Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photos from this week's rounds...
A cloudy but dry start after a very warm and humid night, but still t-shirt weather. There was a large ‘charm’ of about 70 goldfinch on the way to West Mead but otherwise it was fairly quiet. Unfortunately The cattle were still some way off, but a flock of at least 30 yellow wagtails could be made out walking between their feet and occasionally flying around in a bouncy mass. If the imagination setting on my scope was used, I could make out two spotted flycatchers in the distant dead trees, but luckily a wheatear was much closer and gave good views on the mud.
Winpenny was the next stop for a quick coffee. At first it looked unpromising, but as usual a bit of persistence paid dividends in the form of two red kites, numerous buzzards, and a dashing hobby. There were a lot of swallows and martins present and I thought that the hobby was after them, but it could be clearly seen to be taking insect prey.
The hanger was next, and as usual the peregrine was in its favourite tree; although occasionally it would disappear after making several unsuccessful forays (but boy, was a teal lucky to escape). Teal, shoveler and wigeon numbers are starting to grow and there are literally hundreds of greylag and canada geese all making a tempting feast if only it can get its act together. Down below the hanger a couple of whinchats could be made out so a visit to nettleys was made to get a little closer. Sure enough, a much better view could be obtained of one whinchat and a stonechat.
Just as we were giving up on the wader front a green sandpiper put in an appearance.
On the walk back to the centre numerous dragonflies were on the wing, what I think were mostly southern hawkers and the slightly smaller migrant hawker. A couple of clouded yellow butterflies rounded off another good day.