Plenty To See In Hornsea

After the excitement of the Purple Heron last week it was back to normal. Slim pickings all round with our resident birds providing the only photo opportunities.

Male Gadwall showing his impressive plumage

Female Gadwall

Female Gadwall showing nictating membrane over the eye

House Sparrow collecting food for young ones

This and two below - Marsh Harrier over Heslop's

Mute Swan and four cygnets

Butterflies have shown well through the week, especially Painted Ladies with over 50 seen on a single morning. One new species for the week - Large Skipper seen this morning.

Green-veined White on a buttercup

Green-veined White close up on macro setting

One of many - Painted Lady

Large Skipper butterfly, new for the year list

 

Common Carpet moth

Also a new addition for the year was a Four Spotted Chaser dragonfly found at the hide on Tuesday. I've only seen one here before so I was pleased with the record.

Four Spotted Chaser

Common Blue Damselflies hooked up for mating

 Mammals are seen regularly, especially Roe Deer, and a glimpse of a doe with a fawn was tantalisingly brief as they melted into the undergrowth and disappeared.

Brown Hare

As last week, insects were the primary focus, although their numbers are not as good as previous year. I'm not surprised given the downward trend of all wildlife in this country 😕

 

Tachina fera/magnicornis fly

Psila sp.

Red-headed Cardinal Beetle

The Mere has been looking particularly beautiful this week - blue skies and fluffy white clouds above buttercup-filled fields look just great.

South side footpath view of the Mere

South side footpath view of the Mere

I have to say the Mere south side has more going for it then the north side. Arable fields provide us with food but are not generally good for insects or bird life I'm afraid. Intensification, insecticides and weed killer tend to have a detrimental effect on wildlife.

 

I walked around the Mere earlier in the week and for the first half of the walk I saw precious little life, and only when I got half way through the fields where the path meets trees and shrubs 

North side of the Mere

North side of the Mere, arable land and a hedgerow

Better after half way - north side

Look Out Hornsea, I've Got My Shorts On!

 All of a sudden the world looks a different place. Warmth and golden sunshine have dragged my shorts out of their winter sojourn and are gracing my legs as we speak 🤣🤣

 

 The past week I have spent more time perusing insects than I have looking for birds, in an attempt to catch up on the chilly weeks lost without seeing much insect life at all.

 

The best news of the week came when I saw a damselfly emerging from our pond - the first one since we installed it last year👍 

Emerging damselfly in our pond

The usual emergence of hundreds, if not thousands, of damselflies at the Mere started on Thursday. Most of them are Common Blue Damselflies, but I saw two Azure Damselflies at the hide and had a Blue-tailed at home.

Common Blue Damselfly with breakfast (moth I think)

Azure Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Butterflies have powered into the air along the length of the south side footpath! I'd already seen Comma, Holly Blue, Peacock, Comma, Large White and several Painted Lady - add to those Common Blue, Green-veined White and Small White.

Small White

Common Blue

Many different kinds of insect have been seen and photographed around Hornsea in the last week - here is a selection:

Zebra Spiders

Alder Fly

Wasp Beetle

Common Carpet moth

Leafhopper

On the birding front the week has been largely quiet then got interesting yesterday with a Purple Heron found at the hide and a couple of Hobby there too - both year firsts for me. No pics of either I'm afraid as a schoolboy error on my part meant I saw the birds but with a dead battery in my camera!

 

 Some good views of other, more common birds though:

Little Egret close to the hide

Marsh Harrier

Greenfinch wheezing

Chaffinch

Greylag/Canada Goose hybrid

Lesser Whitethroat in song

Pied Wagtail

No new wild flowers to report unusually, but there has been so much other stuff to see I'm not surprised if I missed one or two.

Some Improvement in the Weather and a Rant

 Yesterday was the first sunny and warm day we've had for ages. Back to normal today with a bit of sun accompaqnied by a cool (sometimes cold) wind. Even if it was blowing from the west for a change, it was still cool. It's not just me who's saying this, most people I speak to agree that it is too cold. More like late winter than late spring.

