Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photos.
The bright sunny morning soon deteriorated into rain, a quick look at Hails View produced two greenshank and two little-ringed plover, a flock of about fifty lapwing and a sparrowhawk but little else. However, the ponds on the heath had several emperor dragonflies, four-spotted chasers and lots of azure damselflies. Walking through the woodland I had the curious site of stationary hoverflies each in their own shaft of sunlight looking like they were suspended on a thread.
Walking back to the main nature trail, viewing was then restricted to the hides with a quick dash in between. At both West Mead and Winpenny, swifts and sand martins were much in evidence and skylarks could be seen when there was a break in the weather. During such a bright spell, the field near West Mead seemed alive with small skippers; they liked the knapweed in particular.
The North Brooks had a large gaggle of greylag including some young which have been absent for a few weeks and there were twenty plus pied wagtails on the mud; a solitary green sandpiper seemed to be the only wader. As the weather improved in the afternoon, greenfinch, goldfinch, bullfinch, green woodpecker, blackcap, chiffchaff and whitethroat could all be seen and heard. Butterflies were now bouncing over the wet grass and I managed to see a newt eft in the water trough in Fattengates courtyard.
Ringlet, cinnabar moth caterpillars and newt eft.