An evening at Castle Water

Barry Yates
, 11 September 2020
An evening at Castle Water

The evening is my favourite time for watching wildlife, it usually offers a special experience. I'd like to share last evening with you with these five short videos.

With calm sunny weather I reached the hide at Castle Water just after 5pm and had an hours birdwatching. Lots of wildfowl activity - hundreds of noisy Greylag Geese, Black-tailed Godwits, Lapwing and Ruff plus many tricky ducks to identify, still in their "eclipse plumage" while they complete their moult - Shoveler, Gadwall, Wigeon, Teal and Tufted Duck.


The highlight was a late Garganey In among a hundred or so chestnut coloured Wigeon. It is our only duck that is just a summer visitor. They were sometimes referred to as Summer Teal, because they are the same small size, but their head has a pale stripe over the eye and a pale spot at the base of the bill. In this video it's the small pale brown duck on the left.


As the sun set at about 6.30 I moved to the southern end of Castle Water to watch the sky change and was treated to pre-roost chattering of hundreds of Jackdaws and the activity of thousands of whirligig beetles on the calm water surface.


As darkness fell the mosquitoes came out so I covered all my skin (but one still got through my sock!). Flying insects gather over water and they feed swallows and martins during the day, but at night seven species of bat come out at Castle Water. One of the first to come out is the Noctule Bat - they could just be seen but it was too dark for the video - and by using a bat detector set at 30Khz their calls can be heard, listen out for the buzzing calls which is when they home in on some unsuspecting insect, hopefully including the mosquito that bit me!

Find out more about this bat by clicking here.


This is the hour around sunset in just 13 seconds - it was a lovely wildlife evening.


Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1788140116.06950 [907] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1788140116.1340.0645Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1788140116.13420.0002Server address: 216.73.217.60
1788140116.13430.0001Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1788140116.13430Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/an-evening-at-castle-water
    [s] => an-evening-at-castle-water
    [1] => an-evening-at-castle-water
)
1788140116.13470.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788140116.13590.0012 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1788140116.13850.0025 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1788140116.140.0015INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1788140116.14930.0093 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=24631853
1788140116.15010.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=24631853
1788140116.15090.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-08-31 01:35:00' AND saleTo>'2026-08-31 01:35:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1788140116.15240.0015 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='an-evening-at-castle-water')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-31 01:35:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1788140116.15660.0043 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1788140116.15740.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2318 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-31 01:35:00'
1788140116.15840.001 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1788140116.15940.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1788140116.16110.0017 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=57 LIMIT 1
1788140116.1620.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1788140116.16270.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=45 LIMIT 1
1788140116.16330.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=91 LIMIT 1
1788140116.16420.0009Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788140116.16460.0005 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1788140116.16590.0013 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-31 01:35:00' AND postSlug='an-evening-at-castle-water'
1788140116.19890.033Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788140116.19950.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1788140116.20130.0018Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1788140116.20160.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1788140116.20440.0028 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1788140116.20690.0025 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788140116.21160.0047 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788140116.21250.0009 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788140116.21570.0032Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1788140116.21570 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788140116.21650.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788140116.2170.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788140116.21990.003 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788140116.2210.0011 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788140116.22180.0008 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1788140116.22890.0071 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788140116.22970.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1788140116.23260.0029 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1788140116.23310.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788140116.23330.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='6' LIMIT 1
1788140116.23420.0008Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1788140116.23480.0006 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='an-evening-at-castle-water')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-08-31 01:35:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1788140116.23810.0033 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1788140116.23890.0008 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788140116.24280.0039Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1788140116.2440.0012 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2318 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1788140116.32820.0842 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1788140116.32840.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1788140116.32880.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='6' LIMIT 1
1788140116.32960.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1788140116.33070.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1788140116.33160.0009 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788140116.33530.0037 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788140116.3360.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788140116.34070.0047 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788140116.34160.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1788140116.34240.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1788140116.34320.0008 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788140116.34720.004 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788140116.34790.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788140116.3510.0032 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788140116.35480.0038 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1788140116.35580.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1788140116.35720.0013 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788140116.36120.004 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788140116.36180.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788140116.36470.0029 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788140116.36750.0028 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1788140116.36820.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1788140116.36880.0006 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1788140116.37190.0032 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1788140116.37260.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1788140116.37650.0038 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1788140116.37760.0012Request time: 0.3095
1788140116.37760Process time: 0.3094
1788140116.37760Memory: 1.6249