Saturday 21 July 2012

Red-veined Darter weather

Heysham Obs
Dragonflies Middleton model boat pond
A short look late morning as the wind was slowly increasing produced:
Red-veined darter - probably just the one very mobile male seen on and off around the spit, including good views at rest at the swan loafing area
Black-tailed Skimmer - c8
Common Darter - c15, including one "reddish" imm male
Emperor - female
Emerald Damselfly - first records this year?

Birds
Med Gull:  low tide check produced 7:   metal-ringed adult, metal-ringed 3CY, 3 unringed adult, 2 unringed 2CY.  6 of these were together between the wooden jetty and Heysham one outfall

Middleton CES in sunny but fairly calm conditions re-emphasised that Whitethroat and Reed Warbler have so far seem to have had appalling breeding success (just one juv Whitethroat and no juv Reed Warbler caught), Sedge Warbler & Lesser Whitethroat pretty poor (just 4 juv Sedge caught at this peak(ish) time) but Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff not too bad.  Thanks to Alan and John for doing this.

Moths
Moth trap highlight was a single Gothic and a bit of a surprise was a late flush of newly-emerged Buff Ermine - this has been a feature of this weather-disrupted summer