A couple of welcome migrants with an early Blackcap in the Entrance Bushes and the first two Wheatear of the year in Greenland Lake. At least four Chiffchaff were in song with a pair of Tufted Duck still on the Main Pond.
Elsewhere 195 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 18 Teal and 12 Sanderling were in the estuary with three Eider and two Sandwich Tern offshore.
Year list additions:
113. Blackcap
114. Wheatear
Other Wildlife: The spring equinox coincided with a warm and sunny day. Insects reacted to the rise in temperature with the emergence of several Yellow-legged Mining Bee Andrena flavipes near Langstone Rock along with the first Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris and Bibio johannis, a miniature St Mark's Fly, of the year.
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| Yellow-legged Mining Bee Andrena flavipes - Alan Keatley |
On the wing for just the second time this year were Comma, with four Peacock also seen; Early Bumblebee and Buffish Mining Bee Andrena nigroaenea, with one of the latter hosting the parasite Stylops melittae.
Also emerging for the first time this year were the tiny weevils Exapion ulicis on Gorse and Apion haematodes on Sheep's Sorrel, along with the larger Dorytomus taeniatus on willow.
Other beetles included on the beach, the dung beetle Calamosternus granarius, ground beetles including Trechus obtusus and Syntomus foveatus and the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii. A new leaf beetle for the Recording Area, Phaedon armoraciae was found near Langstone Rock, a common and widespread species.
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| Phaedon armoraciae - Alan Keatley |
Despite the conditions still no sign of any flowering Sand Crocus but the first Early Forget-me-not of the year are open and patches of Mossy Stonecrop are starting to brighten.
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| Mossy Stonecrop - Kevin Rylands |
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