DAVID'S NATURE BLOG

1 SEPTEMBER 2026 – TEDNAMBURY and THORLEY WASH

I hadn’t been down to the River Stort (Tednambury and Thorley Wash) for a good part of this long hot summer - the intolerable heat did me no favours whatsoever, playing havoc with my diabetes related issues; so, I spent a lot of the time concentrating on the garden and my wildlife pond. But the heat had subsided considerably, so I thought I’d pay Thorley Wash a long overdue visit.

I started out around 0850 hrs, with plenty of water and some light food, and after a 20-minute wait, took a bus down to Spellbrook, arriving shortly after 0940 hrs.

I thought I’d try Tednambury first, being near to the date I had a family of Ravens last year; but no joy there - the digital mast was occupied by a Lesser Black-backed Gull. But walking along the towpath, it was obvious that there was little if any bird activity, with no signs of any warblers such as Sedge or Reed, and Chiffchaffs, and no Reed Buntings. A Buzzard and two sightings of a Sparrowhawk lifted my spirits slightly, but otherwise it was empty of birds. Migrant Hawker dragonflies were seemingly everywhere, and I was getting some success in photographing them in flight, but I couldn’t turn any of them into Blue Eyed Hawkers (previously known as Southern Migrant Hawkers) despite some having very blue eyes! I had intended to walk up to Tednambury Lock, but the absence of birds generally - although there was a good movement of Swallows - convinced me to turn back to concentrate my efforts on Thorley Wash.

There was a bit of human activity at Spellbrook Lock, with a group of women taking canoeing lessons, which in my eyes meant that there was unlikely to be much seen along the towpath up to Thorley Wash Reserve, and that proved to be the case. Over the bridge onto the reserve, I was surprised just how overgrown everything looked - especially hops that have invaded the bridge itself, and along the towpath up to it - but there was very little insect activity, although I did find a lone Western Willow Emerald Damselfly, which would have been my first for the year were it not for the three I’d had on my wildlife pond at home! There was no sign of any Water Vole activity in the stream, so I ventured into the open, and in the southern sector of the reserve immediately noticed a couple of birds flying up and catching insects from a dead tree and put the binoculars to my eyes; but I certainly didn’t expect what transpired.

One of the birds alighted on a bare branch, so I trained the binoculars on that, and immediately saw a familiar bird, one that I hadn’t seen at Thorley Wash since September 2011 - on the Essex side of the Stort on the Walbury Estate side; it was a Spotted Flycatcher! But there were two. Both birds were heavily streaked on the crown and breast, so I expected they were juveniles, but neither had streaking on the mantle, so were more likely to be adult birds. There was quite a distance between me and the birds and using the 100-400mm telephoto on the camera, wasn’t going to produce a decent image, so I added the 2x Converter to help in this regard. Luckily, the light was excellent, with variable cloud, so I was able to use a reasonable exposure and speed with the lens; although both birds were extremely active, which made it difficult to focus. But I persisted and eventually managed some decent shots. I also noticed a small warbler, with bright yellow breast and underparts, and which I’ve taken to be a juvenile Willow Warbler, as opposed to a Chiffchaff, which would normally be much duller; the first Willow Warbler I’d seen here for a couple of years.

I hadn’t initially intended to walk around the entire reserve, but I wanted to try for more Willow Emerald Damselflies, so I went ahead. There were quite a few grasshoppers along the path, but they were always too quick for me to photograph, so that was a tad disappointing. Within a short space of time, along a very overgrown pathway, I found my second Willow Emerald, which again took off before I could train the camera on it, but it did at least indicate that they were probably quite abundant on the reserve. I took some refreshment on a seat at the northern end of the reserve, noticing one of several Water Buffalo that had been placed on the reserve for the summer. I also saw two more Buzzards here; but nothing more of any interest.

As soon as I got back at the bridge, and took the towpath north, I began to find more Willow Emeralds, some in tandem, although their numbers seemed a little down on previous years. And then increasingly more appeared along the Essex side of the towpath, which meant that they were always going to be difficult to photograph well, due to the riverine environment……………… I didn’t want to fall into the river!

There were several Azure Damselflies, and a couple of Common Blue Damselflies, but other than the Willow Emeralds, a sizeable number of Migrant Hawkers, and one male Emperor Dragonfly, no other species were seen. I did see a few Small White butterflies; a lone Peacock butterfly; a singleton Speckled Wood; a lovely male Common Blue butterfly; and a Latticed Heath Moth, which was only the second I’d ever seen (and the first for Thorley Wash) so that was pleasing. I also saw a few more of the Water Buffalo, emerging from the overgrown Willow trees - sad to see the reserve in that condition, but it has been an exceptionally dry summer, so maybe that was to be expected.