Here Be Dragons (Hic sunt dracones)

 A phrase used by old map makers to mark areas where dangers may lurk is, so it is said, Here Be Dragons (Latin: hic sunt dracones). Apparently there are only two examples of old maps where this was actually used, but why let facts get in the way of a good phrase 😂

 

 I usually shorten dragonfly to dragon, hence the title for this post.

 

I had three species of dragon today - Southern Hawker, Hairy Dragonfly and Common Darter.

 

Southern Hawker

Hairy dragonfly (male)

A clear example of why this is called a Hairy Dragon

Common Darter female

We've had good numbers of waders through over the last week with numbers led by Redshank and Black-tailed Godwit, with Curlew also worthy of an honourable mention. The very low water level on the Mere bodes well for the next few months as wader passage gets going. 

 

Redshanks making use of low water at the Mere

Curlew over, going west

Black-tailed Godwits on the extended Swan Island spit

Warblers have done the deed and successfully raised young - certainly along the Mere south side anyway. I have not seen any warbler broods along the north side yet.

 

Lesser Whitethroat and Whitethroat juveniles, Sedge and Reed Warbler juveniles have been sighted over the last week. Blackcap and Chiff Chaff youngsters were seen before that.

This and the one below, Whitethroat juvenile

The resident birds have also done the business and most mornings I see and/or hear a young Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Young Great Spotted Woodpecker

I am so pleased that there are lots of butterflies to be seen this year. Last year was awful, with very low numbers of butterflies right across the country, but this year is better, to my eyes anyway. We'll see what the surveys find.

 

On 3 July I saw 13 different species of butterfly, which is the most I've managed in any one day in Hornsea. 

Gatekeeper

I have already counted more Gatekeepers this year than in the whole of last year.

Skippers have also been seen most days, which was unheard of last year. In fact looking back to my records of last year, I didn't even see a Small Skipper at all.

Small Skipper

This and the one below, Large Skipper

Continuing the "more than last year" trend is Comma. I had two in the garden today to join all the others already seen.

Comma

Comma underside showing the comma or "C" for Comma 

The final butterfly that has shown a good increase in numbers is Small Copper. One seen last year, five seen already this year.

Small Copper

 The wide shore around the Mere that is available for birds is also being used by butterflies. They gather in small groups where the ground is rich in minerals and eat their fill.

Large White, Small White and Green-veined White "mineraling"

 I've mentioned the Mere's very low water level and if you haven't seen it recently then here's a view from first field along the Mere south side.

Lots of shore exposed around the Mere

 

Colours, Or Lack Of

 One day I get a beautiful colourful photo on a lovely sunny day:

Small Tortoiseshell on Chicory

Five Spot Burnet on Knapweed

The next I get a washed out photo on a grey, overcast morning. 

Gulls off KP incl. Lesser Black-backed

 

On reviewing the photos I took on this particular morning I was struck by the total lack of colour apart from the bills of the gulls. I usually get a bit of colour from the water when photographing birds on water, but not on this day. I love it personally. I've taken photos with colour filters in the past that mask all colours apart from the selected colour, but this was straight off the camera, and not just one colour - there is yellow and red on the bills.

The Last Week

 It has been a good week since my last post. Here's a day by day review:

 

19 June 2025

 Insects are getting more interesting now there are more about. Never seen a Bee Bumblefly hoverfly before.

Bee Bumblefly

A new species of moth too - Clouded SIlver.

Clouded Silver moth

Orchids are sprouting with two species - the Common Spotted Orchid and the less common Southern Marsh Orchid.

Common Spotted Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid

While we are on plants, the poppies in the fields are spectacular -

Field Poppy (also called Flanders Poppy)

Lesley pointed out a species of umbel I hadn't found in Hornsea yet - Fool's Parsley is a small plant and easily overlooked (well, by me anyway!). Thanks Lesley.

 

Fool's Parsley along the Mere south side

20 June 2025

 Six-spot Burnets are all of a sudden everywhere. I've seen loads of them on the cliff tops and a few around the Mere but they are certainly more numerous this year.

 

This photo and two below - Six-spot Burnet moth

Two more insects - a micro moth and a beetle.

Rutpella maculata beetle

Pammene aurana moth

I am very glad I have a reasonably long lens available on my camera that enable me to get images of things that are either too far away or are otherwise inaccessable, due to nettles or barbed wire for example. Here is a case in point - as I approached a gate I could see a squirrel on the other side. Had I got much closer it would probably have scuttled off up a tree, but zooming to 600mm yielded a better image.

Grey squirrel with 31mm focal length

Same distance as above but zoomed to 600mm

 

 The above image still shows the out-of-focus gate as a vignette. This could of course be removed by either cropping the image (which I do quite often) or by image manipulation software (which I don't use as I'm too tight to pay for it 😂😂).

 

At home we have a few young blackbirds in the garden being fed by adults. They are quite entertaining and one of them decided that drinking from one of our bird baths, as the other birds do, was not acceptable. It could see and hear the water bubbling up from our pond and it wanted to drink from there. It took a while but it found a way down to water level eventually! It vaguely resembled a Dipper while it was doing this.

young blackbird looking for a drink

21June 2025

 Following my comment above re. cropping photos, of those in this section only the Spotted Redshank image is cropped, all the others are as they were taken.

 

The longest day dawned and I was walking the south side as usual when a couple of roebucks appeared, running towards me at a good rate of knots. I was a little worried they would trample me underfoot, but deer are very aware of their surroundings and they veered off and stood to watch me for a short while before continuing their roaming. It was a warm morning and they were obviously hot as they were both panting. 

Roebuck - taken as it went past me

This and the others below - Roebuck

The south side of the Mere is a good place for warblers, and Sedge Warblers in particular. I take far too many photos anyway and a large number of them are warblers 😂

Sedge Warbler

Same Sedge Warbler

As it was a sunny morning I was hoping for lots of butterflies. I saw plenty of Meadow Browns and Ringlets, with a few whites and this Red Admiral.
 

Red Admiral

Two Spotted Redshanks were at the Mere this morning (found by Jon of course). The spit of land at the west end of Swan Island has been extended by the dry conditions exposing more shingle. Given the distance of about 600 yards I had to crop the photo to make the bird anything like recognisable.

Spotted Redshank on the extended spit

23 June 2025

A very breezy morning here in Hornsea and loads of Sand Martins and Swifts were quite low down over the Mere, with many of the Sand Martins taking a breather on first field's fence wire.

Sand Martins resting in the lee of the westerly wind

I don't know why but I keep taking photos of Swifts - still hoping for THE image I guess. It wasn't taken this morning that's for sure.

Swift in flight over the Mere

Still waiting for a good one of a flying Swift

25 June 2025

 Up to date now and this morning's procedings were dominated by my attempts to get a good photo of the Manx Shearwater that Jon found at the Mere. I had good views initially from first field through Tim's scope when it was just off KP in front of the cafe. 

 

Manx Shearwater off KP

KP was closed at this point (about 08:30) so I waited a while for it to open before walking round - but I waited too long and by the time I got there, KP was already open and the bird had just flown over towards first field 🤣 I took more photos though.

Manx Shearwater off first field

By the time I had walked back to where I came from it had moved again, and was swimming westwards off Swan Island. I took plenty of pics but the distance was too great. Back home then for breakfast part two 😉