Friday 21 July

Yesterday was a bit of a disappointment. I had a couple of pre-work hours in the morning and had planned to use them looking for dragonflies at Ipsley Alders. That was before I woke up to the sound of heavy rain. By 09.00 am it was showing signs of abating, but it was cloudy and cool, so my only option appeared to be a circumnavigation of Arrow Valley Lake looking for birds.

This did produce one interesting sighting, but it wasn't a bird. It was a mammal. A Weasel bounced across the path carrying prey of some sort. Unfortunately I only had time for a quick look through the binoculars to rule out Stoat, and then it was gone.

The birds consisted of about 150 geese (Canadas and Greylags), and smaller numbers of moulting Mallard and Great Crested Grebes. The pair of Oystercatchers was still present.

The rain pepped up and I gave up.

The moth activity has also been a bit slow, just repeat appearances of single Silver Y, Large Yellow Underwing, Holly Tortrix, and Blastobasis adustella.

Finally, Lyn now has the record for Long-tailed Tits on the feeder, with an impressive seven. I'm trailing in a poor second with these five.