 

The weather has a bearing on the wildlife so it is important - yesterday's bird and butterfly count was so much better than all the previous days, all down to the warmer weather.

 

Enough of that, what's been going on? 

We had a couple of Spoonbills on the Mere earlier in the week. They were good enough to land on Swan Island spit for a while and I got a few distant photos. 

This and below, Spoonbills on Swan Island spit

 

 From the beginning of the week Common Terns were seen over the Mere, max 10 on one day. 

Common Tern seen most days at the Mere

Marsh Harriers have been busy pairing up and establishing territories. Passing birds have a difference of opinion with residents every now and then.

Male Marsh Harriers facing off

 

The set aside has been ploughed and seeded so there isn't much to see at the moment, it provided a warm resting spot for these Lesser Back-backed Gulls though.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls loafing in the set aside

I continue to take photos of hirundines in filght in the hope of getting a good one. It hasn't happened yet 😂

Swallow

Swallow

As I walk around I come across all sorts of sights and sounds - the sound of a Great Spotted Woodpecker's call alerted me to the poresence of a bird in a hawthorn bush so I got the camera turned on but by the time it was ready the bird was off. 

Two birds were fratching in mid air as I approached another hawthron and they turned out to be a Whitethroat and a female Yellowhammer. Why they were at each other I have no idea. 

Female Yellowhammer

I said in the opening sentence of this blog entry that yesterday was a warm day - butterflies, damselflies and hoverflies were seen!!

Painted Lady

Small Copper

Common Blue Damselfly

 

Batman Hoverfly

Only a fly, but what a beauty!  Lucilia sp.

Nomada sp.

As I was wandering back towards home along Southorpe Road yesterday morning I saw a couple of Grey Squirrels running towards me. They were an adult and a young one and I fully expected them to run into a hedge once they saw me. The adult ran past me into a field but the young one stopped and inspected my boots! It ran around for about 20 seconds before joining its older and wiser parent. 

 

Parent and young Grey Squirrels

Young Grey Squirrel checking out my boots

 Brown Hares have been seen in reasonable numbers so it appears they are doing OK locally. Long may that continue. Roe Deer are also out and about, mainly males.

Roebuck

 The woods, copses and wayside verges are coming alive with flowers and plants of all shapes and sizes. They are a lovely sight and support all manner of wildlife.

 

Bugle

Red Campion and Wood Avens

A brilliant patch of Garlic Mustard aka Jack-by-the-hedge

Plants, grass and flowers of all types are necessary to provide habitat and food for wildlife. This being so, why do landowners and councils feel it is necessary to destroy it?

 

Southorpe Road verges were just getting into their stride and growing nicely when someone decided it needed destroying and cut it down.

Southorpe Road with intact verges

The left hand verge still OK

Right hand verge cut down

  I can't see any need for this apart from making it look tidy. They, whoever they are, haven't finished the job yet but no doubt they will soon remedy that.

 

 On the same rant, I visit a small corner of a local field which is usually sheltered from the wind and is very good for insects and butterflies. To my dismay I found that it had also fallen prey to the tidy brigade this morning. 

Long grass, wild flowers and a bit of bramble - habitat all gone

 

Why is this necessary? If anyone looks at the front of their car or at their windscreen after they've driven a fair way they will see that they are clean and almost free of dead insects. Just a few years ago they would have spattered with dead insects. Is there more obvious and worrying evidence that something is wrong with the countryside? 

 

Fewer insects (including bees) is a consequence of many things, including people being too tidy and cutting hedges and verges to make them look neat and tidy, this destroys the habitat for invertebrates that birds, reptiles and some mammals depend on. Drive down any road locally and you'll see wide verges of short grass instead of long grss and wild flowers. Some councils are adopting a "no cut" policy where it is safe to do so to try and redress the balance in a small way. I wonder if home owners with wide roadside verges on the way to Atwick and Skipsea, or ERYC will do this? I won't hold my breath.