Italy 4 - England 2 - Blog 0

Monday 18th to Sunday 24th June 2012

I'm a day late with my post this week as I worked on Sunday, watched the England game in the evening and after that debacle I just didn't have the enthusiasm!

Back to the birds though... post breeding dispersal was again the order of the week, with a very unseasonal Goldeneye the biggest surprise. I presume it is the returning second calendar year male that lingered into May, while an equally unexpected adult male Pintail is also likely to be the 'dodgy' Mallard loving bird that was last seen in mid-May (and was reported from the village pond in the interim).

The sleepy first summer male (Common) Goldeneye now in partial eclipse...

And as in May still in the company of Tufted Duks.

The only reappearing local post-breedering passerine to add to last weeks tally was a Mistle Thrush but many family parties of passerines are now coming out of the woods so to speak.

A juvenile Long-tailed Tit in the Withy Bed... ain't it cute!

A few waders have began to reappear too... with single Lapwing, Curlew and Redshank going into the log, whilst on the island the Oystercatchers have hatched four chicks and the washed out pair in the Swannery grounds have relayed a clutch of two on only slightly higher ground (which almost suffered the same fate as the first with the heavy rain on Saturday night!). A Mediterranean Gull (a first summer) was the first for several weeks, whilst the nesting Common Terns are still doing well and frequently joined by passing Sandwiches (if you know what I mean) but unfortunately nothing rarer.

Common Tern from Helen Hide.

The male Marsh Harrier still lingers but the bird of the week award has to go to a very flighty Turtle Dove that gave me the run around on Tuesday.

Ok not Turtle Doves (as I couldn't pin it down) but 'white doves' ie white Feral Pigeons on the swan nesting site...
Alright they may not be truly feral but there is a blurred line in the village as so many white domestic pigeons have left their cotes and nest on buildings behaving just like feral birds!

So with the first returning waders there is hope of something a bit more unusual and with the tern island bustling may be a rare tern too... that would be a better result than the England game!

There have been very few butterflies around so far this summer so this Small Tortoiseshell
was nice to see on the meadow hide path.

Juvenile (Common) Moorhen, Swannery grounds.
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