Not a huge amount went on today, I was mainly sorting out bits-and-pieces for my upcoming Canaries trip. I beat the dog walkers onto the patch this morning however in doing so it meant I connected with some rather heavy rain. A total of 8 Lesser Whitethroat were singing/calling with a couple of new Common Whitethroat seen, bringing the total up to about 4/5 males of this species on the patch. There was no sight/sound of any Garden Warblers today. Loads of singing male Blackcaps all around the site, with two females also seen. The lone Willow Warbler was still singing around Patch Pond and several Chiffchaff were noted, one of which was found building a nest. A Blue Tit nest (not in a box) and a Song Thrush nest was also found. Little else of note was seen, save for a single Skylark, a brief male Sparrowhawk. The rain did however drop 5 Barn Swallow and 1 Sand Martin.
A more leisurely dog walk mid afternoon produced a (presumed) Grey Heron flying north at a height of at least 250m. It was evident that there was some interesting weather building up (below - an image from the middle field) with a few flashes of lightening and claps of thunder. With the added lift several Herring, Lesser Black-backed and a single Great Black-backed Gull, a Sparrowhawk and a couple of other distant raptors/corvids were noted on thermals.
A planned trip to Staveley YWT Nature Reserve during the afternoon was aborted due to some incredibly heavy rain, which was a shame.
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