You wait for years for a snake and three come along at once.

An early morning trip to the Waterworks was needed to soothe my agitated soul after trying to choose a new kitchen at Howdens. (Anyone else find this kind of thing stressful & tedious?).  I wasn't hopeful of seeing much in the way of birds but hoped the hot weather would have brought out the dragonflies and butterflies.

Nothing in the flood relief channel but I could hear a green woodpecker and a Whitethroat was displaying above the large clump of bushes near the wildlife garden.  There seems to be quite a lot of chick feeding going on still and I watched a very busy Whitethroat going to and fro with food, emerging at one point with a cricket in its bill.

There was plenty of butterfly activity.  In fact, walking across the grass brought up small clouds of what I think were Small Skippers - none of which stayed still long enough to be photographed.  These beauties did however:

I was particularly pleased to see the Comma.  For the last couple of years there seems to have been hundreds; this year I have only seen a couple on the Waterworks.

There were many dragonflies around, mainly emperors but I think also I migrant hawker or two.

I walked along the boardwalk.  The pond at the end was alive with damselflies, frogs, long horned beetles and the occasional darter.

I then caught sight of something rather wonderful - a dragonfly emerging from its larval stage.  I thought this usually happened at night and I have certainly never seen it before but it was quite beautiful to watch.  It was very difficult to photograph though, being hampered by distance, bright sunshine and reflections and the breeze blowing foliage in the way.  This is the best I could get.

Once emerged, the dragonfly appeared colourless, silver with the sunshine on it.  It flew into a branch of a nearby tree where I lost it.  Having been leaning on the wooden fence for over an hour watching this, I was about to leave when the frogs started jumping around.  At first I thought my moving had spooked them until I saw this:

I do love a snake!  And what a beauty this one was - almost 2 feet long and gliding smoothly and silently through the water.  Happy days!

On the way to the hides I came across a thrush smacking a snail on a large stone.  Now, I know they do this, and I expect all you experienced bird watchers have seen it hundreds of times but it was a first for me and it was fascinating to watch - how he chose the perfect stone and how when he dropped the snail, he brought it back every time to the same stone.  A bird using a tool - excellent!

In bed 18 a grey heron was fishing from the central raft, and I lost count of the number of frogs peeping out of the water after I got to 50.  They were calling loudly and close enough to the windows to see their cheek action.

Bed 13 still has plenty of reed bunting and reed warblers feeding young but for the first time in ages I didn't hear the Cetti's.  I did however see two small snakes near the far bank.

There is a snake there, honestly!

It was a brilliant morning.  Snakes and emerging dragonflies - who could ask for more?  I spent far longer there than I intended and so new kitchen decisions had to be postponed. Again. Job done! (SH)

Veg

Plants

The London Natural History Society do a botany day on the patch each summer (22nd June this year). I've never been able to make it. So I tried my own little plant walk around the patch. I couldn't find any Adder's Tongue Fern (the plant that lays claim to the SSSI status on the marsh) but I had a great time up to my head in height with plants and bugs. The best plants being found on the North Marsh parallel to the railway.

Adder's Tongue Fern (web pic)

Broad-leaved Ever-lasting Pea

Comfrey

Common Bird's-Foot-Trefoil

Creeping Thistle

Hedgerow Crane's-bill

Lady's Bedstraw

Meadow Vetchling

Meadowsweet

Michaelmas Daisey

Perforate St John's-wart

Purple Loosestrife

Ragwort

Red clover

Woody Nightshade

Yellow Iris

Large Skipper

Large Skipper Opening Wings

Small Tortoiseshell

@leevalleybirder

Angry Williams...

A walk around the marshes and waterworks turned out to be a good idea in the end...(crossbills, see below)

These common Lizards were three of nine in the 'secret lizard spot' on the waterworks,

 Three Common Buzzards all over South and South East (ish) from 10 am till 11.30 am when i was joined by Jonathon.

A walk round the rest of the marsh was made worth while when 7 Crossbills flew North east calling just over head height.

A predicted bird for the patch this month and we'd only just been talking about them ten minutes before.

The best of the rest were two hobbies and at least three swallows over the  course of the day, perhaps locally breeding this year!

lots of these, plus...

There seem to be about 4/5 different singing male reed bunts on the marshes this year. better breeding numbers than last year.

@jarpartridge

Exhausted migrants drop in

If I had known it was overnight fishing at the reservoirs. I might not have worried too much about arriving early. There were more tents on show than at Millets including four on Lockwood nicely spread out to deter all but the most determined of waders. Fortunately, three Little Ring Plovers - two more than yesterday - were dedicated enough to ignore the crowds and feed nervously on the east bank. With anglers at the far end, I did not bother walking round to see if I could record yesterday's two Common Sandpipers but crossed the road in the hope that something interesting had joined the Common Terns which seem to have adopted West Warwick this year as their regular haunt. No luck but with news of raptors passing at Wanstead and points east, I spend a good hour searching the skies/sun-bathing. My return was a Sparrowhawk and a single Buzzard soaring over No 5 until it was seen off by an angry Carrion Crow. Eight Gadwall were on No 3 to go with the two which seem to be resident on Lockwood.

        I was just about to leave when I fortunately bumped into DE who was doing the Webs count and told me that there were six Red-crested Pochard in the SW corner of No 4 which I had not bothered to cover. I hurried round to find five males and one female. They allowed a very close approach so either a) they were exhausted after just flying in from the Kazakh steppes and were not used to people or b) they had made the rather shorter journey from Finsbury Park. Either way, they took to 94 my year list for the reservoirs which means I have already beaten my previous record of 1985 despite being absent birding abroad during the reservoirs' purple patch recently. Looking at the list from 30 years ago which included Woodlark, Green-winged Teal and Red-necked Grebe, I suspect the achievement is largely down to better information about what is where and when than more birds. So thanks to everyone who has shared info...

Tired migrants adjusting to their new home

More long-distance migrants allowing a close approach

DB @porthkillier