Saturday 16th June

Another week has gone by and we're still very much in the summer doldrums. The rain has ensured that the floods are still looking very healthy and there's plenty of bird life but it's all a bit samey. The LITTLE GULL has still been hanging around with his bigger black-headed gull cousins and there are quite a few more juvenile black-headeds around now. The SHELDUCK and the the RED-CRESTED POCHARD have also been around though the former aren't always present. The gadwall flock is still hanging out along with a few other ducks including the first teal for quite a while. Still plenty of mute swans and coots and the single drake TUFTED DUCK still. There are still no waders to speak of apart from the four lapwings and the little egrets though there were a pair of OYSTERCATCHERS flying around noisily mid-week. A male YELLOW WAGTAIL down by the boats one day was a welcome diversion from the usual pieds. Still plenty of hirundines and swifts about especially when the weather is rather poor. 

In Burgess Field the weather has been too poor on days that I've visited to expect much on the butterfly front though the first large skippers are starting to be seen elsewhere in the county and I expect that they'll be out pretty soon there as well. In my garden there have been quite a few fledglings all visiting the feeders this week with the bad weather meaning that natural food is probably still rather hard to come by.

The common terns are pretty much in constant residence. With the stream running off the floods by the boat moorings so full they've regularly been hunting the fry there and it's great to watch them fishing at such close quarters

 These pair of mating Large Red Damselflies were laying eggs in our new "pond" - actually a large half barrel filled with water.

This Speckled Wood dropped in at the garden for a while during the week.