Report from 28 to 30 July 2023

We are no longer hearing the Cuckoo’s call; it is one of the first migrants to leave for Africa, second only to the Common Swift.

On the other hand, the Hobbies have become vocal: they breed in July and have chicks in the nest now, which they vigorously defend from passing Buzzards. A juvenile Spoonbill is constantly pestering its annoyed parents for food. They must have nested nearby, though I am confident it was not here at La Cassinazza. The heronry escaped unscathed from this week’s wind storms, and is now more active than ever. Most of the chicks have left the nest. Not all of them are flying yet, but they are clambering on the branches. The only ones still on eggs are the Sacred Ibis; I suspect this is a second brood after breeding earlier somewhere else.
We saw a Great Banded Greyling (Brintesiacirce) a butterfly we had only recorded once before at La Cassinazza, over ten years ago. It is quite widespread in the nearby hills, and is able to disperse over long distances, so I think it was only a passing individual.

In the thick of the reedbed, a Sedge Warbler won the award for the first southbound trans-Saharan migrant. I must confess I was unfamiliar with the juvenile plumage of Sedge Warblers, which had fooled me into thinking it might have been a far rarer relative.