Dry North Cliffe Wood

A warm morning with sunny spells, I get up early for a morning walk at North Cliffe Wood. Just in, by the entrance path a mixed flock of tits busy on the trees. I stop to check them out: Blue, Great, Coal and Marsh tits. An odd call makes me check a bird on a birch: it's a Spotted Flycatcher, my first for the site! Most likely a passage migrant. The light is poor and I manage a poor shot, but with the busy tit flock around I end up not finding the bird again.

 There is an autumnal feel to the woods, despite the green trees, and the wood is very dry after the long summer with barely any rain.

 By the heather I hear the screeching of Jays and the meowing of a buzzard. I pop by the pond, but it is dry and covered with leaves (top shot). I wonder if any dragonfly or damselfly larvae can survive this dry summer here. Some might find refuge in the damp clumps of vegetation on the pond margins, maybe others will be in a drought resistant egg state until the rains come.
Overhead I hear the loud humming of a hornet, as deep as a queen bumblebee. She appears to be attacking clumps of blackberries, but she is probably hunting for flies and other insects. Two Speckled Woods spar over a sunny glide.
The numerous rowans in the wood are heavy with berries, but I see no thrushes on them. Instead some Marsh Tits are picking the berries to eat their seeds - like Goldfinches or Bramblings do - discarding the red flesh, while deftly manipulating the berry with a foot hold.

 I spot a roe deer on the field by the wood. For a few seconds, she doesn't see me, but then it bolts, crossing the whole field in large leaps.

Young robin.

Yawning young robin. 

Willow Warbler.

Stock Dove.

Evening at the Wetlands

An evening visit to North Cave Wetlands to try and get the last of the day's warmth. It was a good evening for dragonflies, with 9 species seen, including my first Southern Hawker of the year, a male which settled on a pine tree and stayed there for a while. There were several Brown Hawkers in flight and a quite small Emperor. Two male Emerald damselflies were in the dragonfly ponds, together with a very tattered Four-spotted Chaser. A Common Darter, many Blue-tailed Damselflies, two Blue-tailed Skimmer and Common Blues completed the list.

 On the butterfly list, a fresh Comma and a fresh and active Red Admiral and a Gatekeeper were the highlights.

 I didn't have much time for the birds, but the best was a singing Corn Bunting on the north hedge, which sung for a while and then moved to a lower bush where I could take his portrait. There were grown Common Tern chicks on Reedbed Lake and a creche of three Tufted Duck females with their ducklings in main lake.

The water in the ponds and lakes was very low, noticeably lower than a few days ago.

Five Grey Herons were taking advantage of the low water for fishing more easily.

Common Darter.

7 little egrets and a Grey Heron on trees, they weren't there an hour later, maybe getting ready to roost somewhere else?

Four-spotted Chaser

Emerald Damselfly

There were many Blue-tailed Damselflies on a corner of the western pond.

One of two Toads on the eastern pond. 

Close up of Emerald Damselfly.

Corn Bunting.

Red Admiral.

Male Southern Hawker (sp 19).

Tufted Duck creche.

Black-headed gull with dragonfly larvae.

Displaying Black-headed gull.

Cormorants in the sunset light.

Crested Grebe with young on back.