Friday night saw an eclipse pintail on South Marsh East. Great news was the sighting of the family of spotted flycatchers in the water treatment works compound showing successful breeding from the only pair on site of this red-listed species. One pictured below:
Another great bit of news was a sighting of a juvenille orange great spotted woodpecker - showing our tangerine celebrity has bred successfully too! 4 kingfishers were also on North Marsh this morning - showing they have bred somewhere in the area too.
On Saturday the marshes turned up close in views of greenshank:
2 Green sandpipers:
and a lone black-tailed godwit today with several snipe:
A passing marsh harrier also caused some alarm to the inhabitants too:
More concerning yet for them was this passing peregrine over Watton:
The moth trap turned up some more interesting examples among dozens of shieldbugs - canary shouldered thorn:
Peach blossom:
Goldspot:
And finally a poplar hawkmoth as big as a snake (an unfortunate young grass snake found deceased of unknown causes):
Brimstone were on the second generation:
Two nathusius's pipistrelle were in the final bat boxes to be removed from Sgt. Major wood - thanks to East Yorkshire Bat Group:
Also inspected were the copius amounts of bat droppings at the wildlife centre:
Finally the greater water parsnip we introduced over the last year is now in full flower in some of the ponds:
If you want to help out we are starting off our practical work programme on Sunday the 5th of September at 10am - all are welcome to assist in practical tasks!
