A Blashford "Tick"

It is always good to see an new bird and today I saw a new species for the Blashford reserve, at least the first record that I am aware of since the reserve really opened up. Sadly it was not some rarity from distant parts, but a red-legged partridge, probably a refugee from a nearby shoot. On the plus side I did manage to get a picture of it. The bird was running around the car park when I arrived this morning and when it got to the back of the hide it flew up onto the screen and then off to the east.
I saw nothing else of note from the Tern hide, although I know the great white egret was seen on Iblsey Water later in the day. On Ivy Lake the 4 mandarin duck were still around, they were feeding on insects that they were picking off the surface of the lake, making rapid dashes here and there to grab them. I was not aware they fed on insects and certainly not in this way.

The moth trap included a couple of migrants, a silver Y and a rush veneer, but not much else of note.

During the afternoon I continued cutting the sight line outside the Ivy North hide, it was very warm in the sunshine and I was being buzzed by migrant hawkers all the time. As I cut I disturbed several large wainscot moths, these feed on reed mace, so it was not surprising that there were there.

As I headed back to the Centre I flushed a small butterfly, it was a small copper, rather worn this late in the season but still bright.