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.
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