Spring To Summer

 Spring has definitely moved on to summer with the soaring temperatures and continuing dry spell. The weather is good for lots of wildlife but, as with most things, not everything and everyone is happy with it. Still, we carry on as we must, and make the best of what we're given.

 

Butterflies first of all and carrying on from my previous post, I have seen another few species locally and these take my Hornsea list this year to 16 species.

 

Comma on 15 June

Painted Lady on the same day

Ringlet on 16 June

I'm always on the lookout for something different and while I was sitting by a pond searching for dragonflies I noticed a lot of activity near and on the surface of the water. Small, silvery fish were skittering across the water's surface every now and again and as I looked into the water near the edge of the pond, I saw what was probably the cause.  I believe these are Rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) a common species of fresh water fish. They take about four years to mature so these were young ones.

Rudd

Rudd

The hoped-for dragonflies did appear eventually and they enjoyed the hot sun as they cavorted over the pond. Black-tailed Skimmers (8) and Emporer dragonflies (12) were seen along with Common Blue Damselflies and Blue-tailed Damselflies. 

This and two below - Black-tailed Skimmer dragonfly

Two female Emporer dragonflies

Female Emporer dragonfly egg laying

There were plenty of male Emporers but they never settled for a photo shot and the flight shots I took were not good enough for the blog.

 

We had eight ringed plovers on first field edge last Saturday, two of were Little Ringed Plovers and the other six were Ringed Plovers. I took a distant photo hoping I could get some kind of record of this, but I only got seven of the eight.

Seven ringed plover - too distant to differentiate species

The broods of goslings, cygnets and ducklings are slowly diminishing at the Mere, with just two of the four Shelduck chicks left and two of the Egyptian Geese goslings remaining. Mute Swan broods have similarly reduced and those with six, five or four cygnets still have some left but not as many as they started with. Mallard families have gone the same way and a group of 12 ducklings I saw was down to single figures a couplke of days later. That is why they have large broods, so that predation and natural causes do not wipe out all the youngsters, and the adult's hard work is rewarded with healthy juveniles growing up to full maturity.

 

Mute Swans and cygnets

The set aside field has not been mowed and re-seeded this year, instead it has been left to flower and it is looking splendid. Chicory is the flower of the moment and with its vibrant large blue flowers it really stands out.

Chicory flowering in the set aside field

Chicory with a Marmalade hoverfly

 I look forward to seeing more species of dragonfly and damselfly over the coming weeks and who knows, maybe a new species for the Mere will turn up?