Took the usual “summer” route along the railway, then under the arch and through the fields.  As we stood near the arch Dave spotted a Treecreeper – always good to see one of these! On the narrow path there was a lot of orange balsam, seems more prolific this year, and in the field near the railway line, lots of purple loosestrife.  From the fields we could see some Herons and a Little Egret, and there was a family of House Sparrows.  A little further on we heard something quite unusual for this walk – a Tawny Owl!  Also got nice views of a singing male Linnet, and we heard  Reed Buntings, Reed Warblers and Whitethroats, then a Greenfinch.  In fact we heard Greenfinches at several points along the walk.  A Kestrel was perched on one of the shooting blinds.

Back on the railway line we  heard a group of Long-tailed Tits, and were delighted to see one of the Egret nests had three gangly youngsters in it!  Poor photo, but they did look cute.

One of the other nests had at least one youngster and the third probably did too, but it was tucked a long way into the tree.  Along the river, were several Skylarks, a singing Meadow Pipit (quite unusual here) and at the overflow pit a Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler singing at the same time, giving us a good opportunity to note the difference in songs.

A Moorhen called from Sam’s pond, and a lovely family group of Swallows were flying around as we went up the track past Leeches, then we finally added Robin to the day’s list when a juvenile was hopping around on the path in front of us.  However, we did fail to get Mute Swan and Mallard!

Butterflies seen were Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Large, Small & Marbled Whites, Comma & Red Admiral, and there was also a Broad Bodied Chaser.