The 1st August was another grey day – not that it has been cold and I had a quick half hour down at the North Denes Net Posts searching for insects. There were plenty of Field and Meadow Grasshoppers in the swathes of Yarrow, Dittander and Sea Radish that abounds here.
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| Field Grasshopper |
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| Meadow Grasshopper |
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| Field Grasshopper |
I found a couple of Long-winged Coneheads including a strangely coloured bronzy buff one. There were not many Butterflies around and no early chats on the posts but I did snap a couple of micro moths.
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| Aethes smeathmanniana |
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| Dichroampha vancouverana |
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| Long-winged Conehead |
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| Wild Radish |
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| Dittander |
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| Field Bindweed |
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| Fat Hen |
A quick look at the sea produced no terns at all but a
constant stream of Kittiwakes going both ways and a few gulls loafing on the
groynes. One tiny juvenile Lesser
Black-backed Gulls caught my eye for not only being very small but also being
incredibly slim and attenuated.
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I know that there is a lot of size variation but I have
bever seen one quite like this and I pondered as to whether it could have been
a juvenile Baltic (L fuscus fuscus) especially as there have already been
juvenile Caspians along this stretch of the coast already? Enquiries on line suggested that there is no
way currently to separate the races of juveniles.
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| juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull mmm... |
Mothing in the garden was very poor with a Red Underwing
being the best although it escaped my clutches!
Antony had better luck and added a few more to my list including Small
Rivulet and Citron Plume from his garden and Oblique Striped that he had reared
out from eggs.
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| Flame Shoulder |
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| A very pale Turnip |
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| Citron Plume |
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| Lathronympha strigana |
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| Oblique Striped |
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| Small Rivulet |
The 6th August saw me on Wren Chicken duty where a Volucella inanis was my first of the year and reminded me that I had see a Volucella zonaria in my own garden on the 2nd. I then took myself down to Walberswick for the short walk down to the spot where the Zitting Cisticola had been bouncing around for a few days.
I have a very pragmatic take on some birds. Zitters are one of those. They zit, the bounce, they occasionally land
in view, the bounce again, they zit again – and repeat but I do like them and
so ambled down to the spot. I stopped
50m short of the group of birders who where looking the other way and promptly
heard it singing alongside me much to the delight of the Herts birder I had
walked down with.
Zitting Cisticola - Chris Darby
A couple of minutes later it started again and we watched it
for a couple of minutes doing its thing before landing beyond the stream
bund. Seven minutes had elapsed and as I
could not envisage that I would gain anything more and so turned round and
spent a lovely time walking back and looking at the fine display of littoral
flora. There were a few Butterflies but
no Whites landed close enough for further scrutiny but I was pleased to see my
first Lesser Marsh Grasshopper for some time. A lone Whimbrel was with Redshank
on the pools and Common Terns and a couple of Sandwich Terns moved north off
shore.
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| Sea Pea |
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| Yellow Horned Poppy |
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| Sea Spurge |
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| Sea Holly |
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| Sea Cabbage |
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| Bladder Campion |
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| Restharrow |
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| Bird's Foot Trefoil |
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| Whimbrel |
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| Lesser Marsh Grasshopper |
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| Viper's Bugloss |
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| Small Flowered Evening Primrose |
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| Great Mullein |
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| Gatekeeper |
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| Grayling |
Up above a family of Buzzards were cruising around with the three youngsters whistling (three notes) to get their parents attention. I have never heard such distinctive calls from young birds before. A flock of 30 Swifts and a similar number of House Martins drifted south and a Lesser Whitethroat was tacking in the hedge.
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| Buzzard |
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| Pyrausta despicata |
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| Field Grasshopper |
I came back on the inside track where 30 Migrant and two
Southern Hawkers were hunting and two Oak Eggar moths zoomed up and down. I found several Phyllonorycter corylifoliella
on the Hawthorn.
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| Migrant Hawker |
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| Southern Hawker |
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| Phyllonorycter corylifoliella |
Back home for lunch and then out again! A walk around North Cove was pleasant but quiet but there were clouds of Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters and odd ones of three other big Dragons. It was good to find my first Willow Emeralds of the year with seven seen on my circuit but the Hemp Agrimony was worryingly quiet for insect life with just a few Helophilus Hovers and a singlet Tachina fera.
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| Migrant Hawker |
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| Common Darter |
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| Common Darter |
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| Common Darter |
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| Common Darter on Guelder Rose |
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| Willow Emerald |
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| Willow Emerald |
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| Willow Emerald |
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| Willow Emerald |
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| Hemp Agrimony |
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| Helophilus pendulus |
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| Water Mint |
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| Yellow Loosestrife |
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| Alder Buckthorn |
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| Comma |
A Muntjac flashed her white undertail as she bounced away
and I heard several raptor broods throughout the woods before calling it a day.
Another poor night for mothing but a Narrow-winged Pug was
new for the garden list. I headed off
for chicken watch and then down to Pakefield Beach for the first time in
months. The Beach Lupin display was well
and truly over and most of the mature plants seem to have succumbed to the heat
and had completely died off.
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| Narrow-winged Pug |
The shiny sea was full of fishing terns and I counted 85
Common Terns fishing in a loose circle offshore many of which were juveniles. I could find nothing different amongst
them. As usual Wood Pigeons were coming
down to the shore and not for the first time seemed to be actually drinking sea
water from the incoming waves although drinking with your head down does have
its downside as I watched two of the three almost get swamped!
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| Common Terns |
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| Salty Wood Pigeons |
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| Almost got them |
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| Tree Mallow |
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| Perennial Wall Rocket |
The Brambles were full of House Sparrows and Starlings and
most of the latter were scruffy immatures in that wonderfully mish mash of fawn
brown and white spottiness. These and
Dunnocks are probably the most common birds I get sent pictures of to identify
but I do not mind!
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| Starlings |
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| Starlings |
A couple of Swallows and a Common Buzzard headed south and I
tried to check the Small Whites but none stopped at all! I looked for mines but there was nothing
showing yet on the Hop but the Lilac had lots of Gracillaria syringella on the
Lilac and the poor Horse Chestnut the Cameraria ohridella had been hard at
work.
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| Gracillaria syringella |
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| Cameraria ohridella |
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| Phyllonorycter joanisii & Stigmella aceris on Norway Maple |
Back at home I had some garden time and the House Sparrows alerted
me to a raptor. I looked up to see a
Kestrel drifting over at a reasonable height and even without my bins it
started ringing alarm bells. It was very
pale and clean on the underwings and was clearly dark tipped – almost to Levant
Sparrowhawk extent. Even by eye it felt
like the central tail projected and the whole shape of the bird felt off so I
ran inside for the camera but it had already climbed high. I took some shots which certainly confirm the
tail projection and wing tips but other than that…
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| Kestrel sp |
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| Kestrel sp |
I did put the news out locally as an interesting Kes in the hope
that it would be seen better by someone else. Three Swifts were still lingering too.
