Summer doldrums

Lade - warm, dry, sunny, nw 2 - Birdwise we`ve hit one of the quietest times of the year with bird song starting to decline as the breeding season takes its toll and migration at a virtual standstill. However, having said that I did notice the first migrant Sand Martins and a juvenile Yellow Wagtail locally this weekend. Also, three Common Buzzards went down the coast yesterday and two today, all of which got the full treatment from the local Herring Gulls.
  Whilst sorting out the camping gear in the garden this afternoon, for the forthcoming New Forest Folk Festival, we were royally entertained by a flock of Starlings feeding young and bathing in the pond.

                                Starlings in the garden

                                      Burnished Brass and Toadflax Brocade
 
  The moth trap has been busy with daily new species for the year including White Satin Moth, Toadflax Brocade and Burnished Brass, which I don't see very often, plus masses of Brown-tail moths. Marbled Whites have started to drift over in the garden from the NNR where good numbers of Small Skippers are now on the wing, plus a few Essex Skippers and another hatch of Small Coppers.