Sunday 2nd August...

An altogether much brighter day with sun and a moderate W6 decreasing.

What a start. I decided to head up the coast for a change to look at Monks House Pool ( of Ennion fame) and Budle Bay but only got a quarter mile along the road when I found this...



This sad little tufty was sat in the middle of the road in a terrible state though there wasn't a mark on him. Road casualty I thought and put him in a box to take home to see if he would revive from his ordeal. Unfortunately he didn't. Looking back I read somewhere that Red Squirrels have a high mortality rate from tree falls and this one seemed to have done just that. Branches crossed high over head and there weren't many cars this early on a Sunday. My second Red fatality this summer here. On my way home, a live one scampered towards me along the road before my car horn sent him up the nearest tree. Lets hope he takes notice.

Later I continues up towards a birdless Monks House and on to Budle Bay. Here I fared a little better with 3 Greenshank and a nice adult Spotted Redshank with 130 Common Redshanks in the creek. Whimbrel and a sum plum Knot added to the proceedings.



Above - The Spotshank still with some black...compare it with the Common Redshank, bottom right.

And thats about it really, this after noon we headed west to Otterburn and back by Harwood Forest where 2 juv Whinchat, 2 juv Jays and 2 Dark Green Fritillary cheered things up on the inland front.



Above - Tawny speckled Pug, our living room.