Wednesday June 26th to Thursday July 11th

Site Sale

As revealed in the local press, Tice's Meadow is for sale. We've been advised to not say anything beyond this statement for now.

Late News

Paul Mannering took some great macro-shots on site on June 25th, and found a new species for the site: Stenurella melanura - a Longhorn Beetle.

(c) Paul Mannering - Large Red Damselfly

(c) Paul Mannering - Painted Lady

(c) Paul Mannering - Stenurella melanura

Wednesday June 26th

John Hunt: 2 Little Egret.

Butterflies: 2 Painted Ladies.

(c) John Hunt - Painted Lady

Thursday June 27th

(c) Daniel Cook - Common Blue Damselfly

(c) Daniel Cook - Meadow Brown

(c) Daniel Cook - Small Skipper

Friday June 28th

Mark Elsoffer: 9 Lapwing, 3 Little Egret, Hobby, 2 Swift & 6 Sand Martin.

Leonard Winchcombe: a new brood of 5 Tufted Ducks (brood 2).

The brood of Tufted Ducks on the Workings (brood 1) are down to one remaining duckling, the Swans have 2 cygnets and the Egyptian Geese 5 goslings. There are at least 7 broods of Common Tern chicks being fed, either around the nest or on islands in the Workings.

Dragonflies: 2 Emperor and 4 Black-tailed Skimmers.

Butterflies: 1 Painted Lady, 1 Peacock, 20+ Meadow Brown, 5 Marbled White, 12+ Small Skipper, 2 Large White, 2 Speckled Wood, 1 Brimstone & 1 Red Admiral.

A family of three new Fox cubs were seen on the far side of the Workings.

(c) Mark Elsoffer - Female Black-tailed Skimmer

(c) Mark Elsoffer - Emperor Dragonfly

Saturday June 29th

(c) David Glew - Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars

(c) David Glew - Common Blue Damselfly

(c) David Glew - Spotted Longhorn Beetle

Sunday June 30th

Leonard Winchcombe: Common Sandpiper, 2 Green Sandpiper, 16 Black-tailed Godwit and a new brood of 7 Tufted Duck in the Workings (brood 3).

Mark Elsoffer: 20 Lapwing & 2 Little Egret.

Butterflies: 5 Painted Ladies.

(c) Kelly Wright - Lapwing

Monday July 1st

Richard Horton: 4 Green Sandpiper, Oystercatcher and a new brood of 5 Egyptian Goose.

Murray Nurse: Common Sandpiper.

Melanie Nicholls: Large Red Damselfly.

Murray Nurse found 2 new species for the site today:

• Common Spiny Digger Wasp (Oxybelus uniglumis).
• A Solitary Wasp (Astata boops).

(c) Murray Nurse - Astata boops

(c) Murray Nurse - Common Spiny Digger Wasp

 

Tuesday July 2nd

Lindsay Patterson: 2 Painted Ladies.

Carey Lodge: Small Heath.

This is only the 6th recorded sighting of Small Heath on site, and the first since 2016. Surely an under-recorded species.

Carey Lodge found 2 new species for site today:

• Bryony Mining Bee (Andrena florea).
• Meadowsweet Gall Midge (Dasineura ulmaria).

(c) Carey Lodge - Small Heath

(c) Carey Lodge - Small Skipper

Wednesday July 3rd

Richard Horton: 3 Green Sandpiper, Oystercatcher & Shoveler.

Murray Nurse: 7+ pairs of breeding Common Tern.

Murray Nurse: 2 Small Heath.

Sean Foote found 11 new species for site today:

• Red-tipped Clearwing (Synanthedon formicaeformis)
• Orange-tailed Clearwing (Synanthedon andrenaeformis)
• Waisted Duckfly (Anasimyia contracta)
• An Ichneumon Wasp (Ichneumon sarcitorius)
• Willughby's Leafcutter Bee (Megachile willughbiella)
• Welted Mason Bee (Hoplitis claviventris)
• A Digger Wasp (Crabro scutellatus)
• Alder Tongue Fungus (Taphrina alni)
• Black-headed Velvet Ant (Myrmosa atra)
• Blue Mason Bee (Osmia caerulescens)
• Yellow-legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipes)

(c) Sean Foote - Alder Tongue Fungus

(c) Sean Foote - Yellow-legged Mining Bee

(c) Sean Foote - Willughby's Leafcutter Bee

(c) Sean Foote - Orange-tailed Clearwing

(c) Sean Foote - Red-tipped Clearwing

(c) Sean Foote - Red-tipped Clearwing

(c) Dina Burford - Small Tortoiseshell

(c) Kyle Russell - Aerial View of Site

(c) Kyle Russell - Sunset Over Horton's Mound

Thursday July 4th

John Hunt: 2 Green Sandpiper & 2 Little Egret.

