14th July

As you would have guessed, shortly after my last post the floods completely dried out, with their long run finally ended by this heatwave. Since then their has been precious little in the way of news on the bird front apart from a record of a CUCKOO in Burgess Field at last - I was beginning to think that we weren't going to get this iconic species on the list this year.

A great photo of a Reed Warbler, courtesy of Nicola Devine

The hot conditions have of course been ideal for insects. Burgess Field has been hosting good numbers of the usual Ringlets and Marbled Whites and a whole variety of odonata have been seen on the Trap Grounds, especially by Nicola Devine who managed to record yet another new species for this site in the last month in the form of an Emerald Damselfly. This is a rather localised species in the county and so it's a good record to have here.

Male Emerald Damselfly, courtesy of Nicola Devine

Female Emerald Damselfly, courtesy of Nicola Devine

In the heat I haven't been venturing out nearly as much as I would normally but I've been finding that the insects at least have been coming to me with all sorts of unusual garden visitors. I've had Ringlets, Meadow Browns and even a Brown Hawker on a couple of occasions.

I've not been out botanising much but I did note that the Tubular Water Dropwort came out as usual in it's usual ditch - it's always nice to see this rather understated flower. Talking of which, it should be possible to find Creeping Marshwort out on the Meadow now - I'll go and take a look some time soon

Tubular Water Dropwort