Light east winds till just before lunch. The afternoon west breeze brought in a heavy shower, apart from that sunshine. The breeze shifted to north and NNE in the evening.
Just my two checks of the south shore so far (MD)
Mediterranean gulls 23 - 18 adult, 3 juvenile and 2 x 2nd calendar year. 2cy are getting increasingly difficult to identify mid moult, I managed the top bird, but had to check with Pete for the lower picture.
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| 2nd Calendar year Mediterranean gulls |
Linnet 6 near lighthouse
Starlings 88 near the waterfall in the morning but none in the evening. They normally gather here to eat brambles, but they are not ready yet.
It was hot and the morning breeze was from the east, although mainly SE.
Butterflies:
9 Small White on the foreshore and Red Nab, 2 seen coming in off the sea near the lighthouse and 4 in scrub near waterfall
Painted Lady 1 in off along the sea wall
Small Skipper 2 in scrub near lighthouse
Meadow Brown 22 between lighthouse and waterfall - none actually seen coming in off, but the evening check only located 9 (5 more than yesterday's benchmark), so they must have been coming in and moving through. There were no other butterflies in the evening
Dragonflies
Just 2 Emperor - 1 in off the sea wall in the morning and 1 patrolling one of the rock pools on Red Nab in the evening. It had a very pronounced kinked posture, almost as though it was ovipositoring, but it was a male. I managed to track it for this short clip.
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| A rubbish shot, but does show the posture - they normally fly with an arched body, but kinked like this is unusual. |
Redshank 46 together
Common Sandpiper 1 in the evening.
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| Common Sandpiper (right) with Redshank on No.1 outflow. |
It preened for a while then set off feeding
