I just can't get enough...

of that Short-toed Eagle. Some birds are just to good to not visit more than once when they are this close to home and this is one of them. So instead of having a Sunday lie in I opted for the get up early to do the moth trap option and then head up to the forest for thirds. Needless to say the eagle was faultless, appearring in a tree top on the Crowborough side of Wren's Warren shortly after eight, before taking off at about half nine, as the sun warmed up its reptilian diet, and eventually drifting off towards Nutley. Also in the Wren's Warren area were Turtle Dove, Dartford Warbler, and numerous Stonechat.
As the eagle had drifted off I decided to move on myself and headed to Old Lodge for a general mooch. Redstart have clearly had a good year and a number were seen around the reserve including several recently fledged scaly looking juveniles still loosely associating with their parents. With Woodlark, Tree Pipit, and Nuthatch all putting in appearrances and my favourite bird song, Willow Warbler, adding a suitably summery soundtrack I was feeling pretty chipper as I headed down to the bottom of the reserve and some insect action.

Old Lodge is a quality dragonfly site so it was time to change focus, and as luck would have it I connected with a male Small Red Damselfly almost immediately in the first area I checked. Superficially similar to Large Red these are much daintier in appearrance and the males have entirely red abdomens. In the same area there were numerous Large Red Damselfly. On the pools the larger Chasers and Hawkers were becoming very active in the warm sunshine. A cracking male Broad-bodied Chaser was quickly followed by a Four-spotted Chaser and several Keeled Skimmers the latter seeming to prefer bare patches of earth for their favoured perches. Emperors were also on the wing. Moving on to the bottom of the valley the dragonfly special on the forest was seen at once in the form of at least one and probably two Brilliant Emeralds watched hawking over the main pools - absolute stunners! Another Four-spotted Chaser was also here along with Brown Hawker, Beautiful Demoiselle, Azure Blue Damsel, and Emperor.

From a birding perspective the day was rounded off very nicely with a Honey Buzzard at a site in the east of the county. Top notch stuff.

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention the moth trap. Forty macro's overnight of fifteen species the undoubted highlight being the Maple Prominent, pictured left, which was new for the garden. There were also first appearrances of the year from the Flame, Lackey, and Treble Brown Spot, and Heart and Dart became the first moth to break the hundred mark for the year.