The Morning After

Cue - lots of patch birds.

That's what I tweeted as I snapped the logo of the Eurostar while boarding the train. And what transpired while I was away - Black-tailed Godwits, Pied Flycatcher and Yellow-legged Gull.

B****r!

Late to the party (don't like parties anyway) due to holidaying in Paris with wife and friends (not as fancy as it sounds), I thought I'd try and see if any patch ticks had lingered.

Of course - nothing had.

No Black-tailed Godwits (need) or Yellow-legged Gulls (need) or P. Flycatcher (got).

Mrs. Tern says to Mr. Tern "He should have been here yesterday."

 The best part of the morning was watching the Brown Hawkers, Emperors, Red-eyed and blue damselflies and the Ruddy Darters make use of the Coppermill Stream by East Warwick. At one point two Emperors wrestled mid-air and one pushed the other under the water, trying to drown it. The Emperor managed to drag itself to the surface after a few minutes and flew off.

Emperor - "Yeah, yeah. I'm stuck in water. But you weren't here yesterday."

All these birds were here yesterday.

This Common Sandpiper was here yesterday.

I'm not actually bitter about missing patch birds while away, I'm happy for the patch really. It was fun watching the tweets while in Paris and imagining the patchers on the scene. I'm going to Italy later on in August - the picture below summarises what I expect will descend onto the patch while I'm away.

Grey Heron to the others - "Quick, pose for the patchers while that other guy's gone."

@leevalleybirder - GH

Bobbing About

Somehow, I convinced my better half a visit to the reservoirs would be a nice way to spend the morning together. 

We headed for Lockwood first. At the bottom of Lockwood there was a flurry of juvenile pied wags and many juvenile black-headed gulls. Actually, that's pretty much the long and short of it for the day - juveniles of all our patch species everywhere.  There were 3 common sandpipers and a kingfisher at the top of Lockwood. 

(distant) Common Sandpiper

 Cormorant

Grey Wagtail

The overflow chanel was very low too, but held nothing of interest. 

En route to East Warwick, we spent a a bit of time appreciating the blue damselflies, banded demoiselles and the funky-punky red-eyed damselflies. 

Red-eyed Damselfy

Red-eyed next to a Common Blue Damselfy

Over EW, a smattering of sand martins could be heard and there were a group of loafing common terns basking at the top end banks. A lone common sandpiper worked its way up the east bank.

Common Tern

Then we went to the Ferry Boat Inn. I painted a coot and she painted an apple.

Coot

Apple

@leevalleybirder - GH