........ just long enough to lull me into going down to the New Forest to set up the frass traps and sticky traps that I am using to assess invertebrate populations as part of my Wood Warbler studies.
Needless to say, the heavens opened before too long and I got drenched. The volume of rain over the last 48 hours is obvious from the photo below which is of a stream that I can usually jump across.
Before the rain got too heavy, I did see four male and one female Wood Warblers. The female was one that I colour ringed last year a couple of kilometres away. Wood Warblers are notorious wanderers and previous colour ringing studies have shown a very low proportion of birds returning to where they have bred before so it is good to get a result so quickly. Apart from the flooding, the severe weather was apparent from the number of freshly fallen or snapped beech in the woods.
Little else to report; fair numbers of Redstarts, my first Cuckoo of the year and the common caddis fly Limnephilus griseus which I've not seen before (but I've only had the key for a few weeks!).
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