More Good Weather = More Wildlife

 The warm, sunny spell continues and it has been instrumental in getting our local wildlife to show itself. I've seen more butterflies and bees in the past 5 days than in the whole of the year so far.

Poppy with Buff-tailed Bumblebee incoming

Poppy with Buff-tailed Bumblebee outgoing

Red-tailed Bumblebee incoming onto poppy

Buff-tailed and Red-tailed with Marmalade hoverfly

Pied Plumehorn hoverfly (Volucella pellucens)

The numbers of damselflies in the fields along the south side of the Mere have to be seen to be believed. There must be thousands of them - mainly Common Blue Damselflies with a few Blue-tailed and Azure mixed in. I've seen several blue-form females this year and to my eyes these have been in short supply in previous years. Most females locally are of the green form although there are even less numerous other colours too.

Common Blue Damselflies - male above and blue-form female below

Common Blue damselflies with the more common green-form female

 Anything happening on the bird front? Not much. The summer migrants and our resident birds are cracking on with their breeding season. Lots of young birds on the wing now.

Young Starling in first field

Lots of young Starlings in first field

Young Long-tailed Tit

Young Moorhen

Unsure of this one - could be young Whitethroat still with downy feathers

 Great Spotted Woodpeckers seem to have had a good breeding season as there are good numbers around Hornsea. Young 'peckers have a red patch on the crown of the head which gradually disappears as the bird reaches maturity.

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (red on the crown)

Juvenile GSW taking off

Some birds, like this Yellowhammer, are either preparing for their second brood or are repairing their nests.

Yellowhammer with nest stuff

The mammals hereabouts aren't to be ignored either, with squirrels (grey unfortunately) and hares seen regularly in the fields and woods.

Squirrel with food

Grey Squirrel

Brown Hare approaching

Close enough - time to leave

The wild flowers in the meadows and hedgerows are stunning in the bright sunshine.

Dogwood in flower

Dogwood closeup

Umbellifers, cornflowers and a poppy or two

Creeping cinquefoil

Finally onto butterflies - the real harbinger of summer. Just a few now after the early broods have died off and we wait for the late broods to emerge, but a couple of Meadow Browns appeared just to whet my appetite for what's to come.

The first Meadow Brown of the year

Common Blue butterfly

Here Comes The Sun

 At last!! The sun appeared through the mass of grey clouds that stretched over Hornsea for absolutely ages. It's amazing what suddenly appears when the rays of Sol beam down from above 😀

A Large Skipper (a year first) and a Common Blue along with Red Admirals, Orange Tips, Large Whites and several Speckled Woods.

Common Blue butterfly

Common Blue

Common Blue

Large Skipper

Speckled Wood

 

Common Blue Damselfly

The number of damselflies has been magnificent recently given the generally very low numbers of invertebrates. They have been mainly Common Blue Damselflies with a few Azure thrown in.

It's been pretty quiet on the bird front with just the usual species being seen, but they are still great to see of course. There will undoubtedly come a time when birds we take for granted are no longer seen. Sorry but it is going to happen - but not in my lifetime hopefully 🤔

Marsh Harriers are, to me, synonymous with Hornsea Mere. I always see them here and it's great to see them through the seasons - hopefully raising young at the moment.

Male Marsh Harrier

Cream Crown Marsh Harrier

Oystercatcher

Common Tern with food for hungry mouths

Common Tern (obvs been to Tesco 😂)

Linnet

Getting back to what makes the world work, the bees I saw yesterday along Southorpe Road were endlessly wonderous. I counted 7 species, probably more because I'm no expert. After seeing very few in the last week of grey gloom it's just eye popping to see them out and abut again.

Tawny Mining Bee

Orange-tailed Mining Bee

Hawthorn Mining Bee

Chocolate Mining Bee

Four different species of mining bee on a single road in Hornsea. Fantastic. Hopefully more to come!?

No need to introduce the post title today but I will anyway as there are younger folk who may not know all the Beatles songs. "Here Comes The Sun", written by George Harrison, appeared on Abbey Road in 1969. Just a great song and so apt.

The Flycatcher

 Another obscure music reference to ponder over and ignore at your leisure 😂

Roy Harper released his "The Unknown Soldier" album in 1980 and it featured a track called The Flycatcher, which of course came to mind as I watched one, maybe two, Spotted Flycatchers over in Wassand a few days ago.

It's a good album with David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame on guitar along with Harper, who also duetted on "You" with Kate Bush on the album. It's worth looking up on YouTube if you've nowt better to do.

This image and those below - Spotted Flycatcher at Wassand

This image and those above - Spotted Flycatcher at Wassand

As I walked along to Wassand I watched a Red-legged Partridge for a while. We don't have as many around Hornsea as there used to be which is strange given how many RLP farms there are nearby. Surely a few must escape their clutches?!?

Red-legged Partridge

I really, really must make an effort to keep up with posts on here as I get behind so quickly and time marches on. However, there are only so many hours in the day to devote to such things, and it takes a fair old while to process the photos taken each day of birds, mammals, insects, flowers and basically anything else that catches my eye.

A Common Spotted Orchid at long last at Wassand - 5 June is a bit late?

Common Spotted Orchid escaping the mower (for now)

I followed on with me old cock Linnet...

Common Tern

Common Tern

Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) near Weatherhill

Yellowhammer in cheesy song

Dogwood - Wassand

Dogwood

Common Carder Bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum) on comfrey

 

Rolston Springwatch

 A fine morning's walk around Rolston was good in that it kept me out of the blasted north/north easterly wind that has been plaguing us for the last couple of weeks. It was sunny so nice and warm, except when you got into the wind, then it decidedly chilly.

 The Garden Warbler that I found when last here was singing again, as were two Blackcaps.

Singing Blackcap

Common Buzzard

The fields were a great source of wildlife as brown hares, foxes and roe deer were showing well. They were somewhat distant but that's good as they behaved normally and weren't put off by my presence.

Two foxes were tumbling in the long grass

Roe deer doe and a fawn

Roe deer buck with the doe in the background

Brown hare in the wheat

Invertebrates were taking some finding but I managed to find a few of interest.

A stunning Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis)

Cucumber spider with prey

Marsh Snipefly (rhagius tringario)

The vetch is coming into flower in the longer grass alongside footpaths, soon their blue flowers will be enhancing the verges.

Common Vetch

Finally I found a moth. They seem to be as scarce as butterflies these days.

Silver Ground Carpet

A bit of everything then, and I walked home content once again.