Real summer

Had a very satisfactory walk across the boardwalk this morning. As had been forecast, it was already pretty warm (25 degrees according to my car thermometer), and I had hopes of getting some photographs of the butterflies. In the event, the best I could manage was this shot of a ringlet, briefly still amongst some buttercups. Of the 5-spot burnet moths, which I had been particularly hoping for, there was frustratingly no sign.

The stream was looking lovely with the sun streaming through the leaves, and I thought that was worth a snap too.

However, the best and least expected, were the comparatively excellent views I had of reed warblers. It is hard enough to see these birds at the best of times, so I was very lucky to have such clear views of one rather agitated bird waiting for me to get out of the way so it could feed its young, and a little later another, slightly clearer view. I got the impression that there must be fledged young somewhere near, as I could hear the alarm calls in several places. 

If you look carefully at the image above, you can see that there is a ring on the bird's right leg. How I would love to know where and when that was fitted!

And finally, calling in at Scouts' Pond on my way back, I managed a few shots of a dragonfly. I think it's an Emperor Dragonfly, but I'm awaiting confirmation of that from the ever-reliable network of experts who monitor the excellent iSpot website, where I've posted my observation.(By the evening the result was in, and it turns out that the dragonfly was a black tailed skimmer.)