Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: July 2020

Monday 27 July 2020

Chamber's Farm Wood,Sunday 26th July

A visit here today meeting up with Adi and Dave resulted in a pretty good day out,with several highlights being seen.These included a new species for myself in the form of 7 Rosemary Beetles found around the car park area,these are stunning little metallic members of the Chrysolina family of Leaf Beetles and were originally imported here from southern Europe or North Africa being first found in this country surviving in a wild environment in 1994.
Other niceities seen today included a couple of personal firsts for Lincolnshire for me,in the form of an egg-laying female Purple Emperor near Five Ways and a female Long-winged Conehead found in the Little Scrubbs meadow area.
Other sightings noted included 10 Silver-washed Fritillary,7 White Admiral,6 Purple Hairstreak and plenty of Dark-bush Crickets.
It was a real privilege to visit here again and it is such a productive place for insects and all wildlife.

Cranefly Sp.Nephrotoma flavipalpis.

Ancistrocerus Sp.,A Solitary Wasp Species.

White-tailed Bumble Bee.

Rosemary Beetle.

Common Lizards.

Common Lizard.

1 Of At Least 10 Silver-washed Fritillary.

Female Meadow Grasshopper.

Female Dark-bush Cricket.

Female Long-winged Conehead.

Tree Damsel Bug.

Female White Admiral.

Blue Bug.

The Local Patch,19th & 25th July 2020.

The last 2 visits have seen autumn migration gathering pace with passage waders beginning to gather in larger numbers and passerine migrants starting to appear on their journeys south also.

19th July

The Winter's Pond area provided a few highlights on today's visit,with 5 Common Sandpiper,4 Avocet,11 Knot & 52 Black-tailed Godwit being recorded along the shoreline and the surrounding area.
Most of the attention was focussed around the Skitter area today with some decent numbers of birds being recorded,with highlights including 7 Common Sandpiper,16 Dunlin,4 Little Egret,Grey Plover,30 Avocet and a juvenile Peregrine causing mayhem for a while as it mobbed and chased the Gulls around the Haven.
Along the sea wall,5 Yellow and 7 Pied Wagtail were watched chasing after their fly lunches.while 2 lovely juvenile Wheatear also took advantage of this abundant food source.

25th July

At Winter's for the first couple of hours of light,it was pretty productive,with 7 Whimbrel flying south west,8 Avocet flying south along the estuary,2 Common Sandpiper along the shore,81 Sand Martin heading south,49 Redshank along the shore and 2 first records for the year in the form of a sub-adult Yellow-legged Gull heading north along the estuary and 2 immature Spoonbills heading south.The latter,were no doubt part of the flock that has been residing at Alkborough Flats further west.
Along the seawall towards the Skitter,22 Yellow & 5 Pied Wagtail were watched as on the 19th,taking full advantage of the profusion of flying insects,also along here,another 2 Whimbrel were watched,including a cracking juvenile.
At the Skitter,3 Common Sandpiper,22 Lapwing,6 Golden Plover,Knot,Bar-tailed Godwit and 3 Little Egret were recorded.
It was great to see Able have erected some signs attempting to deter the local idiots on motor bikes from riding around the floodbank etc,but unfortunately it hasn't worked.I'm hoping the continued police prescence will end up with the culprits being caught.

One Of The Juvenile Wheatear From The 19th

Peacock Butterfly,Winter's Pond,19th.

The Immature Spoonbill's Heading South Over Winter's Pond On The 25th.

Thursday 23 July 2020

Flamborough To Bempton,What A Great Walk!.....Saturday 18th July 2020.

An organised walk today along the clifftop path between North Landing At Flamborough & up to Bempton Cliffs RSPB and back saw us seeing some fantastic scenery along with the usual brilliant views of seabirds,including some really good numbers of everyone's favourites,Puffins.
The following are my favourite photos from our day:

North Landing,Flamborough.

Old Boat,North Landing,Flamborough.

Thornwick Bay,Flamborough.

Looking Along The Towering Cliffs To Bempton RSPB.

Breathtaking Scenery Along The Headland.

Mr & Mrs R.

Juvenile Meadow Pipit.

More Fantastic Cliffside Scenery.

Video Grab Of Adult Gannet N3 With Its Chick At Bempton,This Bird Was Colour Ringed As Part Of A Study To See The Impact Of The Wind Farm Development Off Hornsea On This Species.

Friday 17 July 2020

Suffolk,Saturday 11th & 12th July 2020.

A couple of days away staying near to Saxmundham in rural Suffolk was certainly a lovely introduction to the County and was Trace's first ever visit to the county.The following is an account of what we encountered,with a selection of photos and video from the trip.

Saturday 11th

An early start saw us heading south and 3+ hours later we arrived at our first destination,Minsmere RSPB reserve.
We walked through the reserve and up to Dunwich Heath covering lots of varied habitat.Bird highlights included one of our target species Dartford Warbler,with at least 10 birds being observed,which included 4 juveniles and 3 singing males,the juv's being lovely to watch and were my first observations of this age group in Dartford's.Other bird highlights included a Hobby and 3 juvenile Green Woodpecker.
A huge diversity of insects included such mouth watering goodies as Norfolk Hawker,Emperor Dragonfly,Silver Washed Fritillary and the amazing Bee Wolf,but i also managed to find two lifers as well.The first was a Six-belted Clearwing found along a heathland path,which i unfortunately didn't get a photo of and the second was Green-eyed Flower Bee.The latter were watched at their nest burrows in a sandy bank next to where we also watched the striking Bee Wolves.
After some very welcome info. from a local entomologist we visited an area of sandy fields to see target number 2 for the trip,in the form of a family of Stone Curlews.It was really great to watch this male,female and single chick as they panted in the heat of the midday sun.There is something really special about this species and Trace really enjoyed watching them.
A visit to nearby Southwold for a few hours mid afternoon,rounded off a cracking start to our trip.

Sunday 12th

I was up before dawn today heading again to Minsmere and following in yesterday's footsteps and walking up onto Dunwich Heath,to try and get some video of the Dartford Warblers i had seen the previous day.
To arrive here and have the whole reserve to myself,was pure bliss,listening to a distant Nightjar churring and watching as the sun began to rise.
More amazing sightings on Dunwich Heath included a pair of Hobbies doing a food pass,a family of Stonechat's and a single Med.Gull headed inland with a group of Black-headed Gulls,but it was the Dartfords which showed much more confidingly today,due to the lack of people as unlike the previous day.
At least 4 singing males and a family party were seen and i managed to obtain some nice footage.
On the way back to the car,i managed to find a cracking juvenile Cuckoo and watched it hopping around on the ground catching and eating Cinnabar Caterpillars,just fantastic to watch and a real privilege to see.
Another visit to see the Stone Curlew family on the way back to the B&B for brekkie,saw them showing much better and without so much heat haze,they really are stunning birds.
After the early start,we had a relaxing day visiting Flatford Mill,the scene of the famous John Constable Painting 'The Hay Wain' and we also visited Aldburgh and beautiful Thorpeness,the latter was a really pretty little village and one we will certainly visit again.
The final few hours of daylight were enjoyed wandering around Minsmere again as the sun set,gaining some amazing views of Muntjac,with other highlights on the reserve including a single Stone Curlew on the Heath and Spotted Redshank,Adult Med.Gull and stacks of Common Terns as they nested on the scrapes.
What a fantastic area we have found here and one we shall certainly visit again,that is for sure.