The day started off grey and sultry but with a stiff breeze
it was not as warm as I anticipated as I headed over to Essex this
morning. I had an insect walk planned
for the afternoon but wanted to start at East Tilbury where I have not properly
birded for years and with the Stone Curlew still present this morning I thought
that it and the waders on the foreshore would be just the ticket. I sailed through the Tunnel and was soon
there but not quite – a serious RTA had closed the road about half a mile from Coalhouse
Fort and there was no way in unless you knew the local footpaths and somewhere
safe to stick the car so I grumpily turned the car round and headed to the
South Essex Marshes where I amused myself for a few hours.
I bumped into Steve (one of the vols) and we chatted while we scanned the lagoons but they were quiet with just a few Oystercatcher and two
Avocet amongst the Lapwings and eclipse duck and snoozing geese. It was
tragic to see the number of dead gulls scattered across the islands. I only looked
from the main viewpoint but I counted 129 corpses – all of which seemed to be
adult and juvenile Black-headed Gulls. Tragic.
A Buzzard circled overhead and a family of Bearded Tits
popped up and down in one of the reedy ditches and a few Sparrows and
Goldfinches moved along the Sloe hedges.
Insect wise it was very quiet but at least the Chicory was attracting a
few Bumbles and Butterflies. I discovered Den C and we had a good catch up (not seen him since well before Covid) whilst
chasing the insects up and down.
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| Never seen different shades of Chicory before |
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| Bristly Oxtongue |
There were a few whining Bombus sylvarum (Shrills), both
Bombus pascuorum and humilis, terrestris, lapidarius, lucorum (a male) and a
single hortorum that Den got a shot of.
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| Bombus hortorum (Den Cameron) |
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| Bombus terrestris |
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| Bombus humilis imho |
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| Bombus humilis |
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| Bombus sylvarum |
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| Bombus sylvarum |
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| Bombus sylvarum |
Brown Argus zipped in and out of cover
and the male Common Blues were especially bright but it was a fresh Small
Copper that caught my eye while a Dasypoda hirtipes had full pollen pouches.
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| Small Copper |
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| Small Copper |
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| Common Blue |
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| Common Blue |
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| Common Blue - Den Cameron |
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| Dasypoda hirtipes |
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| Dasypoda hirtipes |
Other than Eriothrix rufomaculata there were almost no flies
and the only two Hovers I saw was a female Volucella zonaria and a Eristalinus aeneus while Ruddy Darters
were the only Dragon.
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| Volucella zonaria |
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Eristalinus aeneus
lower half of eyes non hairy - no yellow pollen grains adhering is the give away! |
By now it was seriously
heating up and so I headed for my meet up spot on nearby Canvey. The plan was to go and look for Blue Eyed
Hawkers in the inevitably dry Canvey Ditch but there were four cars jammed in
the gap and no one in the fields so I suspect that people are now parking there
and walking the quarter mile to Benfleet Station off the Island.
A hot wander with Andy F and Annie J around the local
environs ensued and although it was seriously hot it should not have stymied
the insects but we saw very little. The
Fennel patch had just a couple of Wasps, a Greenbottle and a Gasteruption
jaculator while there was not a single insect on the Hemp Agrimony and Wild
Carrot and only a few small Bees and Eriothrox rufomaculata again on the
Fleabane.
The area had suffered several recent fires but the patches
were I normally see Bee Wolves and such like were devoid of life bar the odd
Field Grasshopper and a single Dasypoda hirtipes that disappeared into a burrow
and never came out!
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| Field Grasshopper - made me think it was sitting like that to let the air circulate! |
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| Broad Leaved Pea - no Long-tailed Blues |
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| Phragmites regrowth already |
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| Shaded Broad Bar |
There was a good breeze down by Holehaven Creek where a mass
of Curlews were on the disappearing mud with a couple of invisible but calling Whimbrel
and the Marsh Samphire was flowering along the margins.
Sometimes you have to know when you are beaten and the cut
back through over the old tarmacked silo caps was blistering and even the super
sweet Sea Buckthorn berries did not revive me.
Single Migrant Hawkers and Emperor became the only big Dragons of the
day along with a few Darters and two Wall Browns refused to stop; a bit like the Oak Eggars and Gypsy Moths
zooming around regardless of the heat!
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| Ruddy Darter |
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| Common Darter |
A McFlurry beckoned…
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