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Friday 5 August 2011

Black Darters and Greenshank

With a warm sunny day in the offing I took a trip over to Dersingham Bog in the hope of finding some Black Darters. Things weren't looking good as after a couple of hours or so I'd just found a number of Common Darters, plus a couple of Emperors and a Black-tailed Skimmer.

Fourtunately a group of birders that I knew then arrived, and with more pairs of eyes looking we saw at least three in the vegetation around the pond.


Also around the pool were good numbers of Emerald Damselflies, my first of the year, which were also nice to see.


I'm not really into Moths, although I did go and see a Deaths Head Hawkmoth at Mundesley a few years back, but the one below did catch my eye as it flew low amongst the heather, and which was identified for me as a Beautiful Yellow Underwing.


On the way back to the car my first Migrant Haker of the year was seen feeding over the heather and briefly hanging up to allow a positive id. to be made.

Returning to the patch early evening I headed straight up to the reservoir as a Greenshank had been seen there in the morning. I wasn't really expecting it to still to be there so I was delighted when a glance round the banks quickly revealed it was, along with a Common Sandpiper.



A quick check of the seafront was rewarded with a Hobby flying east, the shrill alarm calls of the local House Martins alerting me to its presence long before I saw it.