Apparently all the ducks and lapwings went up and the peregrine arrived three minutes later then spent a further few minutes chasing the inhabitants of the marshes around. The terns obviously were the biggest scrappers – but this one came a bit close in its mobbing! Luckily for it (and its chicks) it did get away though. Below is the preceding pic with the peregrine closing:
The biggest rarity by far this week has been on the moth front:
This spectacular striped hawkmoth – more commonly found in the Mediterranean and North Africa was caught in Richard Sears small 12w portable in his garden on site. A reserve first and probably a major Yorkshire record for the year (unless there has been a county influx?). The trap was one of the busiest yet and the torrential rain did not help matters. All pictures including much better posed hawkmoth shots are already on Martin’s blog here.
If you are interested in butterflies and moths you may be interested in the big butterfly count being organised by the Butterfly Conservation Trust which started yesterday and runs to the 31st. It is asking for 15min point counts and submission online to build up a UK atlas – all the details are here.
Now don’t laugh – but the next biggest rarity this week was a nuthatch! Whilst common in most of the rest of England and Wales, East Yorkshire is a renowned desert for them with only a handful of records each year. This is only the second ever at the reserve after the last four years ago – again in Richard Sears Garden. On this occasion the bird was calling in the trees around the car park with a mixed tit flock. Subsequently I obtained good views in the sycamore near the residential area. Unfortunately I lost it when I returned with camera – so you’ll have to settle for a shot from my past life at Normanby Park in Lincs in case you don’t know what one looks like (live in E Yorks and you may not!!):
Martin has now got the little gull maxima up to 37 on D res yesterday – again keep trying there are more to come yet. These two were distantly on SME earlier that aft:
With the little egret:
Also in the week has been three green sandpipers, dunlin and common sandpipers on the marshes. Kingfisher continues to show for those chosen – thanks to Barry Warrington for this one:
Barry also sent us this one of the hummingbird hawkmoth – again on the buddleias on Friday:
For those of you into photography you may be interested in this East Riding Council photo competition from their biodiversity team to capture the county’s biodiversity – click here for details.
Thanks to James from the ringing team for another pic of common frog – suggesting they have bred somewhere on site:
Still on North Marsh are the little grebes:
And also the kestrel family:
Thanks to Pete Drury for this improved pic of Rutpela maculata:
And this grey heron can be regularly encountered from the newly refurbished North Lagoon hide:
