The mid summer doldrums

Its that time of year on the patch where its slow going on the birding front... However, I enjoyed a leisurely 6 hours on the patch this afternoon, finding a few interesting bits and pieces, including a female Gadwall with 4 ducklings on Mons Pool (not an annual breeder) and my first young Little Egret of the year (which had evidently escaped the ringers earlier in the year). Nearby, a single Turtle Dove was purring near the works, and a Curlew flew east over the site - the first for a while.

Meering was pretty quite, but I enjoyed my fish and chips listening to a purring Turtle Dove, which was then joined by a second purring bird and a third individual. I've not had two purring birds at this site before; could the second individual be an unpaired bird from Collingham Pits or Girton trying to find a mate?

Modest numbers of butterflies were on the wing, but included my first Small Skippers (3), Red Admirals (2) and Ringlet (1) of the year, plus a Painted Lady. Various parts of the site were looking splendid with swathes of bird's-foot trefoil humming with little bees (red-tailed bumblebees I think). I found a big new patch of Southern Marsh Orchids at Meering (80+), along with at least one Common Spotted Orchid and several big hybrids, and saw three foxes (including a vixen with a cub) and a couple of brown hares. 

So all in all, a very pleasant day, only spoilt by noting excessive verge cutting around the site, and on the Notified Road Verge on Westfield Lane which had been mown, destroying the flowering wild clary (which inly grow at a handful of sites in Notts). Grrr.