First visit/duty for three weeks was another ever so slightly depressing grey, August day with virtually no passerines. At Westmead eighty or so distant Lapwings were flying high and nervous but I couldn't find an attendant Peregrine. Eighteen Snipe (10 and 8) were flushed, maybe just by the activities of three or four Kestrels.
Virtually silent through to Winpenny and just three very small, black bootlace-like Grass Snakes under refugia.
At the Hanger caught up with Alan(NZ), Pete and Anne plus a few visitors.
Single figures of Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Green Sandpiper and a dozen or so godwits. A large mixed feeding flock in the trees nearby but nothing of note in it.
At lunch a female Adder was in the tea terrace area just under the fence much to the chagrin of at least one of the three ladies who were sitting very close by.
The schlepp out to Hail's was fruitless as the wardens were dismantling fencing and everything had been flushed. A good few Ruddy Darters on Black Pond - would have been good for a blog photo but no camera.
Return to Westmead produced just a spring of Teal a dozen strong; the Little Grebe was hiding somewhere.
On the way home, amazingly, a female Volucella zonaria from the car on bramble just south of the Midhurst garage for just long enough to id and sex!!!
