The talk of a heatwave does not quite seem to have conjured one up yet and it was actually quite chilly this morning on my pre-work amble with no lovely jubbly hoverflies like on Tuesday but there was still plenty to see with all the usual warblers foraging in the bushes and a juvenile Song Thrush that posed very nicely for me.

I only found one fly of note and I have to admit to being stumped at the moment. It looks like some kind of hairy Robber Fly but I can find nothing that matches so I have sent them to Phil for a look and I shall update when I know more! - and it looks like it is related to the predatory Dung Flies.

Juveniles of both Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker were competeing for the same dead branch and I found (but could not see) two broods of Cetti's Warbler.

Yesterday afternoon I found an interesting long banded bumblebee which, a bit like the fly, left me puzzled.  i have seen several more today (as has Jerry) and hopefully we can pin down an id. You would think that they would be straightforward but half the time they are anything but!

We have an answer - a male Garden Bumblebee - Bombus hortorum

A Hobby almost parted my hair in a stop after House Martins which let me know it was coming with their 'Hobby shout out call' and a female Sparrowhawk had a similarly exuberant attempt after a Pied Wagtail!

Hobby - Finley Larch

Back at the centre it became another busy day on front of house duties but the odd glance across the river revealed that the two Harbour Seals hauled out were nearly joined by two portly Grey Seals but after half an hour in the shallows they opted not to undulate up the mud and join their cousins and slipped back beneath the waves. Fraser saw Dante Shepherd's excellent looking Caspian Gull this morning but there was nothing different on the wader front although the sluice onto Purfleet Scrape has been opened and the drying mud is now squidgy once again and more welcoming to waders. The ten strong Dunlin flock was present most of the afternoon along with a solitary Black-tailed Godwit and two Green Sandpipers.

Caspian Gull - Dante Shepherd - a good young Larophile in the making...

There were 30 Little Egrets this morning and at 1.30pm Alasdair Wilcock discovered a Glossy Ibis probing around on the Target Pools. This is undoubtedly the bird seen by Emily and Jean on Saturday afternoon but I had to wait till after 4pm for it to conveniently fly all the way down to my end and we left it still performing well on the Purfleet Scrape!

Glossy Ibis - Tony O'Brien

Glossy Ibis - HTV

So all in all not a bad end to the day!

See you all for Late Night Opening and Moth Night II on Saturday 13th evening!