An Abundance Of Wildlife At The Mere

 Although Hornsea Mere is a great place to have as a local patch and I do appreciate it, sometimes it gets a bit samey and I struggle to get inspired. The last few days however have been just brilliant. Nothing extra special, but just lots of it with a couple of scarce sightings mixed in.

Yesterday a Great White Egret appeared at the west end in the tree tops. Luckily it flew up there as I wasn't in a position to see it otherwise.

Great White Egret in the treetops

Another "great" sighting - a Great Crested Grebe this time. We don't get anywhere near the numbers of this bird as we used to, and nesting attempts are certainly a thing of the past unfortunately.

Great Crested Grebe

Common Terns are still flying through or hanging around, mingling with the Little Gulls.

Common Tern

Yellowhammers have been another pretty scarce bird this year, with numbers down a little on last year. This one looked a bit washed out against a lovely blue sky.

Pale Yellowhammer

 The juvenile Black Tern was still here over the weekend and at one point it landed on a piece of flotsam in the middle of the Mere.

Black Tern perching on flotsam

Roesel's Bush Crickets are thankfully holding their own, with sightings most warm days. These two were sunning themselves. The male is the smaller of the two and the female is the larger, green one.

Male Roesel's Bush Cricket

Female and male

Male Roesel's

Close up of the male

Close up of the female

 Dragonflies and damselflies are out in reasonable numbers now, with Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters the most numerous. It was good to come across a Ruddy Darter for a change.

Ruddy Darter

The Comma butterfly is always a welcome find and this one was particularly patient with the me as I got up close and personal...

Comma

More usual view of Comma