After a small blogging sabbatical I thought I'd get things rolling once more with a couple of visits to Brandon Marsh after an extended absence. My Friday visit was all about the waders and Saturdays the odanata, butterflies and bugs with some excellent results.
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| Record Shot - One of six Black-tailed Godwit on East Marsh |
East Marsh Pool is currently looking very enticing for any passing waders as we head towards autumn migration, with water levels perhaps the lowest I've encountered for sometime, thus exposing a lot of the islands.
This was borne out by Friday mornings tally which included
Common Sandpiper, (7)
Green Sandpipers, (4)
Oystercatcher,
Little-ringed Plover, (2) Little Egret and brief visits from a half dozen
Black-tailed Godwits and single
Curlew, sadly the latter with a severely damaged right leg. Also of note during my stay: (6)
Common Tern and a Hobby from the Ted Jury hide.
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| White-letter Hairstreak - River Meadow, a great place to find them! |
Saturday was a little quieter on the birding front and so after lunch in the nature centre, which seems to get more expensive every visit, I took off around the reserve to concentrate on butterflies and odanata. This proved to be an excellent idea, with lots on the wing and included a rare for Brandon
White-letter hairstreak, when I came across one along the treeline of River Meadow, an area in which I've seen them in the past.
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| Red Admiral - Having a good year |
Red Admirals seemed to be in large numbers with (17) recorded but at the other end of the scale only a single
Common Blue noted. In total ten species seen and included (4)
Speckled Wood.
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| Ruddy Darter - First of the year! |
Dragonflies proved to be abundant, recording year-first
Ruddy and Common Darters and also included
Brown Hawker,
Southern Hawker, Migrant Hawker and Black-tailed Skimmer.
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| Spotted Flycatcher's back at Napton! |
Closer to home I was delighted to receive a call from Richard Mays last week notifying me that Spotted Flycatchers where once more at Napton-on-the-Hill. This seems to be an annual event now when good numbers disperse in the area each year. I wasn't disappointed, with six birds seen during my visit and the bonus of a Common Redstart in the mix.
