Seven Glossy Ibis, Whinchat, Wheatear

 Seven Glossy Ibis roosted overnight at the Mere and when Jon msg'd early this morning to say they were still there, I walked down to have a nosey.

They were on the exposed shale just off Heslop's (Snipe Grounds on the OS map), the one with a bent pole sticking out of it.

View from the camera at 600mm, so distant

Too far for the camera so got the scope and phone camera going.

 

Initial view through the scope

Zoomed in through the scope and phone, Dunlin and RInged Plover in background

Glossy Ibis with Dunlin and RInged Plover for company

They left at 07:47 and flew south east - I almost missed the moment of departure - 

Glossy Ibises leaving the Mere

While watching the ibises I confirmed Jon's sighting of a stint on the same patch of exposed land. It was indeed a Little Stint. Unfortunately my photos were rubbish (as were most of ibis pics) as the focus on my iPhone was all over the place this morning.

 

Also in the same place were 22+ Barnacle Geese, 14 Dunlin, 10 Lapwing, 2 Ruff and 5 Ringed Plover. 

 

Walking on from the excitement I found two Whinchat on Heslop's fence posts.

Whinchat

Whinchat

Two Whinchats

As I walked back home through first field I met Mark who had seen another Whinchat and a Wheatear. I was hoping for Wheatear as I haven't seen one this year so that was a stroke of luck.

Wheatear in first field

All in all a very good morning indeed.

 

What else has been about this week? I had 136 Golden Plover on North Cliffs on Sunday morning. Nothing else there so it's a good job I saw those beauties.

Golden Plover at North Cliffs

Golden Plover

Ruff have been present in very good numbers at the Mere with a max of 47. I watched as some flew in and almost touched the water with their wing tips.

Ruff almost touching the water's surface during final approach

A few broods of Little Grebe have been seen at the Mere and I watched an adult and 2 juvs for a good long while.

Adult Little Grebe with 2 juvs

The sun came out at long, long last and it was so good to see butterflies and dragonflies on the wing again. Mostly white butterflies but plenty of them, and only Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers but I'll take those thank you 😉

Large White butterfly close up

Common Darter close up

Drought-like conditions continued through the week with more and more plants, shrubs and trees showing the effects of the dry weather.

 

Arid ground in Wassand Wood

As above

 

 

We are due some rain over the weekend so lets hope it rains for longer than 5 minutes, which is about the length of rain showers we have had for weeks now.

There's A Hole In My Bucket

 It really seems as though either there's a hole in the bottom of the Mere where the water is escaping or someone has pulled the plug out of the plug hole!! There are more and more shallow areas being exposed by the ever-decreasing water level.

Swan Island from Kirkholme Point (KP)

KP, where people feed the ducks, has a new refuge for the birds

The small islet with a tree is now "attached" to the north shore

Even the middle of the Mere is suffering

For context, the above photo shows the location of the previous photo

The south east shoreline is widening, enough for Roe deer to wander around

Waders continue to arrive with 30+ Ruff seen this morning. The Wood Sandpiper is still here too.

 

Also still lingering is the juvenile Red-necked Grebe, although I haven't seen it as close in to shore as others have. 

This and those below are of the juv Red-necked Grebe this morning

Juv RnG and juv Great Crested Grebe in the foreground

The weather has broken a bit, but not enough to provide us with much needed rain unfortunately. Butterflies, dragonflies and other invertebrates have seldom been seen with the sun being a distant memory, but this Small Tortoiseshell was snapped just before the sun went on its jollies.

Small Tortoiseshell

On the same day I managed to get photos of a pair of Common Globetail hoverflies (Sphaerophoria scripta) in flight and in tandem.

Common Globetails in tandem

Common Globetails

 Chiffchaffs are starting to sing again after a few weeks of being heard by contact calls alone. This one though was spotted doing a high wire act before taking a bow to the watching crowd (me).

Impressive mid air skills from this Chiffchaff

Enjoying the applause 😀

 Also caught in mid air was a Brown Hare - they are being seen more often now the crops are being cut.

