Home Territory

Decided to leave the car on the 'drive' today and started in my own garden. The pond is full of bugs and from it, the emerging dragonfly from a previous post came. Today, we have a pond skater of which I have countless hordes on what is a small bit of water. I do spend more than a few moments on many days staring at these guys, now present in a whole range of sizes as the youngsters emerge, seemingly continuously.

Walked out through Horsell Birch in the hope of a dragonfly or two on a well hidden pond. Absolutely nothing today but it has been good to me before so I will return later in the summer. A distant Greenfinch (and yes this is distant!) plus a buzzard which I didn't notice until it left a tree (very frustrating) completed the compliment for Horsell Birch.







































Once on Horsell Common proper, the first bird I heard was this Whitethroat. It too was initially distant but a little cover, and getting down on my knees, brought him fairly close.

I have always thought that an area on the edge of Horsell Common, which features a series of open fields with a few horses and at least one set of stables, really should have some swallows. Today, for the first time, I actually saw a couple of swallows whizzing in and out of that stable block, hopefully to an active nest site. Too far away for decent photos but lovely just to know they are there.