Monday, 1 May 2023

Monday 1st May

The improvement in the weather saw a drop in the number of migrants, with just two Wheatear and a Willow Warbler on site, a high-flying Grey Heron heading north, suggested anything smaller would have passed unnoticed. Two Reed Warbler are on territory in the Main Pond and a Whitethroat was collecting nesting material.

Reed Warbler - Alan Keatley

Elsewhere 12 Great Northern and a Red-throated Diver were offshore early morning with 10 Sandwich Tern and three Great Crested Grebe, and the Dark-bellied Brent Goose was in the estuary, although covered, there was no news from the tide.

Wildlife News: A wide variety of  insects were on the wing with firsts for the year, including a male Hairy Dragonfly briefly by the Dune Pond, the first since 2021, a Holly Blue by the Station, at least six Hairy Shieldbug and a Marsham's Nomad Bee Nomada marshamella around a Chocolate Mining Bee Andrena scotica burrow. 

Hairy Shieldbug - Kevin Rylands

A male Brimstone was the third record of a good year for the species with Orange-tip also showing a welcome resurgence. Other insects included good numbers of male, and the first female, Sandpit Mining Bee A. barbilabris, several Orange-tailed Mining Bee A. haemorrohea, a Spring Epistrophe E. eligans and an emergence of the spring cranefly Tipula vernalis.

Orange-tailed Mining Bee - Kevin Rylands

A new Green-winged Orchid was discovered in flower on the Back Path, the tenth flowering plant recorded on the Warren.

Green-winged Orchid - Alan Keatley

Another plant discovery was Field Madder in the Buffer Zone, just the third site record and the first for 15 years.

Field Madder - Kevin Rylands

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