Despite the overnight deluge there was no sign of the Long-tailed Skua, but there was a noticeable arrival of terns and waders. Two Arctic Tern were the highlight, a 1cy (portlandica) and a 2cy bird, also present either feeding offshore or roosting in the estuary, 112 Sandwich Tern, min 25 juveniles, 14 Common and a Little Tern.
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| Arctic Tern (3cy) - Lee Collins |
Counts from the estuary included 70 Black-headed and 46 Mediterranean Gull, 60 Redshank, 52 Dunlin, 31 Turnstone, 18 Whimbrel, eight Common Sandpiper, the six Eider, four Greenshank, two Bar and Black-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover and Knot and a single Sanderling.
Elsewhere 27 Shelduck flew in off the sea and up the estuary with 14 Common Scoter and an immature Arctic Skua offshore.
Other Wildlife: Damp and drizzly for most of the day, and the normally active insects were mainly inactive, sheltered in flower heads, particularly Ragwort. These included the first Pantaloon Bee Dasypoda hirtipes of the year, Bare-shouldered Colletes C. similis, Yellow-legged Andrena flavipes and Sandpit Mining Bee A. barbilabris.
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| Pantaloon Bee - Alan Keatley |
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| Bare-saddled Colletes - Alan Keatley |
Sheltering wasps included Bee-wolf and Willow Mason Wasp Symmorphus bifasciatus and selected flies included Red-legged Eriothrix E. rufomaculata, the shieldbug tachinid Ectophasia crassipennis and the hoverfly Riponnensia splendens.
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| Bee Wolf - Alan Keatley |
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