Brown Hare showing me a clean pair of heels

Brown Hare - nice camoulage

It's not just the Mere that is suffering with the lack of water, our trees are showing signs of stress by dropping leaves so that it almost looks like Autumn has started.

Unseasonal leaf fall

It's not just the leaves that are being lost, birds such as Robins are going through their post-breeding moult, when they shed their old feathers and grow new ones. I saw a Robin the other day part way through this process and I don't think it would win any beauty contests, and certainly not The Nation's Favourite Bird poll 😂

 

Who is that masked bird?

Robin in moult

Wild flowers are mostly past their best now but a few are still showing their true colours - this Borage for example.

Borage

 And finally here's an image that I took a couple of days ago for no reason, just because it was there I suppose. Like most people I love seeing the moon, no matter what time of day or night.

Glossy Ibis (Briefly) and a Wader Fest

 The week has brought little in the way of relief from the continuing drought. Everywhere is bone dry and the Mere water level is of course even lower.

 

The Mere water level goes down and down

The crops are being harvested now so at least the weather is good for that activity. 

 

The wildlife seems to be coping OK but I'm sure things are suffering that I'm not aware of. Plants are withering, especially nettles, and some trees seem to be losing leaves. They present a nice photo opportunity when caught in spider's webs 😂

 

Here's hoping there's enough nutrients left in the plants for the moth and butterfly caterpillars.

 

Dragonflies look to be carrying on regardless... 

Common Darter (female)

Ruddy Darter

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

We had two pairs of Common Darters ovipositing at our pond this morning! The first of many to come over future years I hope.

 

Common Darters at our pond

On one of my days away from the Mere I walked up to Bewholme as it's been a while since I visited. It was a pleasant morning and as I was early there was next to no traffic about so I could wander down the lanes without dodging cars. Bewholme itself was a little busier with people going off to work I guess.

 

Apart from the birds singing there was little wildlife to report, but I did have a close encounter with a dog 🤣🤣 Walking into the village a little brown spaniel attached itself to me and where I walked she followed me. She was well behaved and sat and stayed when I asked her to while traffic was coming.

Dolly from Bewholme

I spent some time looking for an owner, assuming the dog was out on a walk and had somehow got separated from her owner, but I could see no one around. I asked a young man getting into his car if he knew the dog at all but he didn't. I eventually gave up looking and checked the dog's collar tag for a contact number. It turned out that Dolly had wandered off through an open back door and her owners were very happy that she was returned safe and sound.

 

Bewholme

A seat with a view

Another seat with a view

The view - Bewholme village pond - dry unfortunately

Brown Hare

Hen pheasant following her brood

Rabbit and juv Pheasant

A Glossy Ibis visited the Mere briefly on Thursday but it landed out of sight behind the reeds. It took off after a few minutes and flew south, prompting lots of photos with little end result 🤣🤣

Cormorant and Glossy Ibis 😀

Cormorant and the same Glossy Ibis going South

Today we had a bit of a wader fest at the Mere with Ruff(2) Wood Sandpiper, Redshank(9) Greenshank(2) Dunlin(9) Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit(4) and, although I missed it, a Green Sandpiper. These totals are those that I saw but more birds were seen by Jon and Dale.

Waders off first field this morning incl. Wood Sandpiper and Ruff

Also this morning I saw my first Lesser Whitethroat for a few weeks, they along with most of the warblers, are keeping their heads down going through post nuptial moult. 

Lesser Whitethroat

Other birds such as Robin and Wren are also moulting so you don't see or hear them as much at the moment. One Wren popped up for nosey at me today though. 

Wren

 Great Spotted Woodpeckers are heard all over as I walk through the fields and woods, usually youngsters finding their own way in the world after mum and dad did their bit then left them to their own devices.

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Mere

Butterflies have been abundant this year compared to last year and a Holly Blue was a nice sight today.

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Yet another new hoverfly species for me at the Mere today - a Wasp Plumehorn (Volucella inanis) which was impressive but not as impressive as the Hornet mimic (Volucella zonaria) that I found last year.

Wasp Plumehorn hoverfly