August 2012

28th. Marshfield in the morning was quiet - a wheatear, a whitethroat, 2 corn buntings and 3 red-legged partridges. I stopped at Chew on my way back, and saw a common tern and a kingfisher. Keith Vinicombe then told me he'd seen a drake lesser scaup in Villice Bay, and there are two record shots of it below.

lesser scaup

lesser scaup

18th. My first visit to Chew Valley Lake in ages, and it was strange to see Heron's Green flooded. I saw a little egret and 2 male ruddy ducks.

15th. A long day travelling to Belfast for a PhD viva at Queen' s University. I looked out in vain for hooded crows on the trip from the airport. I did see a buzzard, which is now doing well after becoming extinct in Ireland in 1964.

14th. 2 peregrines over Long Ashton.

11th. Crossbill heard over our house, 06.00h: first garden tick in years.

10th. The wind blew from the east to send the balloons from the Bristol Balloon Fiesta directly over our house, with several landing within a few hundred metres of it.

balloon fiesta

Another BBC News web site article appeared about a project I'm involved in.

9th. My forte on holiday was finding moths in toilets. I rescued a poplar hawk moth from the gents at Porthmeor Beach, and found this male four-spotted footman in the gents at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro - the first one I'd seen.

four-spotted footman

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