Quite a fresh west wind, mainly sunny.
Red Nab
Pete Woodruff spent a pleasant 2 hours in the sunshine, towards high water. Sat on the wall with his scope he managed:
Mediterranean gull 16 - 15 adult one with a green ring, plus one sub adult.
Ocean Edge
Common Sandpiper 1 flew out from foreshore rocks then south.
Dunlin 12 - again, initially on foreshore then south
Redshank 36 - 26 flushed from Red Nab joined another 10 to roost on the saltmarsh
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| Some of the Redshank landing on the saltmarsh |
Lapwing 7 on saltmarsh
Linnet 9 around saltmarsh
Mediterranean gull at least three adult roosting with the Black-Headed gulls on the saltmarsh, almost certainly some of Pete's earlier birds from Red Nab.
I don't know if it is the correct name for these flies, but I've always called them Seaweed Flies. Most of these are mating and the mud and rocks were covered with them (they must have been breeding like flies!). The returning waders, particularly the plovers, will reset the balance.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Janet checked the east side in the morning and I had a quick look at the west side in the afternoon.
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| Shaded Broad-bar moth |
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| Two Narrow Bordered Five-spot Burnet moth |
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| There were plenty of Common Darter on the wing |
In contrast, I think for the first time ever during summer walks, I didn't see a single dragonfly in the afternoon and only one Common Blue Damselfly. The only water bodies I checked were the small scrapes on the west side, even so I would have expected some. (MD).
Even though there were plenty of butterfly species, again the numbers were lower than I would expect.
Red Admiral 1
Comma 1
Ringlet 1
Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper - several of each
Large White 1
Small White 2
Speckled Wood 4
Burnet Companion moth 2
Only four warbler species heard: Chiffchaff, Willow warbler, Blackcap and Common Whitethroat
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| At least this Wren was finding plenty of invertebrates |
