With the heat continuing and Warneford and Churchill Meadows on my local patch gradually turning to straw, urban east Oxford felt more like the Mediterranean this week:
And then the Mediterranean came to me. I was packing the car to depart for a family celebration in Suffolk, when I was thrown into complete chaos as I heard the repeated “yee-ow, yee-ow” calls of a Mediterranean Gull approaching from the south! It flew overhead at a medium height, calling constantly. I whipped my phone out and just about managed to get a poor an atmospheric recording of the final two flight calls, before it disappeared north and away over Headington:
This is, without doubt, the best bird species yet recorded on my garden list.
In Suffolk, after the family celebration, I took my sister, her daughters and one of my daughters out onto some local heathland, where we experienced the amazing, evocative sound of churring Eurasian Nightjars:
Here I also managed to make a poor an atmospheric recording of two species that share the same habitat, but are not always heard singing together, Tree Pipit and Eurasian Nightjar:
Then back to see what the moth trap had produced in rural Suffolk. Highlights were a Small Elephant Hawk Moth, this huge Oak Eggar and a nice Dusky Sallow:
A memorable day with a fantastic Mediterranean theme!