13 - 20°C, pleasantly warm and sunny with a light south easterly.
Anglers CP: Great Crested Grebe 9, Curlew 1, Oystercatcher 3 adults + 1 young and Common Tern 1.
Butterflies: Large Skipper 1 and Orange Tip 1 female.
A good part of the day was spent checking nest boxes for 2nd broods of Tree Sparrow. There were 12 active nests. However, it was disappointing to find several boxes held dead Blue or Great Tit chicks. It looks like these species have had a poor breeding season, probably due to cold temperatures and gale force winds restricting feeding opportunities for the adults. A freshly dead, adult hedgehog with no obvious sign of predation was also seen in a plantation.
It was mid afternoon by the time we scanned over the lake again and saw all the birds fly up in alarm. It was a fox on the Sand Martin Box island. It swam to and searched all the other islands. We rushed from the hill to the waters edge near the hide. As soon as it saw us it started to back track along, and swim frantically between, the islands, before heading towards the shore. It swam alongside us and got to within a metre before making its escape up the bank. Hopefully it will have been so scared by our presence that it will not revisit, but I'm afraid it's too late for this years breeding stock.
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