Diamond Lil'

 I'd planned to visit Pitsford today in the company of my usual wildlife watching buddy Alan Shorrock, the weather report looked promising and we hoped to catch up with a Lesser Emperor or two. It turns out that those plans were disrupted somewhat by the discovery of a Lesser Yellowlegs at Lilbourne Meadows nature reserve near DIRFT. I had not seen one in the county before and nor had Shozzer so we made our way down there to have a look.

Here be Yanks!

We were lucky enough to arrive at the site while the Lesser Yellowlegs was in view, a kindly soul let me look through his scope and I saw the 'legs and a Pectoral Sandpiper in the same view. Both of the birds were fairly distant and heat haze became more and more of an issue as the sun appeared from behind the clouds. Even rubbish record shots were not an option as my camera focused on the double five barred gate in front of the birds rather than on the star turns themselves. The Yellowlegs wandered out of view leaving the Pec to keep late comers entertained, apparently it retuned about an hour and a half later. A nice little bonus were a couple of Yellow Wagtails on the edges of the winter flood pools though we didn't see the Garganey that was noted here this morning. We left after a while and headed over to Pitsford a little later than expected but the diversion had been well worth it.

Osprey and Common Tern

Pitsford delivered a couple of interesting birds, one was a distant Osprey from Maytrees Hide and another was a Whinchat closer to Bird Club Hide. It was whilst trying to re-find the chat that Alan picked out a Lesser Emperor which though too distant for photos showed well in the bins. It looks as if this species is becoming more established in the county so more records will no doubt follow. A selection of the commoner odes and butterflies were on view but it was getting a little  too hot for comfort and we headed into Walgrave to take on some fluids at the Royal Oak pub.

Ruddy Darter, Brimstone and Tiger Moth