After spending most of the day together yesterday the two great white egret were only seen separately today and only “Walter” went to roost in his usual place. The second bird was seen but departed northwards up the valley.
The first drake goldeneye of the season was seen today, along with a female, although we know there were two females yesterday. Other birds today included a ruff, seen flying over heading south, a green sandpiper and a Mediterranean gull.
My day was mostly taken up with a break-in, as someone kicked in the door of the Ivy South hide sometime between 5:00pm last night and 9:00am today. Cutting out the damaged section of door frame and fitting the new timber without doing too much damage to the hide took me most of the morning. Generally Blashford does not have the level of problems that many other sites do, but we will still spend several days each year dealing with break-ins, vandalism and fly-tipping, using up time and money that we could use for more useful things.
We are promised our first really chilly night, predicted to go down to -3C so I might have to invest in more bird food and we might see some more wildfowl arriving in the next few days.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
😦
F.A.O. Robert.
Firstly, many thanks for all reports sent by you and others. Very interesting and much appreciated.
Secondly, can you help with the following poor description of a butterfly in my garden a short time back.
Sadly I only saw it with it’s wings closed. I rushed to get my camera but could only get a rather poor shot which I did get printed. It was low down and an awkward angle so not one I’m proud of.
Briefly , it shows two predominant colours,ie a light brown with 4/5 light yellow veins with 2/3 very short veins in outer positions and I wondered if the colours were just variations.
I hope to come to Blashford again soon with the photo, but in the meantime wonder if you have any idea of what it is.
Thank you very much, Tony Preston, (Southbourne).