With Felbrigg Park seemingly the place to be on the patch, I again went down to the lake today and after a little searching the Red-veined Darter was again located up by the rabbit holes and it perched up on a dead branch nicely for me to get a photo.
A check of the lake revealed that there was a single Mandarin present, and also one of the Crested Ducks that I had seen earlier in the year was also on the lake. A while later when trying to relocate it for another birder, I chanced upon a Purple Hairstreak feeding on a thistle head where it remained totally unconcerned with our presence allowing us to take numerous photos of it.
A walk round to the west side of the lake produced the male Broad-bodied Chaser pictured below, plus 2+ Green Sandpipers flying round the lake and the adjacent water meadows.
Numbers of the commoner butterflies continued to be good, including Ringlet and a Gatekeeper.
Final surprise of the day came when a Greenshank was heard calling and by the sound of it had dropped down onto the lake. I quickly made my way round so I could view the shoreline, and indeed it was there and was a very welcome addition to the patch year list. It fed for a short while but then took off and circled round gaining height before disappearing off into the distance and was a very nice ending to the day.
