A Great Week for Wildlife in Hornsea

Well, what a brilliant start to 2019's spring it has been. Hornsea's wildlife has truly been spectacular and going for a walk each morning has been so exciting it's been like being a kid again!!

My favourite? Easily the first Brimstone butterfly of the year. It wouldn't settle near me at all so I had to go for a flight shot - and I nearly got it but not quite. Blury but deffo a Brimstone.

Brimstone flying and being generally annoying

Roe deer are everywhere around Hornsea but they're quite shy so are relatively hard to photograph close up, unless you come across them unexpectedly or can view them from a distance.

2 roebucks at Wassand

Roe deer doe, probably wondering how long to let me think I haven't been seen

Eventually they get bored and run off

The birds have been singing and pairing off for a while now, and walking through the wood you can hear all the different species: Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming, Great Tit with its "teacher teacher" song, Robin singing its quite nondescript song, Wren trilling so loud for such a small bird that it's quite deafening at close range, and of course Chiff Chaff with not so much "chiff chaff chiff chaff" but more like "chiff chiff chiff chaff chaff chaff".

Dunnocks are very vocal at the moment and seeing one close up you realise how lovely they are.

Dunnock

They used to be called Hedge Sparrow but they are now called Dunnock, reflecting the fact they are not sparrows at all, but accentors.

At the Mere we still have several winter visitors with us and White-fronted Geese are showing well in first field. They will soon be off to their breeding grounds.

White-fronted Goose

Our Marsh Harriers are doing what wildlife do in Spring and we can expect to see birds flying through on migration mingling with our resident birds.

Marsh Harriers

Down Stream Dyke the Greylag Geese don't tend to hang around very long, as lots of people passing by cause a fair amount of disturbance for them, but sometimes you get lucky...

The weather is forecast to get colder over the next few days so we'll have to see how that affects our local wildlife. Sand Martins and Swallows and Willow Warblers should be arriving any day now so hopefully the change in the weather won't impact them too much.