Thursday, 24 August 2023

Thursday 24th August

An adult Osprey circled over the Golf Course mid morning before heading up estuary, this typically put up all the waders in the estuary mid count, but numbers that returned to the Bight included 109 Ringed Plover, 77 Dunlin, 18 Sanderling, seven Black-tailed Godwit and two Knot, with 35 Mute Swan, 19 Whimbrel and four Mediterranean Gull also present. Sandwich Tern were once again notable by their absence. 

Osprey - Alan Keatley

Other migrants were limited to 25 Swallow, five Willow and two Reed Warbler, three Blackcap, a Chiffchaff and a Wheatear. Elsewhere a record count of 16 Collared Dove leaving a night-time roost near the Station before making a brief incursion into the Recording Area as they circled around then headed inland in a single flock.

Cirl Bunting - Dean Hall

Other Wildlife: The show of  Autumn Ladies-tresses is at its peak in Greenland Lake and elsewhere with thousands of spikes in the dune turf.

Autumn Ladies-tresses - Dean Hall

Autumn Ladies-tresses - Alan Keatley

The butterfly peak has however passed, with the Gatekeeper season virtually over and with the exception of a new generation of Small Coppernotably fewer butterflies on the wing.

Small Copper - Dean Hall

A male Ectophasia crassipennis, a shieldbug hunting tachinid in the Back Meadow was the insect find of the day, this species first arrived in the UK but is already seemingly established on site.

Ectophasia crassipennis - Alan Keatley

Jersey Tiger - Dean Hall

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