Feeding day

East to NE lightish winds. Steady rain till early afternoon then fortunately clearing up and becoming sunny in time for the many Jubilee events this afternoon and evening.

Just my stuff so far (MD) 

I made the mistake of trying the south shore after the rain had stopped. But, of course, all the dog walkers and all the holiday makers had the same idea. I just checked the foreshore, the only thing of note was a Common Whitethroat taking food to the nest near the slipway.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Fortunately, this was virtually visitor free.

Mute Swan 2 adult plus 8 cygnets on main pond

Moorhen 3

Coot 5 adult feeding 3 young - the young are larger now.

Mallard 6 male and a female with a single small chick on the main pond

Little grebe 4 adult, but I only saw one chick. In this clip the adult catches a small fish, but makes sure it is stunned before trusting the chick with it. You can see the bubbles the feeding adult is making.

This adult is having a spruce up. They seem so buoyant you wonder how they manage to dive so effectively.

There weren't many warblers singing and the ones that were, somewhat subdued. The following heard in order of abundance:

Willow Warbler 

Chiffchaff 

Blackcap 

Common Whitethroat 2

Lesser Whitethroat 1

Sedge Warbler 1

This Common Whitethroat was also taking food to the nest

Buzzard 2 hanging on the east wind like Kestrels over the eastern open field.

Common Buzzard

Kestrel 1 male, also hanging on the east wind like a Kestrel. The two smudges in the background are the Buzzards.

Male Kestrel 

Insects, not a lot around despite it being quite warm in the sun.

The only butterfly seen was a very faded Green-veined White male.

Common Cardinal beetle 

There were plenty of damselflies around, but the only dragonfly seen was this immature Four-spotted Chaser

First record of a Four-spotted Chaser this year