BRENT RESERVOIR
I took a lift with my parents into London and was dropped of en-route at Brent Reservoir were I met up with a few local patchers including Andrew Self, Andrew Verrall and Roy Beddard. Thanks to them the hides were unlocked and together we enjoyed a miniature wader passage on a very local scale, including 1 Green Sandpiper (the highlight), 1 Redshank and 1 Lapwing (all the same rather good birds given the inland location and surrounding urban environment). Also of note was 1 Little Grebe, and a nesting pair of Lesser Black-backed Gulls with 3 chicks, only metres away are nesting Common Terns and even closer nesting Coots, it seems the gulls won't have to go far for an easy meal. As is often the case the birding didn't improve much, not surprising given the time of year so we focused our time on finding Butterflies. The locals kindly pointed out a reliable sight for White-letter Hairstreaks (unfortunately we didn't see any though, too windy apparently). However, we did see a few other species including 3+ Marbled White (a recent coloniser), 1 Meadow Brown, 2+ Ringlet, 1 Large White and 1 Red Admiral. Also 1 Garden Warbler singing from the flower meadows north of the reservoir.
FIELDS BY RES ORGANISATION
On the return, I was dropped off again just before reaching home and spent the rest of the afternoon in the fields behind the RES organisation were the birding was equally slow. Instead, I took the time to stare at the motorway embankment and watched 1 Ringlet fly past as well as a Large White. The undisturbed earth embankment seems ideal for wild flowering plants, and in turn Butterflies, perhaps these are the wildlife corridors of the future that conservationists go on about the whole time. They certainly appear productive in terms of the diversity of flowers and insects they hold.
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