Sutton Bingham - Sun 2 Aug

I made an early morning visit to the reservoir today, knowing that it was bound to get a little busy as the day wore on with sailors, canoeists and anglers all due to take advantage of the forecasted good weather. A good look around the dam failed to produce that much though, with a couple of Little Egrets and a brace of Kingfishers being seen.

The trees around the Fishing Lodge hosted a bit of variety, with a couple of juvenile Linnets being the pick of the bunch, and an indication that there was successful breeding on the patch this year.
From the northern causeway I saw another Kingfisher, this one on West Pool and a third Little Egret was also notes as one flew over heading north. A single Common Sandpiper was to be the only wader seen today.
On then to the southern end of the reservoir where five Mandarin were seen and a Raven was atop one of the pylons. More encouraging news with the sighting of three juvenile Kestrels, so evidence of another species breeding on patch which I didn't know about.
Away from the birds there were a few butterflies on the wing, with Gatekeeper and Meadow Browns being the most obvious, though I also saw a few Small Skippers and a single Common Blue.

 

Finally, I noted a single Banded Demoiselle and loads of Common Blue Damselflies.

All in all a good morning out.