To The Bitter End

 I'm off to Corfu for a week which means that good beer is going to be hard to find. With that in mind I resolved to get a couple of pints of bitter in at the George in Weldon before Mythos time takes over. My route to the pub was far from straightforward though, the good folks at Stagecoach played a large part in that as they often do and once a bus did finally arrive I went to Weldon via Deene and Deenethorpe. To add to my dismal start I actually forgot to put binoculars in my bag for only the second time in my birding life. On that previous occasion I still managed to see a Short-toed Treecreeper at Dungeness, today's haul did not quite scale those heights!

Brown Hare and Blue Tit

After an uneventful stroll along the A427 I reached Deenethorpe airfield where several Brown Hares were seen. Bird wise it was rather quiet, plenty of Skylarks were present and Meadow Pipits were moving through but there was nothing too exciting to report. In Deenthorpe village Ivy blossoms were attracting good numbers of both Commas and Red Admirals, I didn't see any other species of butterflies today. The inflow at Deene Lake had pretty high water levels but not so high that it stopped two Green Sandpipers from feeding on the margins. No other birds were found but I did see at least four Willow Emeralds and several Common Darters in the same area. The recent run of rainy weather seems to have had an effect on ode numbers and I feel that this is going to be a shorter season than usual.

Green Sandpiper, Egyptian Geese, Black Swans, Comma and Red Admiral.

Neither Deene village or the churchyard added anything to the list but things picked up a little on the main lake. A pair of Egyptian Geese had five goslings and were seen swimming past a trio of Black Swans and several Canada Geese too. Throw in some native wildfowl and that was species from four continents being represented on the lake, such a shame that there was nothing rare amongst them! My return stroll was uneventful though I did enjoy the sunny October stroll and particularly so after the recent monsoon. Having arrived at the George I treated myself to several pints of decent beer before boarding a tardy X4 for the trip home.

Willow Emerald and Common Darter