June 6th - an afternoon visit to Blacktoft. Plenty of house martins which was good to see.
Otherwise very quiet. The usual suspects appeared.
June 8th: in the garden before storm Hector ran amok.
June 11th: Scaling Dam and Lockwood Beck
An osprey or two were in the neighbourhood...spotted in the pines on the far side of the reservoir.
Going fishing: hovering high over the water looking for fish.
Caught a fish!
Flew off with it onto the moor.
Decided to go to look for spotted flycatchers at Lockwood Beck. Found one near the bird feeder station on the reservoir edge.
Found another in a different area atop some conifers.
June 13th: back to Scaling Dam to walk down Boghouse Lane looking for whinchat was the plan. Thought I'd sit in the hide first and see if the ospreys turned up. Hide empty unlike last time apart from two birders. One said: ''Terry says it's still around. Shall we try?''
They left without saying what was still around.
A bit later another birder came in. ''Have you been for the shrike?'' he asked.
''What shrike?''
''Woodchat shrike down Bogside. Are you coming?''
We set off and eventually saw the bird. Curlews in the air around us.
No sign of whinchat. Anyway here it is - a super male woodchat shrike.
Willow warbler.
Camera battery failing, I headed back, swapped batteries and rested in the hide. Ringed and little ringed!
Others had seen whinchat so I decided to do the walk again. Linnet.
Stonechat - never saw a whinchat.
The shrike was still present.
So, considering the plan, the day was a complete failure. But a glorious one.