Date: 1st August 2020
Time: from 9:00 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, moderate wind, 18°C to 20°C
Summer moves on and this was my first visit to the site in August.
The majority of my
morning visits start early with some Red Fox watching. However, today I
had a later start with the primary purpose of finding and photographing
butterflies in the warm and sunny weather although the moderate wind made
photography a little difficult.
After the amazing
experience of 3 evening visits to watch Badgers and Red Foxes during
the last week, I didn’t expect to see either. The Badgers were safely tucked up in bed but I did see a Red Fox.
On this occasion,
I entered the site by the path just along from Larkins Tyres and as I looked
over the meadow and scrubland immediately on the right, I saw a Red Fox
emerge from the bushes. It spotted me very quickly, stopped and stared in my
direction before deciding that the best strategy was to run off. This location
is some distance from where I usually watch Red Foxes so I think it was
almost certainly a different animal. Nonetheless, it is a location that I have
seen Red Foxes previously.
I only managed to record 4 species of butterfly: Common Blue (3), Small Skipper (2), Gatekeeper (50+), Speckled Wood (1)
As on previous visits, I also selected a specific location on the site to record sightings for a 15 minute period in order to contribute to the Big Butterfly Count organised by Butterfly Conservation .... see here.
With regard to birds, it was again exceptionally quiet with few birds seen and only sporadic singing and calling and as such there is a very short list of species recorded.
I heard just a single male Blackcap alarm calling although I was more successful with Chiffchaffs hearing 3 birds giving their soft whistled contact call. In addition and somewhat surprisingly, on my way home through the wooded area, I heard a male Chiffchaff give a weak double “chiff-chaff …. chiff-chaff” on 3 occasions before resuming its summer silence.
In addition, to the Red Fox, the first stretch of
path from Larkins Tyres produced a fly-over calling Great Spotted Woodpecker
and my first Grey Squirrel for some time.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Wren
Blackbird
Goldfinch
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Jay
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Woodpigeon
Red Fox
Grey Squirrel
Common Blue
Small Skipper
Gatekeeper
Speckled Wood
Here are some photos from my visit:
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Small Skipper
Photo: Gatekeeper
Site totals to date:
Birds = 48
Mammals = 6
Butterflies = 20
Dragonflies and damselflies = 6
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0
💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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