Record Third Brood

This April’s fantastic weather enable many species of birds to start breeding earlier than normal. Grey Wagtails have all had second broods by now but this is the only year in the last forty when I have had Kingfishers in the course of rearing a third brood. At present their third clutch of eggs are due to hatch and subject to no major flooding their young should fledge on or about 11th August. It will be a remarkable achievement if they manage to pull it off. With last weeks good weather I spent a day around Morecambe Bay. Spotted Redshank and Greenshank were on the RSPB reserve but remained well out of reach of the camera. The limestone nature reserves held good numbers of butterflies and one of my favourite flowers, the Dark Red Helleborine. On another day I drove up to the Red Kite feeding station near Loch Ken in South West Scotland and along with many other people admired more than fifty Kites that were attracted to the free food put out for them at 2pm each day. For anyone who hasn’t been it is well worth a visit. At dusk on the 16th I was pleased to hear a reeling Grasshopper Warbler on Hopwood. It is some years since I have heard this elusive bird locally.