Waders

A bit more variety at the pond this morning with 3 Common Sandpiper and a Dunlin trying to find a shoreline to land on in toft bay before eventually giving up and leaving eastwards. Other sightings included 4 Yellow-legged Gull ( adult and three 2nd summers), 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers and a Sedge Warbler. Both Common Blue and Meadow Brown butterflies were out flying before 7:30 am.
Rest of the morning spent looking for butterflies adding Marbled White and Ringlet to the year list while Broad-bodied Chaser and Southern Hawker Dragonfly noted.

Ruby

Day spent celebrating Dave and Christine 40th wedding anniversary.

1973

2013 and after 40 years of abuse the belly can't take it anymore

Brandon Marsh

In between the showers we managed 2 Oystercatchers, 6 Teal, 8 Gadwall, 2 Common Tern, 20+ Sand Martins and a few Whitethroats before giving up.

more Yellow-legged Gulls

At least 5 Yellow-legged Gulls resting on various buoys dotted around the pond with 2 adults and 3 second summers this morning. Only other birds of note were 5 Buzzards and a Sedge Warbler. Other sightings included 10 Common Blue butterflies, 3 Yellow Shell and a Common Blue Damselfly.

record shot of Sedge Warbler by Bob Hazel

South again for Orchids

Bob surprised me with a trip down south looking for orchids managing eight species along with 4 species of moth and 5 species of butterfly while over head there were at least 40 Red Kite and 6 Buzzard.

Orchids found were Fly, Bee, Pyramidal, Greater Butterfly, Common-spotted and Military Orchid plus Common Twayblade and White Helleborine. The best butterfly was a Green Hairstreak while moths included an usual colour form of Green Carpet.

Fly Orchid

Greater Butterfly Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

Scorpion Fly
all pics by Bob Hazel

Catch up

Apart from breeding birds it’s gone very quiet on the birding front locally with only a Common Tern at the pond on the 20^th, sod all in very blustery conditions yesterday and today all we managed was a Garden Warbler and Raven. On the garden front Bullfinch, Coal Tit and Green Woodpecker have been visiting mine this week.

Luckily the overnight temperatures over the last few days till last night has produced decent numbers of moths so that has kept Bob and I busy with identification of some of the smaller ones and photography, Dave added 3 micro moths to his garden list while I managed my first Companion.

Scorched Wing

Companion

Bee Orchids are finally showing at a number of places while out of the county some of our more interesting species are starting to flower.

Burnt Orchid

Fly Orchid

Fragrant Orchid

Military Orchid

Musk Orchid
all orchid pics by Paul Cashmore

Stockton again

Did not think the pond was worth the effort so spent the afternoon visiting Stockton Cutting and Tasker Meadows in very humid conditions with intermittent sunshine which produced a varied amount of fauna and flora with butterflies represented by Small White, 10 Common Blue, Small Blue, 2 Dingy Skipper, 6 Grizzled Skipper, 4 Brimstone and Small Heath.

Moths included 6 Silver Y which probably came in on the warm air over night from the continent, Straw Dot and Red Twin-spotted Carpet.

Failed to get to grips with my first dragonfly of the year as it made a quick dash across Tasker Meadows but there were plenty of newly emerged White-legged Damselflies along with smaller numbers of Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Birds included Green Woodpecker, Great-spotted Woodpecker and a Buzzard and the usual orchids found.

Greater Butterfly Orchid

Early Purple Orchid

Grizzled Skipper

Dingy Skipper
all pics by Bob Hazel