Little Egret.

A female Garden Warbler

and a female Whitethroat both rung at Thornton

Little Egret off Wood bank

A pair of Kingfishers at the Sand Martin wall, Church Farm.

Small Skipper, Brown's Wood.

A single Little Egret was off Wood bank at 8am and still present at 5pm. Two Kingfishers were at Church Farm Sand Martin bank. Plenty of Small Skippers were at Brown's Wood, but as yet no sign of an Essex Skipper.

Black-tailed Godwit.

The black barring on the breast indicates a male perhaps just starting to come out of breeding plumage.

Even more mud and still the level drops as water is abstracted.

Three fly over Little Egrets from the house? Honest Guv!

A single ,what seemed to be a male Black-tailed Godwit was on the dam at 4pm. today, 8th July. This is a peak time for this elegant wader and a Thornton tick for me. This follows on from 3 Little Egret that flew around the res on 6th July. Hopefully the mud will attract more waders over the coming weeks.

Summer successes and some Moths.

Some moths caught by Dave Wright. The top one is Small Emerald, then Large Emerald and finally Swallow Tailed Moth.

For those who look at the Charnwood R.G. site you will have noted our ringing successes. This has included 2 Jackdaws and 17 Sand Martins rung at Church Farm. We have also rung 5 Barn Owls and 5 Kestrels around the village. New species added to my Thornton list have included a Marsh Tit that visited the garden, a Reed Warbler at Dessy Lakes, and a single Shoveler on the res. The 4 Quail between Bagworth and Nailstone were just outside my local patch, so don't count, but their "Wet me Lips" call was still great to hear.

A Common Sandpiper on the 27th June was perhaps the first glimmer of return migration. With even more mud now exposed there is a good chance of some more waders in the late summer. On the 4th July there were 4 Oyster Catchers and 4 Pochard, demonstrating some kind of movement.

Insects and Orchids.

This Broad -Bodied Chaser was at the ponds at Browns wood and Common Spotted -orchid was at Church Farm.

Large numbers of hirundines are frequenting the reservoir and a Hobby is regularly seen. An afternoon walk up to Browns wood produced 7 species of butterfly. These included Small Heath, Small Copper, Large Skipper, Common Blue, Peacock, Large White and Speckled Wood.

Post card from Barney!

For those of you who are missing Barney, well we recently had this holiday snap from him, post marked Svalbard!

More Waders.

Some brief heavy showers encouraged some passage birds to drop in over the weekend.

The increasing mud was also an attraction.

On Friday 13th 2 Ringed, 1 Little Ringed and a single Dunlin were on the mud opposite the lodge.

On the morning of 13th there were also 5 Oystercatchers. By the evening there was only one left. It was enjoying a feast of Swan mussels and was still there on the 15th.

I had to take this photo of Brown's wood. It is hard to imagine that only afew years ago it was an arable field. This is the same site that hosted a Stone Curlew in May 2003.

News from Thornton Mudflats!

More mud at the top end.

Tawny Owl on the rough.

Common Tern.

Sedge Warbler singing.

Probable White Wagtail.