Thursday 11th September

The Glossy Ibis flew across The Bight, then headed west, over the morning high tide with single Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint roosting amongst 32 Ringed Plover and 10 Dunlin. 

Curlew Sandpiper - Lee Collins

Little Stint - Jim Summers

Also in the estuary, 310 Redshank, 200+ Common and 31 Sandwich Tern, 61 Curlew, 57 Wigeon, 47 Teal, 15 Greenshank, eight Mediterranean Gull, three Sanderling, two Whimbrel and single Bar-tailed Godwit and Common Sandpiper, with an Osprey and a Golden Plover over The Bight. 

Elsewhere five Balearic Shearwater, four Arctic Skua and two Common Scoter were offshore and a Spotted Flycatcher was in the bushes.

Other Wildlife: Between the frequent showers nine species of butterfly were on the wing, including a a single Painted Lady and, on the edge of Dead Dolphin Wood, a Wall Brown. Two male Ivy Bee Colletes hederae were nectaring on Michaelmas Daisy and Water Mint, as most Ivy is not yet in flower. A Field Digger Wasp Mellinus arvensis was on the beach and a Hornet near the Entrance Bushes.

Wall Brown - Dean Hall

 Ivy Bee Colletes hederae - Alan Keatley

A new muscid fly for the Recording Area, a male Black-patched Limnophora L. tigrina was found on the back path, with a Locust Blowfly Stomorhina lunata and the saltmarsh dolichopus fly Machaerium maritimae on the Golf Course.

Black-patched Limnophora L. tigrina - both Alan Keatley

Machaerium maritimae - Alan Keatley

A clump of Spectacular Rustgill Gymnopilus junonius was fruiting in the Education Area behind the Main Pond, with an Ant Woodlouse Platyarthrus hoffmannseggii found in an ant's nest under rotting wood.

Spectacular Rustgill Gymnopilus junonius - Alan Keatley

Ant Woodlouse Platyarthrus hoffmannseggii - Alan Keatley