Hornsea Wildlife and Walks: Green Woodpeckers

The past week has been characterised by cool, grey and cloudy mornings which then burst into sunshine at about tea time. As I am a morning walker and don't often get out in the afternoons this was unfortunate, as it wasn't warm enough for butterflies and dragonflies to be out and about when I was out and about.

We are also in that period of time when birds disappear into post-breeding moult and the place goes deathly quiet. Gone are the warblers singing and the other birds are almost non-existent too - apart from the water birds of course - they keep the whole thing going but aren't very good singers!

The week's highlight was a couple of young Green Woodpeckers, one at Bewholme and one in Wassand Wood. The one at Bewholme was more developed than the one at Wassand so I'm guessing they are from different nests.

Young Green Woodpecker at Bewholme

Bewholme 'pecker

Wassand Young Green Woodpecker

With warblers having gone quiet they don't appear on my lists very often apart from yesterday afternoon when I saw two Sedge Warblers and three Reed Warblers. One of Sedge Warblers was collecting food so possibly still feeding young.

Sedge Warbler in hunting mode

Reed Warbler

This morning there were 19 Common Terns at the Mere. At one point almost every buoy seemed to have a tern on it, resting and preening.

Common Tern

Common Terns

Almost every buoy - Black-headed Gull juv

Common Tern

I managed to see a Willow Emerald Damselfly near the hide yesterday afternoon but by the time I'd got the camera on it the little blighter had flown off, and I never did find it or another again but at least I know they are there now.

Migrant Hawkers were out in reasonable numbers - I saw five yesterday. Also Ruddy Darters, Common Darter and Emperors at the hide.

Female Migrant Hawker

Emperor dragonfly in flight

Ruddy Darter

Common Darter

I managed 10 different species of butterfly yesterday, which isn't bad but not my best ever day hereabouts. Common Blue and Gatekeeper were the most numerous, with more female Common Blues than I've seen at any one time.

Speckled Wood

Small Copper

Female Common Blue

Male and female Common Blue

One last insect to mention and that is a grasshopper - Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers are abundant locally, this one was spotted in a field next to the railway line.

Lesser Marsh Grasshopper

I see lots of Grey Squirrels as I wander the highways and byways of Hornsea, too many for my liking as they are an introduced species and have a derogatory impact on wildlife. They are part of our flora and fauna however and are here to stay, so I take an interest in what they are doing.

The other morning I'd seen a couple of squirrels dashing out of a crop field as I approached and when I walked on to Weatherhill I saw another squirrel sitting on the drive eating. As I got closer I could see it was a stalk of wheat and it was eating the seed and discarding the husk.