With my recently increased free time, I thought I'd try a speculative mid-week visit to Farmoor (probably almost my first ever!). Nothing much had been reported, but it seemed that autumn migration was just about getting underway, and the dragonflies might be good given the expected hot conditions.
Arriving shortly after the 08:00 opening time, the causeway was initially quiet until I got almost over to the far side, when I encountered an adult Dunlin, still with its black belly. I only managed distant shots, and then met Dai on his way back.
A few minutes later he was excitedly pointing out a splendid group of 10+ Black Terns that had just flown in! They appeared quite close to the causeway twice but then disappeared, so I carried on with my plan of trying the various hides and pools down by the Thames for dragonflies in the continuing very hot weather.
Buckthorn and Shrike Meadows were relatively quiet with only a few Brown Hawkers and 1-2 Black-tailed Skimmers seen.
Moving on, the path by the Thames along the back of Pinkhill was more productive, with this obliging Common Darter, closely followed by an amazing small area that had at least 10 Brown Hawkers all hawking around over it. There were also a couple of Southern Hawkers and 1-2 Emperors as well.
Common Darter
Returning along the causeway, the Dunlin was still present, so I set about trying to get a closer photo than before, this time with a more successful end result:
Dunlin
Thereafter, I was almost back at the car park when I came across a person with a 'scope who said the Black Terns were still present - but in the far SW corner of FII. So I made my way there, only to find they were quite distant, with six all resting a reasonable way out beyond the pontoon. Still it seemed worth some shots. When they flew off to feed it was unfortunately away from the shore, so I didn't get any flight shots.
Still a more successful visit than I was expecting!
Four of the six Black Terns
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