A sunny day with a light breeze. I get to the patch at 8:35. I did my usual route, via Adderbury Grove, then Sculcoates Park, Stepney, Barmston Drain, Abbey Way, Sculcoates Cemetery, Air Street Cemetery, Wilcolmlee, Wilmington Bridge, Bankside, then back via the cycle lane. At the end I made a stop at a small patch of brownfield at the end of Temple Street (top shot).
Some Swifts are still on the area. The tide is low and I flush a Cormorant on the river. The gulls appear to have mostly fledged and the adults seem to have calmed down. A single lesser Black-backed gull mobs me for a few minutes over the drain.
The duck family still complete with 8 grown ducklings. I always find them in the same area. Here, in a line wading through the thick carpet of duckweed.
A Song thrush sunbathing at the Sculcoates Cemerery
There are a number of butterflies on the wing today and I did lists in several areas of the 1 k square. I ended up with a grand total of 14 species today.
Comma on buddleja.
Gatekeeper, the most numerous butterfly today.
Small Skipper.
Common Blue Butterfly.
Small Copper on a small patch of brownfield (top shot).
As for mammals, I spotted a Red Fox dozing on a sunny bank where I saw the three foxes a couple of weeks ago. I was hoping to leave it alone, but unfortunately, it left as it saw me.
A dead Bank Vole, probably victim of a cat.
Sadly, another dead mammal for the list, a road killed hedgehog at Sculcoates Lane, by the drain.
Flies. At Abbey Way I found a fresh Myathropa florea.
I was pleased to find a large Traveller's Joy, Clematis vitalba, in full bloom and took a closer photo of the flowers, only to discover later a Volucella zonaria feeding on them. This is a cropped photo.
Volucella zonaria on Traveller's joy.
Today brought the
Odonata list to 9 species, as I had the first Common Darters in the patch. I will keep a close eye on willow emeralds in the next few weeks.
There were many Migrant Hawkers about, in the Air street cemetery there was a group of five feeding together, their milky eyes indicating that they are immature individuals. I followed this one until it perched on a lime tree. A Brown Hawker was in the same area of the drain as last week.
A pretty tachinid fly, Eriothrix rufomaculata. Several were feeding on ragwort with the ever-present Marmalade fly, Episyrphus balteatus.
A sunny day with a light breeze. I get to the patch at 8:35. I did my usual route, via Adderbury Grove, then Sculcoates Park, Stepney, Barmston Drain, Abbey Way, Sculcoates Cemetery, Air Street Cemetery, Wilcolmlee, Wilmington Bridge, Bankside, then back via the cycle lane. At the end I made a stop at a small patch of brownfield at the end of Temple Street (top shot). 
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