Owls & Egrets: a walk around the Fen...

Tuesday is Brian's 'Vol Ranger' day at Strumpshaw, so today - as usual - we met in Fen Hide around seven thirty. I was a little late, having stopped to photograph the regular Barn Owl in the meadow: what a delight it is!

A seven mile walk around the whole reserve produced some other photo ops: Little Egrets (being atypically pugnacious!) a pair of Common Terns and lots of the expected Dragonflies. There were hundreds of Brown Hawkers, but only a few each of Norfolk Hawker and Scarce Chaser. Most common were Black-tailed Skimmer, Common Darter and a couple each of Migrant and Southern Hawker. Plenty of butterflies today, but just a fleeting glimpse of a White Admiral.

Ben told us that there were Spot Flies and Willow Emeralds about, but we found neither - just a female Banded Demoiselle  above the famous ditch. We were beginning to wonder how reliable the data was when we bumped into Ian Robinson, who'd seen a WE the previous day: you couldn't wish for better confirmation!

Last goodie of the day: while Linda ands I were eating our alfresco supper, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth toured the flowerbeds at high speed without stopping for a photo call!