Magnificent Seven

 A mainly grey and rather blustery day saw me staying in my local area where I began my day by checking on our local Ringed Plovers. I'm happy to say that the pair are still present and will have benefitted from the recent rain which has replenished the pools around their favoured area. Hopefully the warming weather will provide a reliable supply of invertebrates for them and any young that they may have.

Wheatears

Moving on from the plovers I checked Willowbrook Industrial where I was delighted to find at least seven Wheatears. The small flock made up of three males and four females were fairly obliging at times and gave me some excellent views. Several Meadow Pipits were frequenting the same area and at least one was songflighting. My walk then took me to Priors Hall where two Sedge Warblers could be heard singing in the quarry. Near the ponds a Brown Hare was noted briefly as it sped away while a distant Sparrowhawk was spotted. Other birds of interest included a drake Mandarin, Grasshopper Warbler, my first local Swift and I also had decent views of Garden Warbler. Lesser Whitethroats seem to have arrived in force as they were heard at at least three sites.

Garden Warbler and Large Red Damselfly.

This Spring has been a poor one so far for insects but there seemed to have been an emergence of damselflies this morning with at least twenty five of them being Large Reds, the others had to go unidentified. My first dragon of the year was briefly glimpsed, a Four-spotted Chaser that flew straight up when accidently disturbed and then out of sight. Pick of the butterflies were my first Dingy Skippers of the year with about half a dozen showing. Two Grizzled Skippers also put in an appearance and there was a good number of Speckled Woods around. Not much else to report though I saw another Large Red Damsel at Weldon.

Dingy and Grizzled Skipper