Hornsea Wildlife and Walks: Local Wildlife Update

It's been a busy few days with lots to keep an eye on and monitor.

Lapwing family

Treecreepers

Dragonflies

The Lapwings that have hatched at least 2 chicks are still OK. I saw the chicks first on Thursday and have seen at least one each day since.

Lapwing with 2 chicks

Lapwing and 1 chick

There are many predators around the natal field so fingers crossed for this small family.

The Treecreepers at nest #2 are still feeding chicks I think. This morning I saw a bird with food going towards the nest hole and as it got close the other bird flew out. Poor pics I'm afraid as the light was bad so slow shutter speed = blurred images :(

One Treecreeper approaching with food

The other Treecreeper leaves the nest hole

I found yet another possible Treecreeper nest this morning as I was looking for a Great Spotted Woodpecker nest hole (which I didn't locate). I saw one Treecreeper enter a hole in a tree which may or may not be an active nest. We'll see. I did find a woodpecker nest eslewhere but it's hard to get an unobstructed view so I'll keep an eye on it to see how things go.

Hairy Dragonflies have been seen a few times over the last few days by Mark R and I've been looking for them but hadn't seen one until yesterday morning. I looked where Mark had seen a couple but no sign, so I went off the track and up along the tree line in the lee of the westerly wind in the hope that the sunny and calm conditions there would be fruitful.

I was in luck and a female Hairy Dragonfly flew in to land on the end of a twig.

female Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense)

While I was looking for the dragons I spotted a spider basking on a leaf. It was a Nursery Web Spider sitting in the sun with its front pair of legs held together, which is a common posture for these spiders.

Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)

The usual list of birds were making themselves heard, predominately warblers which is about right at this time of year.

A Whitethroat was sitting out at the top of a bush in good light so I took the opportunity to get a few more photos of this good looking bird. It was carrying nest material, but then started singing, and then it flew off with the grass still in its beak. When I looked at the photos I saw that it dropped the grass while it sang, then picked it up again before flying off!

Got grass in my pocket...

I feel a song coming on, so ditch the grass man

Sing, sing a song (keep an eye on the grass though)

Got grass in my pocket (reprise)

I'm gonna use it.

The weather was good and warm yesterday and several Buzzards were up and soaring, making the most of the thermals. I don't think there were many today though, with the grey overcast skies.