Tuesday 14 June 2011

Back at the Patch for a tick a day


White-letter Hairstreak (i think)

Mallow has turned the farm purple at the moment

We had a birds and butterfly walk on Sunday but it rained and all we saw was a Cinnabar moth. This evening was a different story and the farm was alive with insects and all kinds of plants have come up since I was last here so I had a good pan-species session the highlight being a White-letter Hairstreak (I think).
On the bird front- 1 Green Sandpiper (back already), 1 Hobby, the summer mixed bird waves are forming with good numbers of Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tit along Cuckoo Lane, 2 Shelduck, a pair of Shoveler on 100 acre, 40+ Grey Heron, the post breeding Lapwing flock has just started and is so far at 15, there seem to be plenty of Tufted Ducks and about 50+ Swift and the 7 pairs of Sand Martins are breeding in the Sand Martin bank.
Btw- no bird photos because I still have not replaced my camera!

1 comment:

Peter Alfrey said...

Derek Coleman (London Wildlife Trust)has kindly commented:
Good record!
White-letter Hairstreak used to be on Mile Road bridge until the elm they were using died. They are still on Mitcham Common but have declined in London generally.