cley visitor center but not much on the marsh apart from greenshank and yellow legged gulls. Kelling failed to produce the pec sand that had been at Salthouse earlier, but a southern hawker catching and eating a large white was interesting as were the fairy shrimps in the stream. With little about the headed to Southwold in torrential rain, from the boating lake carpark we failed to find the pec sand still in torrential rain, a green sand was present. The harbour was much drier and we could not find the ringed caspian gull, but did find a possible of our own. A couple of yellow legged gulls were of note. Back to the boating lake and a walk round produced a water rail but nothing else. We were about to leave when another birder spotted it, a dog walker had flushed it. The pectoral sandpiper showed well and some photos were taken in poor light. Some late sea watching produced an adult little gull and more artic skuas amongst the kittiwakes.

8th August
The only bird of note locally is the Great White Egret so after work I headed off the Chigborough lakes. Traffic was dire and I arrived later than planned. I eventually caught up with the egret on the farm lake showing briefly before flying behind the island. Not returning in the 20 mins I stayed. The phone showed white winged black tern was still at Minsmere, so off I headed arriving at 7:30. No sign at Island mere, so I headed to the North Marsh and the East Hide. Nothing doing here apart from a plague of rabbits and a roe deer and some distant kittiwakes. Trudging back through the birdless reserve, a male montagu's harrier flew low over, there are birds here after all. A couple of muntjacs in the car park which apart from my car was empty, were of note. I headed home, with a tawny owl halfway home.

7th August
I took the back roads home due to the motorway carnage and had to stop to pick up a stock dove sat by the side of the road. He is looking very ill but not injured in any way - time will tell. This evening I limped round the fields at the back of my house, a couple of grey partridges the first this year and they surprised me as I thought they had all been shot locally, but not much else. A migrant hawker was found hunting in the garden upon my return. The dove was to be moved so I drove it to Cambridge to its new temporary home, I had to slam on the brakes to avoid a group of woodpigeons being hunted by a sparrowhawk which sat in the road. I had to slam the brakes on a bit further when a shrew sp. decided to run the gauntlet. Later that evening I heard a commotion outside my house, my cat had caught a rather largeyellow necked mouse, which I managed to get off it. Not appreciating my heroics it decided to bite me sinking its teeth into my finger and did not let go even when I tried to release it into the field down the road, boy did it hurt!

6th August
After a long lie in to recover from the previous nights beers and a touristy thing or two and some food at Tesco, we departed on the trip home, with only one stop Over railway cutting, possibly the last visit before it becomes a concrete guided bus lane. The rabbits will easily shift home but its also home to lots of butterflies, dingy and grizzled skipper earlier in the year but todays visit was for wall butterflies. At least a dozen were easily found without much effort also present was common blue, brown argus and small and large white. Stupidly I slipped off the old platform onto the rail injuring my knee, limping back to the car. Late in the night the local Tawny owls were calling from my garden and were easily found with my 1,00000000000000000 candle torch.

5th August
A trip to Manchester to see a friend was planned for this weekend, so a tour of south Manchester's top birding sites was palnned. However there were two problems, having lived in Manchester, I know that most of the southern sites are rubbish, full of joe public and usually devoid of birds. So the ruddy shelduck at Leighton Moss was a bit of a lure. Arriving at 10.30 we had just missed them, nothing of note in the reserve (could have stayed in Manchester after all!) apart from some red deer. We had some lunch in the visitor centre and headed off a few miles north to Arnside Knott. Here on our arrival the Scotch Argus were easily found. We headed up the hill and found a single high brown fritillary which eluded the camera despite my chasing it halfway across the hill. Lots of grayling and a single clouded yellow were also of note. We headed back to Leighton Moss via gait barrows but there was nothing there either(apart from a red froglet). No sign of the ruddy shelduck at the reserve. But along the road we happened upon another birder, who had the secret directions to a field of sheep from which we could look back onto the reserve and see the shelduck , they were hidden from all the reserve hides. So we trekked to the field and voila the two ruddy shelduck were there about 1000 miles distant. We could take all this excitement so headed to Manchester. A quick stop at Pennington Flash for the Willow tits was in order. But the hide was full of loud northeners moaning about not seeing anything, when they finally left magically all the birds arrived - coincidence! The willow tits performed well supported by some lovelly bullfinches. Then onto Manchester for a meal and some beers.

30th July
A much more leisurely morning, and we headed to Pagham harbour for the Marsh sandpiper which showed a few minutes after our arrival in the channel. There was little else of note during our walk and we headed off for some lunch. We had a couple of non wildlife related stops before heading to reservoir to see the recently reported Great White Pelican, it was showing on our arrival, mixing with mute swans. Lots of green sandpipers present, but nothing else of note. We had some tea and headed towards Rye where in a deep dark forest our final target would be waiting, after a short white a wild boar piglet appeared on the track, followed later by a much larger youngster. The light was fading and we headed back to the car where half a dozen wild boar were on the track including 2 very large adults.