(c) John Hunt - Black-tailed Skimmer (female)

(c) John Hunt - Black-tailed Skimmer (male)

(c) John Hunt - Marbled White

(c) Colin Varndell - Bullfinch

(c) Colin Varndell - Collared Dove

Friday July 5th

Mark Elsoffer: 25 Lapwing, a brood of 5 Tufted Ducklings (brood 3) in the Workings, 2 Gadwall, 6 Greylag Goose and 12 Swift.

Richard Horton: Little Egret, a new brood of 5 Tufted Ducklings (brood 4) in the Plant Yard, Pochard and Shoveler.

Four volunteers erected the temporary site fencing at the worksite for our new hide this morning.

Mark Elsoffer found a new species for site today:

• Shoulder-striped Wainscot (Leucania comma).

Carey Lodge found 2 new species for site today:

• Smooth Tare (Vicia tetrasperma).
• Hairy Tare (Vicia hirsute).

(c) Carey Lodge - Hairy Tare

(c) Carey Lodge - Smooth Tare

(c) Carey Lodge - Short-winged Conehead

(c) Jason Davies - Small Skipper

(c) Mark Elsoffer - The New Worksite Fence

Saturday July 6th

Mark Elsoffer: Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and 25 Greylag Goose.

We held a moth trapping session this evening and trapped 101 moths, of 36 species, with 13 new species for the site. This takes our moth list to 236 species.

A Stag Beetle was seen flying around the trees behind Horton's Mound - amazingly, the first recorded sighting on site.

Moth Trapping Results

(c) Mark Elsoffer - Moth Trapping

(c) Steve Minhinnick - Elephant Hawk-moths

(c) Steve Minhinnick - The Festoon

(c) Steve Minhinnick - Ghost Moth

(c) Steve Minhinnick - Poplar Lutestring

(c) Steve Minhinnick - Ringed China-mark

(c) Steve Minhinnick - Scarce Silver-lines

(c) Steve Minhinnick - Yellow Shell

(c) Richard Seargent - Poplar Hawk-moth

Sunday July 7th

Kevin Duncan: Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit & Little Egret.

Monday July 8th

(c) Colin Varndell - Great Spotted Woodpecker

(c) Colin Varndell - Juvenile Dunnock

Tuesday July 9th

Richard Horton: Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Little Egret and a new brood of 10 Tufted Duck (the 5th pair to breed on site this year).

Kevin Duncan: Common Scoter (female).

Murray Nurse: Common Sandpiper.

Common Scoter is the 127th species of bird recorded on site this year.

This is only the 2nd sighting of Common Scoter on site, the first being present between 29/05/14 & 06/06/14.

(c) Dina Burford - Azure Damselflies

(c) Dina Burford - Blue-tailed Damselfly

(c) Dina Burford - Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars

(c) Dina Burford - Emperor Dragonfly

Wednesday July 10th

Richard Horton: 3 Oystercatcher.

Leonard Winchcombe: Common Scoter (female).

Thursday July 11th

Oli: Great White Egret.

Murray Nurse: Common Sandpiper, 3 Green Sandpiper, 3 Little Egret & Common Scoter (female).

Leonard Winchcombe: Black-tailed Godwit & Redshank & 2 Oystercatcher.

Unknown: Dunlin & 2 Hobby.

Great White Egret is the 128th species of bird recorded on site this year.

This is only the 8th sighting of Great White Egret on site, following three sightings last year.

Steve Bailey (Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership) and Richard Horton conducted a wild flower survey of the Meadow today.

(c) Murray Nurse - Great White Egret

(c) Susan Renaud - Peacock

(c) Susan Renaud - Red Admiral

(c) Sandy Anne Miller - Large Skipper

(c) Dina Burford - Common Scoter

(c) Colin Vandell - Azure Damselflies

(c) Colin Vandell - Little Egrets

(c) Shaun Ferguson - Common Scoter

(c) Shaun Ferguson - Great White Egret

(c) Shaun Ferguson - Little Egret & Great White Egret

(c) Shaun Ferguson - Grass Snake