Monday 1 July 2013

Cold july at the wetlands

After yesterday scorcher,  I only grabbed my raincoat as an afterthought, and I am so glad I did. The breeze was quite cold today at North Cave Wetlands, and I had it zipped up all the time. The plaintive calls of the grown up Black-headed gulls were the background noise at the reserve today. There were many, many black-headed gull chicks,of all ages, from fluffy little ones to fully fledged ones flying about everywhere in the reserve. There were also many young lapwings flying. In Island lake, grown up Shelduck ducklings some with an adult, some on their own. Also saw a Tufted duck with fluffy black new ducklings in Reedbed Lake.
 The new development on the reserve are the little group of Highland cattle, by the new workings.
The longhorn moth Nemophora degeerella and a Speckled Bush-cricket, Lephophyes punctatissima, which I only noticed when I looked a the photo.
Adult Black-headed gull and napping young
Lesser Black-backed gulls on Island lake.
Orchid near the maize field
Young Black-headed gulls resting on the maize field
Oystercatcher pair on the maize field
Avocet feeding on the Reedbed lake
Young lapwing
Young Black-Headed gull chicks
I only had a brief sunny spell in the whole morning, but despite this, I managed to see and photograph a few damselflies, all of them on the West path.
Female Common Blue damselfly
Male Common blue
Female Blue-Tailed damselfly
Male Blue-Tailed damselfly
Common Tern and chicks at the new workings
This tern went round and round over me as I left Crosslands Hide
Avocet and chick on the new workings. This avocet had two chicks, one of them swam across the water to join these.
Little Grebe
Gracefully arching necks of Swan and cygnet, just the way swans have of checking their next mouthful, aquatic plants.
A view across Main lake


Bird list
  1. Avocet        
  2.  Black-headed Gull        
  3.  Blackbird        
  4.  Blackcap        
  5.  Buzzard        
  6.  Carrion Crow        
  7.  Chaffinch        
  8.  Common Tern        
  9.  Coot        
  10.  Cormorant        
  11.  Dunnock        
  12.  Feral Pigeon        
  13.  Gadwall        
  14.  Goldfinch        
  15.  Great Black-backed Gull        
  16.  Great Crested Grebe        
  17.  Great Tit        
  18.  Greenfinch        
  19.  Greylag Goose        
  20.  House Martin        
  21.  House Sparrow        
  22.  Lapwing        
  23.  Little Grebe        
  24.  Magpie        
  25.  Mallard        
  26.  Moorhen        
  27.  Mute Swan        
  28.  Oystercatcher        
  29.  Pied Wagtail (yarrellii)        
  30.  Reed Bunting        
  31.  Reed Warbler        
  32.  Rook        
  33.  Sand Martin        
  34.  Sedge Warbler        
  35.  Shelduck        
  36.  Skylark        
  37.  Starling        
  38.  Stock Dove        
  39.  Swallow        
  40.  Swift        
  41.  Teal        
  42.  Tufted Duck        
  43.  Whitethroat        
  44.  Woodpigeon        
  45.  Wren      

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