29th July
A very early start arriving at Arne RSPB before it opened, I fact we had finished on the reserve before it opened. The main target was the Sika deer, of which we found in large numbers and at close distance. Little in the way heathland birds, the usual birds on the mudflats. Next stop Ballard Down although it was a little windy large numbers of butterflies were on the hill. Of note, clouded yellows, dark green fritillaries but no lulworth skippers. But 20 species was not bad. We headed to the New Forest ahead of the rain, but arriving at Mill Lawn in torrential rain did not look promising and indeed all the dragonflys were absent. During breaks in the rain a few skimmers and a couple of beautiful demoiselles were seen. We cut our losses and headed to our accommodation for the evening and food near Midhurst (Sussex). Finally the weather broke and we had a excellent evening with the Mammals Trust, investigating bats, several species were caught and identified, The rarest being Bechsteins bat but we also had common and soprano pipestrelle, Whiskered bat, brown long eared, and daubentons bats.

28th July
Finishing work early I headed to Croxley Common Moor for the Red backed Shrike, it showed briefly on my arrival but was lost for periods and only a few more flight views were had before I left. Lots of small copper was the butterfly highlight, brown hawker and lots of banded demoiselles the dragonfly highlights. Onward to Wilstone reservoir for the lesser emperor dragonfly that had been there for a couple of days. On arrival a common scoter was spotted close to the steps, a quick check of the news services and it had already been reported 20 mins before. An extensive search did not produce the lesser emperor, but at least 5 red veined darters were still present. Common blue also of note. Quite a few people turned up for the scoter - must be quiet!

26th July
The woodpigeon did not make it, shame but he was quite ill I suspect. There was a good emergence of common darters from my pond today and lots of butterfly activity, comma, peacock, red admiral, large white, essex skipper and some meadow browns.

25th July
No progress with the woodpigeon, will not take water even from a syringe, trying not to open its bill, does not look good, will be going to a friends in the next couple of days if he does not improve. A massive cardboard enclosure with mesh roof has been constructed to house the pigeon.

23rd July
A late start and we headed to the Redwings horse sanctuary, I had promised to take the long suffering girlfriend. Although I was a little bored after 4 hours. We popped into Minsmere on the way back but no sign of the Lesser emperor, thought some excellent emperors, baby moorhens and a water vole entertained. In one of the local villages on the way home, I swerved to avoid a woodpigeon in the road, it sat there and I got out to see if it was ok, clearly something was wrong, there were no obvious signs of injury and it could fly but walking and perching were impossible, I comically chased it round the village green much to the amusement of the locals before it gave in and let me catch it. Home it went to live in a large cardboard box.

22nd July
A sensible start saw me arriving at Broxbourne woods at 8.45, a bit before the guys were expected. A walk down the ride produced lots of red admirals and a couple of comma's. The rest of the gang never arrived, some communication error or something. So I continued the search, eventually one female purple emperor was seen flying around the sap weeping oak near the car park. Hornets were present hovering around the same oak as were the small group of people searching for the emperors. Lots of butterflies were around, mostly skippers and whites but the odd ragged ringlet and faded meadow brown. No more emperors so I went home for lunch, picked up the long suffering girlfriend and headed to Buxton Heath in Norfolk. The directions were a bit misleading mentioning a stream, which was more like a large marshy area much to the displeasure of said girlfriend who was inadequately shod. We crossed this and met to people also looking for our quarry. No luck but a couple of hundred yards away another couple were waving at us, they had them. We crossed the swamp again and met up with the others and quickly found 3 yellow winged darters, they were quite wary and photos were taken at distance. We had our fill of them, with little else of note bar some white admirals in the wood by the car park. Where we discovered an earring had been lost somewhere on the travels! I had ghastly visions of a shopping trip to a jewellers as we back tracked the way we came. 150m later the earring was found and we made it back to the car without any further incident. Next to the north coast, a stop at Cley where the spoonbills could easily (well just about through the harvesting dust form the adjacent field) be seen from the visitor centre. The building site next door will be a new visitor centre, probably full of educational stuff for school kids and familys and a place to stop visiting. A few marsh harriers, green sandpipers and a few yellow legged gulls but not much else of note. A quick walk down the bank produced nothing of note. So we headed to Tichwell (the visitor centre now safely closed so no kids and familys present). Alas first person we met was a kid, but he was no ordinary kid, quickly picking out a wood sandpiper impressed me - maybe I am wrong about kids - jurys out. The Island hide was absoulty packed with people, for no apparent reason as there was nothing of note visible from the path. We headed to Parrinder hide, lots of ruff and some young avocets and a superb female red necked phalarope, the light was all wrong for photos as was the distance, but some of the commoner species oblidged. The island hide mystery was solved there was an artic skua there 3 hours ago, and several young bearded tits showed well if distantly on the reeds. The woods between the car park and the visitor centre had loads of red froglets (colour variation of common frog). We headed for home via the top secret monty's site, where a female Montys put in an appearance after a short wait. TOP DAY.