Sunday, 9 June 2019

Sunday 9th June

A flat calm sea revealed a summer-plumage Great Northern Diver and an immature Red-throated Diver, but the inky expanse supported little else; a raft of 21 Shag, five Sandwich Tern foraging distantly and two Mediterranean Gull in off, the only additions of note.

The medium-height high tide managed to push in 22 Dunlin, 16 Curlew, 11 Sanderling, ten Great Black-backed Gull, eight Cormorant, seven Mute Swan, five Canada Goose, three Shelduck, two Little Egret and single Whimbrel, Turnstone and Oystercatcher.  Reports of whereabouts of the missing hundreds of Oystercatchers will be appreciated. 

Quiet overhead, six Swallow, the usual immature male Kestrel and an unseasonal Rook flew north.  A party of 34 Long-tailed Tit passed through the entrance bushes and parent Little Grebe and Reed Warbler continued to feed their young on the Main Pond.  The pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker also continue their routine of foraging and commuting to a nest somewhere off site.


 immature Little Grebe (from the 1st brood) - Lee Collins


Wildlife news: small counts of common bird species above illustrate how challenging birding here can be, especially entering mid-June, but there is plenty else to see. In a brief warm sunny spell, attention turned to wooded margins of flowering Hemlock Water-dropwort, that which hadn't been cut down, and were rewarded with an abundance of life, including Tree Bumblebee, Volucella pellucens, Hairy Dragonfly, Cucumber Green Orb Spider and the locally distributed moth Telechysis tripuncta.


Araniella cucurbitina (Cucumber Green Orb Spider) - Lee Collins


 Hairy Dragonfly - Lee Collins


 Telechysis tripuncta - Lee Collins


 Tree Bumblebee (worker) - Lee Collins

Volucella pellucens - Lee Collins

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