Thirty Years Ago - June 1996

2^nd June

Not long after first light Steve B and I were at Stew Pond on Epsom Common and quite a crowd had gathered in the hope of seeing the male Little Bittern.  It dawned bright but soon clouded over and the heavens opened so we headed back to the car for a coffee.  After the rain abated we made the right decision and wandered back down to the pond. Within ten minutes out he popped and flew straight into a willow where he sat in all his breeding finery for ten minutes before clambering back into the undergrowth.

Little Bittern

After a quick look at the local Mandarins hiding under the island overhangs and then we were off to Thursley Common.  Despite driving through a terrible squall the weather Gods were kind to us and we managed a full dry circuit and found all the required birds with Dartford Warblers, Woodlarks, Tree Pipits, Hobby, Stonechat and Redstart.

A Great Reed Warbler had taken up residence at Elmley in the same ditch as one four or five years ago. We heard it singing merrily only a few feet away but as usual only glimpsed this monster in flight.  Very frustrating. 

With more rain imminent we managed to scrounge a lift but to the car with Chris Gibbard and co and then made our way home.

8^th June

A wet and windy visit with Pete and Andrea to St Margarets but despite this the Marsh Warblers showed very well and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth was seen along the clifftop along with the Kittiwakes.

9^th June

A very early morning trip to Minsmere with Steve B for the Caspian Tern.  Grasshopper Warblers reeled on the walk down from Dunwich and within seconds of entering the hide there it was. Magnificent.  Otherwise the scrape was pretty quiet bar the usual Avocets, terns and Black-headed Gulls.  We were about to leave when I picked up a heron coming in from north marsh.  I put my bins up and engaged the mouth before brain and called out ‘Purple Heron!’  Thankfully it was one – a sub-adult - and flapped lazily across the back of the scrape showing the large neck bulge, huge feet and buffy neck and face. It dropped into the reed and was not seen again till he next day.  Interestingly the bird Adrian Kettle saw that day had a very well marked adult type head.  [Eds: The story continues in August].

Feeling pretty smug we headed off to Dunwich but the Pratincole had not been seen but the female Red-backed Shrike was still present and feeding from a distant hedge.  We headed back for a circuit of the reserve afterwards and saw the Caspian Tern once more before heading homewards.

14^th-16^th June

A few days with Andrea, Thomas and a tent in Wenhaston in Suffolk.  After the long drive up we pitched the tent and had some nosh before poodling out but the Westleton Nightjars were vocal but did not really perform and the very young Fox was the actual highlight.  The next two days were spent visiting the beach at Dunwich and Southwold as well as a couple of strolls around Minsmere.  The usual reserve birds performed as expected.  Little Owls kept us awake at night and all three Woodpeckers were seen around the campsite.

23^rd June

A summer afternoon stroll around Wake Valley Pond in Epping Forest and Cornmill Meadows in the Lea Valley which resulted in a good haul of Dragons and Damsels with White-legged Damselflies and Downy Emeralds being the highlight.

25^th June

Autumn is coming.  The first two Green Sandpipers were back at The Chase.

28^th-30^th June

The first Discworld Convention was held in Manchester and Ian W and I attended which gave us the chance of the Stafford River Warbler on the way up and on the way back home.  We failed on both occasions!  [Ed:  The Convention was superb and I got to meet the now late Terry Pratchett in person, play Cripple Mr Onion and buy lots of Discworld stuff; while I was rather 'impressively' dressed as Captain Carrot which to be honest is actually far worse than it actually sounds…]

Terry Pratchett 

I still can't believe I walked through the middle of the Trafford Centre dressed like this and did not either die of embarrassment or suffer some randomly hilarious mugging attempt.