An unexpected highlight came in the form of three Tufted Duck that where picked up by the sound of their whirring wings as they flew low over the golf course. They then circled Shutterton Creek and headed back out to sea. This is just the fifth July record since 2000.
Birds in the estuary included a minimum count of 103 Sandwich Tern, 70+ Mediterranean Gull, 228 Curlew, 23 Dunlin, seven Common Tern, seven Greenshank, seven Whimbrel, four Bar and two Black-tailed Godwit, four Common Sandpiper, a summer plumaged Knot, a Sanderling and the first returning Snipe.
Elsewhere 750 Herring Gull and a Great Crested Grebe were offshore and two Sand Martin.
Wildlife News: The hot temperatures and gusting wind limited insect activity during the middle of the day, but good numbers of hymenoptera were active including Green-eyed Flower Bee, Coastal and Silvery Leafcutter, Red-banded Sand Wasp Ammophila sabulosa, Silver Spiny Digger Wasp Oxybelus argentatus and dozens of the caterpillar-targeting ichnuemon Black Slip Wasp Pimpla rufipes.
Targeting the bees, Ferruginous Sicus ferrugineus, Four-banded Conops quadrifasciatus and Waisted Beegrabber Physocephala rufipes.
Waisted Beegrabber - Alan Keatley
Hoverfly numbers remain worryingly low although there was an influx of Common Tubetail Sphaerophoria scripta and with them an early Locust Blowfly Stomorhina lunata, this Mediterranean vagrant usually occurs in Sep-Oct.
Locust Blowfly (male) - Alan Keatley
Elsewhere an 11-spot Ladybird was in the Bight, at least six Small Red-eyed Damselfly and two male Black-tailed Skimmer were at the Main Pond, seven Brown Argus on Warren Point were the pick of 11 butterfly species, a dozen Asparagus Beetle there on a single plant, and a Silver Y was flushed from Greenland Lake along with several Long-legged Tabby Synaphe punctalis.
11-spot Ladybird - Alan Keatley
Asparagus Beetle - Alan Keatley
Black-tailed Skimmer (male) - Alan Keatley
No comments:
Post a Comment