More Dragons

Friday was another half-hearted attempt at photographing the Cattle Egret at Marsh Farm. No distant views this time - the little beggar didn't even show. No matter, Liz and I spent the time gathering blackberries and sloes. The blackberries have already been turned into jelly, just the stuff to have on toast on a cold winter afternoon, along with a steaming mug of tea. The right stuff to evoke memories of a warm summer afternoon on the North Wall at Pagham. The sloes will be mixed with a litre of Gordon's finest and will become yet another elixir to banish the woes of winter.

We managed to see lots of Dragonflies, the rifes and ditches throughout the area providing excellent habitat for many species. Capturing them was a different matter as I had only taken my 300mmm lens and that meant photography in stand-off mode. Never mind - some decent record shots.

Back at Breech Pool we met up with Dave Shepherd and passed away the late afternoon waiting for something to turn up. Having turned every gull into an itinerant Osprey I finally managed a tick in the guise of a pale Yellow Wagtail, in a familiar place - the mud at the back of the pool, far too distant to photograph. We also managed a shot of a juvenile Little Grebe, a bird whose large beak was convincing other birders that they were on to something unusual.

With the temperature dropping we took our leave and headed for the World's End at Patching for some delicious "pub grub". As we entered I had another "tick" for the year - a fully decorated and lit Christmas Tree - before August Bank Holiday Monday - a definite earliest record. Am I losing the plot??

In the garden over the weekend we recorded a fine looking Migrant Hawker and another Volucella  species, this time I think V. inanis.

 

Early on Saturday morning a Staaken Z-21 Flitzer, registration G-FLIZ, flew adjacent to the garden. At first I thought it was vintage but later discovered its year of manufacture to be 1999.  Liz was very impressed and thought it would be cool to own a plane with a personalised registration.