Waders return

Went up to Teesside today, spent the morning at Saltholme RSPB where a few Waders are passing back through now, highlight being a Wood Sandpiper showing reasonably well from the main hide, also plenty of Common Tern activity they seem to have done well, several juv Yellow Wagtails feeding around the Cattle and several Little Egrets as is per the norm these days. Early afternoon I went over to Dorman’s Pool where the low water levels had attracted a big flock of Dunlin in and they were accompanied by a rather smart Curlew Sandpiper, there not being much else around I called it a day when the forecast rain started.

no doubt these will heading back soon

the Wood Sandpiper

Greenshank

Weekend Lepidoptera

Last Saturday evening I headed off to South Landing at Flamborough as they were doing a Storm Petrel ringing session, I haven't been to one of these evenings for a few years so I thought it would be good to do again, it would also probably be the best opportunity to get a photograph as well, they were coupling the session with a Mothing Night which was just as well as they unfortunately didn't manage to catch any Petrels, the Moths however were quite fascinating and I saw many new species for me, over 100 species were recorded and some I managed to photograph are below:

Snout

Small Fan-foot

Brimstone Moth

Plain Golden Y

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Flame Shoulder and Riband Wave

Common Footman

Uncertain

Clouded Border

Light Arches

Burnished Brass showing off its metallic finery

I was most impressed with this one, Buff Arches

Green Pug

Latticed Heath

Peppered Moth

Mottled Beauty

Sunday afternoon I went down to Chambers Farm Wood in Lincolnshire where some mighty fine Butterflies have been showing well in the week, it was a nice sunny afternoon but a little breezy and although there were a good few Butterflies about it wasn't what I had been hoping for, there were plenty of Comma's and Ringlets, a few Large Skippers and some smaller ones proved to be Essex, Purple Hairstreaks were coming down low but not low enough, best of the afternoon were several White Admirals and although I saw a couple of Purple Emperors they were just fly bys, no sign of any Silver Washed Fritillaries and no Hummingbird or Broad-bordered Bee Hawkmoths in the Butterfly Garden.

Gatekeeper

lots of Comma's

Large Skipper

and Essex Skipper

White Admiral kept high up at first

but eventually came down

Ringlet underwing

a few Dragonflies as well, Souther Hawker

and Brown Hawker

The Summer lull

Typical of this time of year it's pretty quiet at the moment, I went off to Blacktoft Sands yesterday afternoon after work, a few Waders are passing back through now, Black Tailed Godwits, Green Sandpipers, Ruff etc plus several Spotted Redshanks in various states of moult, one or two young Bearded Reedlings were flitting around the reeds and calling, the young Montagu’s Harriers have reportedly fledged in the last couple of days but I only saw the male this evening, the Marsh Harriers put on a good show as usual though and up to eight Little Egrets graced the site.

communal preening

lots of Lapwing

Black Tailed Skimmer

distant male Monty's