Saturday 19 July 2014

Hot day

 Meadow Brown (one white spot in eye)
 Gatekeeper (two white spots in eye)
Cochylimorpha straminea (A first for farmlands if correct id) 
 Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull or Lesser Black-backed Gull?
 Purple Loose-strife
Horsetail and Reedmace
 
The heat wave continues with a few storms going through. A few waders seen by the group this morning; 8 Whimbrel, 3 Snipe, 4 Common Sandpiper, 2 juvenile LRP, 15 Lapwing and Derek had 11 Green Sandpiper in the week. About 100+ Swift about, 4 Sand Martin, 6 Kestrel (mainly hunting on the mound), 1 Peregrine, 2 Sparrowhawk, 40+ Goldfinch on the mound, 3 Shoveler and quite a few young Little Grebes. The Shelducks all seem to have gone.
Lots of butterflies about- good numbers of Gatekeeper now. 50+ Six-spot Burnet on the mound.
Mothing now - the first Ruby Tigers of the year, had the first Jersey Tiger a couple of days ago, still lots of Footmans, Smoky Wainscots, Least Carpets etc.


6 comments:

RB said...

Looks like a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull Peter. All the LBBGs at the moment are so dark and fresh - your bird has certainly done a bit of mileage...

Peter Alfrey said...

Cheers Rich. Better structure for YLG too although thought it might have moulted some scaps by now for YLG?

RB said...

Seen 5 juv YLGs this weekend - only one (photographed this evng in Rotherhithe) showed visible scapular moult.

Peter Alfrey said...

Still early I guess. I was at Rainham today and hoping to see some along the Thames there- hardly any large gulls at all and no YLG.

Paul Alfrey said...

Excellent shot of the Horsetail and Reedmace

Peter Alfrey said...

cheers Paulie.