An early morning start with plenty of layers as it was fairly cold first thing saw me arriving shortly before Tim and a quick scan around saw a hunting Barn Owl and a lovely Fox in the Triangle...a nice start to proceedings.
When Tim arrived we were off...as we neared the breach,i flushed a small bird on a number of occasions,but just couldn't get anything on it until it doubled back and flew past us towards the Warren...a Sedge Warbler,but it did have us going for a bit.
Nearby the very sad sight of a moribund Long-eared Owl was found just before the breach and it was later donated to Rich Swales to do a post mortem on and to collect the skin.This was such a shame for this stunning bird to end it's life in this way.
As we neared the narrows,the resident Brent flock was encountered and we thought to ourselves that the Black Brant reported the previous day must be still present with the flock.After a quick couple of scans there it was with 3 Pale-bellied and a good sized count of 363 Dark-bellied birds.It was a surprise to see so many birds still present which hadn't departed for the breeding grounds yet.
No further notable birds were really seen apart from some stunning summer plumaged Grey Plover and Sanderling.
Interest was then turned to insects as we approached the VTS tower as i found a roosting Lesser-treble Bar on one of the light porches on the tower,this is a nice looking moth and was a welcome bonus.
The whole area was covered in the very abundant Brown Tail Moth larva and this year it looks like it is also going to be a bumper year for the stunning Garden Tiger,with 100's of caterpillars seen.
As the sun came,out a few butterflies began to fly around and i managed to find a single,stunning Green Hairstreak and Brown Argus,both new species for Tim and first records for the year for myself.A couple of species of Hoverfly were seen also,Myathropa florea and Leucozona leucorum.
After walking around all the decent habitat at the point and a quick refreshment stop at the Green Beacon we walked our way back down the peninsula to the car,seeing a single Wheatear at Chalk Bank,the only migrant of the day!.
The Brent flock were still in the same spot at the narrows,but now dozing in the sun and we flushed several male Common-blue Butterflies as we walked through the grassier areas and also disturbed a couple of Roe Deer.It is surprising when you look properly how good an area it is for Flora with us recording some nice species which included Sea Holly,Common Restharrow,Birds-foot Trefoil,Common Storksbill and the attractive Scarlet Pimpernel.
Eventually we arrived back at the car slightly worse for wear,12 miles in wellies is not for the faint hearted.
After a quick footwear change and an aborted attempt at looking for Red-veined Darter on Clubley's Scrape,we enjoyed a very welcome Icecream at the Bluebell cafe..well we certainly earned it!,we then had a half hearted look along Beacon Lane for the Golden O,but to be fair we just couldn't be arsed and after chatting to Andy Gibson we went back to our cars and headed home after a superb visit to this brilliant area.Day totals saw us recording 9 species of Butterfly,1 Damselfly and 4 moth species....it's not always about the birds.
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| Moribund Long-eared Owl found near to the breach. |
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| Pale-bellied Brent with Dark-bellied birds at the Narrows. |
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| Black Brant with Dark-bellied Brents at the Narrows. |
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| Black Brant with Dark-bellied Brents at the Narrows. |
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| Lesser-treble Bar at the VTS tower. |
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| Garden Tiger Caterpillar at the Point. |
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| Brown Tail Caterpillars at the Point. |
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| Green Hairstreak at the Point. |
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| Buck Roe Deer,Sheep Fields. |
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| Male House Sparrow,Beacon Lane. |
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| Male Reed Bunting,Beacon lane. |
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