I was pleased to see an unfledged common tern chick still on one of the rafts when I opened the Ivy South hide, the last pair had two the other day, but I had thought they had both been lost. Rather closer to the hide was a grass snake on the tree trunk in the water below the hide, although they have been regular there, it seems less so than last year when up to four could be seen.
The moth trap was busy, but unremarkable, a silver Y and a diamond-backed moth showed that there are still migrants about and a very fresh privet hawk was a good one for the school group, there was also a Stigmella sp., probably spinosa. The significance of these is that privet hawk is the largest resident moth in Britain and the Stigmella are just about the smallest, their larvae feed by mining the mid-layer out of a leaf, privet hawk larvae will eat the whole bush!
I was ragworting again for much of the day, or so it felt, despite this I did see a juvenile cuckoo near the Tern hide and on one of the islands in Ibsley Water a whimbrel, the first of the autumn and 2 black-tailed godwit. I also got the mute swan count up a bit on yesterday, with 215 today along with the single black swan. Reports includes 2 juvenile redstart near the Goosander hide, always a favourite spot and a couple of Mediterranean gull.
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