Last Day Of Summer Holidays

With Bo back to school tomorrow, the summer holiday’s for her ended today. Well yesterday as this post should have been done then. Luckily Toby is still off till Next week, so Friday we have a nice long walk together planned. Anyway that meant that today was the last weekday for a while that we could go for a walk together (Bo, Toby and I). And so with the weather now back to being warm we headed out onto the patch to see what we could find.

Deciding on a quicker walk, we headed through the park and passed the church (aiming to head down beside the canal to the old lock and see what was about there). However on the way there was a small spot of ivy that was covered in bees, hoverflies and other flies. The ivy around it was bare even though it was equally in the sun, very odd. Anyway on our first stop there we spotted this stunning Hoverfly (see pic below). A Volucella pellucens sometimes called the Great Pied Hoverfly, this large black and white beauty really caught the eye.

Great Pied Hoverfly – Old Wolverton, Milton Keynes

On to the Lock

Arriving in the area of the old canal/lock, we quickly spied a Spotted Flycatcher at the top of the bushes. Followed by Lesser Whitethroat;Common Whitethroat; and a good number of Blackcaps. I counted 6 all passing through one bush! Unfortunately there was no sign of yesterdays reported 2 common redstart, or the winchat from Sunday. We were rewarded a little more when Toby spotted a Common Buzzard circling over us.

Manor Farm

A quick walk under and then along the canal (longer than it should be after Toby left the bag he was carrying on a bench we stopped at!) had us at Manor Farm to look out over the lakes, and see what waders we could spot (Toby and I popped out there Tuesday evening and had good wader numbers, 5 Ruff, 1 Dunlin, 1 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Ringed Plover and 2 Green Sandpiper). Again it was dominated by waders but the area is quite hard to see all of so we may well have missed some but our totals today were: 4 Ruff, 2 Greenshank, 1 Little Ringed Plover and 2 Green Sandpiper. Also the Black Necked Grebe remains as well as several Little Grebe and a Great Crested (always nice to see three species).

Little Egret numbers were good with 8 in total, and we were pleased to see our second Buzzard of the day and a Sparrowhawk both over the water (the Buzzard flew low in over our heads and was a real treat).

Ruff (very poor digiscoping attempt) – Manor Farm, Milton Keynes

Pond Pit Stop

On our walk back over the fields between the farm buildings and the car park, we stopped at the small pond to watch in awe as a large mixed flock of Swallows and House Martins fed and Drank over the pool, Bo and Toby sat in silence as they took in the spectacle of the small birds zipping low over the water and scooping up beak fulls of liquid mid flight.

Harlequin Ladybird – Old Wolverton church, Milton Keynes

Back to the Ivy

Following a different path home, via the grave yard. We saw a stunning Southern Hawker (technically just before we entered the church area) and a couple of Harlequin Ladybirds. We again stopped at the Ivy to check out the mass of flies, bees, and hoverflies all still on the one bush. Ignoring the rest, we were delighted when a Red Admiral put in a brief appearance. A beautiful end to the Last Day Of Summer Holidays.