Bridge at risk

Had a nice walk with Tim and our two dogs today. After a while and a good romp, it dawned on his adolescent labrador that my middle-aged retriever can be quite attractive: the charms of a mature blonde eventually making him quite amorous. We were mainly hoping to find crossbills, which have been seen a lot recently, but not today.

We had also been told a couple of days ago of a white admiral butterfly opposite the primary school, but it was not there today, or last Thursday when I looked. Right now, that area, particularly the bit of woodland that the Jubilee Boardwalk runs through, including Scouts' Pond, is my favourite part of the common. There seem to be more birds in that little patch than anywhere else at the moment, and many of them are this year's youngsters. Caught a glimpse of a tree creeper the other day, but it didn't hang around to have its picture taken.

What I find infuriating is the attitude of at least one person using the common, who seems determined to literally undermine our efforts to protect the bridge across the Beck. The banks underneath the bridge have been eroding, caused we think by human and dog feet. If the banks go, with nothing to hold it up so will the bridge, so we took steps to shore the banks up and put some barriers in place to try to prevent entry to the water in the bridge's immediate vicinity. There's no problem with people or their dogs getting in the stream a few yards either side of the bridge, but not right next to it. We also put notices up, explaining the situation. It appears that someone objects to this, and has removed the notices, and broken down one of the barriers, making the bank beside the bridge vulnerable again. It will be a shame if the only way to protect the bridge is to put in some form of concrete banking in such a natural and attractive spot, but sadly it may come to that. Here's what you can see from it, which I think makes it worth looking after.

Desperately seeking sedge warblers

Tipped off by Tim that a sedge warbler had turned up and was in full song, I took a look on Sunday morning, hoping to get a picture as they are much less skulking than reed warblers. I did get a few good views, but no pictures, so I went back this evening. There are now two males singing, and they seem to be competing amongst themselves and a reed warbler. When you hear the two species together there is no mistaking them, but they can be a bit tricky to identify in isolation.

Anyway, these two birds are going at it full tilt at the moment, and well worth a visit. With our other reedbed signature species the reed bunting also singing constantly, it's a great time to hear all three together. I like to think it's testament to the quality of the management of the reedbed that we've had such success this year. Anyway, I did manage to get a couple of fuzzy shots, one of which has caught the bird singing. Not great, but they'll do until I get a better one.

Although I didn't get any joy with the sedges on Sunday, I did find an obliging ringlet: I suspect it was dying, as it was nowhere near as active as they usually are, but it did at least mean I could get a good shot with its wings open.

On Saturday John Dowland and I attended the Natural Neighbours conference in King's Lynn, organised by the BTCV. It was an excellent event, interesting throughout, and we made some useful contacts. Along with several other organisations, we gave a short presentation about our patch, and the remarks afterwards indicated that a few more people had understood what a special little spot this is.

Common at its absolute best

With this beautiful summer weather the common is at its most lovely right now. If you can visit it in sunshine, the detour to Scouts' Pond is well worth it, if only for the dragonflies. Last week's Black Tailed Skimmer is still there, but there is another species too, busy laying eggs. I think it is a Common Hawker, but I've sent it in to iSpot for confirmation. (No response from iSpot this time, but James Emerson of Norwich has posted a comment that it is in fact a female Emperor, and taking another look at my identification guide I see what he means - many thanks James!)

It's all happening on the insect front: as well as the dragonflies, the common is loud with the singing of grasshoppers. Still lots of ringlet butterflies, which are still infuriatingly fluttery from the photography point of view. On School Common I did find a meadow brown, which was much more obliging:

Not much happening with birds today, although one reed warbler and the reed bunting were still singing. A family of long tailed tits was above me on School Common, and I got a few pictures, one of which is this:

I was also pleased to find a female bullfinch on the Jubilee boardwalk: with any luck they have bred. It's also nice to hear a Stock Dove in the vicinity.