Another visit to Felbrigg today in search of more Dragons and Damsels, produced my first Small Copper Butterfly of the year along the northern side of the lake.
Yesterdays Broad-bodied Chaser was seen again over the small pool to the east of the lake, with it eventually landing on a bramble enabling me to confirm its id, but unfortunately a bit too far away to get a decent picture of it without the aid of my scope which I had left in the car.
The Red-eyed Damsel was seen briefly again, along with a Large Red Damselfly in the same bush.
Whilst watching the Damsels my attention was suddenly drawn to the alarm calls of the local Pied Wagtails coming from behind me. A quick scan across the lake revealed that they were mobbing a Cuckoo as it flew along the edge of the lake, which was a very pleasing sighting as in recent years they have become very scare locally. As I had spent a lot of time searching suitable areas for one this year, it was a very welcome record indeed and as a bonus brought up the 150 for the patch this year, a total which I took until early September last year to reach.
On the way back I scanned the area where the Cuckoo had flown towards and was pleased to relocate it sitting on top of a fence post. I watched it for a while as it dropped down onto the ground a couple of times before returning to the fence posts, and then eventually flew off across the meadow and disappeared into the trees behind the reedbed, but was notably silent the whole time.
