Patching Again

Well after letting the side down with her no show yesterday Margie was front and center today for a walk around the Hurstpierpoint patch! We were on site by 8AM so not a bad attempt at an early start!!😊Not much singing from the parking space but walking around the first field we could hear a Yellowhammer but the views were distant, a Green Woodpecker took off from the path in front of us but to quick for pics, we went straight at the Crossroads and soon found some interesting Dragon and Damselflies to take pics of subsequently identified as a Southern Hawker and Beautiful Demoiselles.

 

Beautiful Demoiselle

Southern Hawker

Beautiful Demoiselle by Margie

We were interrupted in our photography attempts by a very large flock of birds moving through the trees and bushes around us, it seemed to be mostly Long-tailed Tits and chiffchaffs with a couple of Blue Tits thrown in ,difficult to estimate numbers but would say easily 40 birds probably more! However my attempts at getting pictures were so poor I won't share them!! 

We continued along the path more Dragonflies notably another Southern Hawker, then Margie spotted a Brown Butterfly, which turned out not to be one of the many Gatekeepers present but a Brown Hairstreak!! A first for me!! Pictures were tricky as it was buried in the grass but we got a few record shots!

Southern Hawker

Brown Hairstreak 

Brown Hairstreak by Margie

Brown Hairstreak

We continued along, the dead tree only contained Whitethroats, loads of Whitethroats about today would suggest they have had a reasonable year locally, difficult to say how many we saw altogether but several groups seen although didn't actually take a picture of any!! Doh! although to be fair they were mostly buried deep in the bushes, we saw one Blackcap on our travels but the birds were keeping their heads down today! It was at this point where Margie once again proved her worth, with her sharp ears picking out a Raven about 3 miles away, which subsequently flew over Cronking so loud  that even I heard it!!

Raven (Patch Tick)

We carried on around to the road, and headed along to the church, the sheep field which I had hoped would in a month or so become a Yellow Wagtail magnet was devoid of sheep!! Hopefully they will return in the next couple of weeks, there were however a couple of Foxes, which I presume are youngsters judging by the amount of play-fighting going on, lovely to watch them messing about although the distance involved means pics are poor. Interestingly the more gingery one had a white tip to it's tail the other's tail seemed all black. I'm pretty sure there was another further left of these two but the grass was longer there so couldn't be sure!

We headed up the hill, towards the vineyard, nice views and Swallows hawking the fields as was a lovely golden Common Darter, which Margie spent ages trying to get a flight shot of ,and she managed it!! Sort of 😀 I sensibly waited for it to land and I've given up trying to get pictures of Hirundines or Swifts for this year as well!!

Common Darter

Nice Tree by Margie

Wolstonbury Hill by Margie 

Common Darter in flight by Margie

We headed back down to complete the loop one patch of flowers was covered in Gatekeepers which was by far the most common butterfly seen, blooming hundreds of em about, a single Common Blue was in amongst them, singing Yellowhammers here as well though distant managed a record shot of one very bright Male!

Common Blue Butterfly

Yellowhammer

Part of the Gatekeeper frenzy by Margie!

That was about it ,the last big field before the road had a party of 15 Swifts hunting over it, but as said before I've given up on trying to get pics em for this year. A very nice walk with I think the highlight being the Brown Hairstreak Butterfly what a beauty!!!