Saturday 24th July 2021

Woodpigeon

 Overcast and a brisk NE breeze gave an autumnal feel to the morning but unfortunately no one told the birds as we had a bit of a quiet one; offshore, 60 Common Terns and 24 Little Terns drifted north while 2 Tufted Ducks and 6 Teal flew south.

Ringing: House Sparrow 1, Linnet 2

Another nationally scarce species regular here is Pempelia genistella

Friday 23rd July 2021

Meadow Brown

 Much cooler today than of late with increased cloud cover and a brisker NE breeze with a touch of chill to it; a feeding flock off the point in the morning provided most of the interest which contained 44 Common Terns, 3 Little Terns, 10 Sandwich Terns, 13 Mediterranean Gulls and 5 Common Gulls whilst 2 Teal flew south.

On the land three juvenile Blackcaps found the nets (they hadn't started their post-juvenile moult yet so probably hadn't come from very far away) and 5 Yellow Wagtails fed on the common with 20 Pied Wagtails.

Ringing: Wren 1, Dunnock 1, Blackcap 3, House Sparrow 2

Another nationally scarce micro is Pima boisduvaliella that will be living on the Sea Pea and Bird's-foot Trefoil

Thursday 22nd July 2021

Another warm sticky one although a couple of migrants present including Sand Martin, Willow Warbler, Yellow Wagtail plus another Great Spotted Woodpecker. A Redshank went south with northbound 25 Common Scoter & a Whimbrel. Juv Black Red in front of the Fort up to mid morning.

First Clouded Yellow of the year.

We have been bemoaning the lack of Cinnabar caterpillar on the Common Ragwort when these tiny tots were noticed on this mornings constitutional.

Ringing: 1 Linnet, 1 Wren

Wednesday 21st July 2021

Another hot one. Southbound 28 Black-headed Gull, Med Gull & Shelduck with a total of 36 Sandwich & 25 Common Terns coming & going or feeding in the estuary. Yet another juv Great Spotted Woodpecker paid a visit & one of the juv Black Reds was siting on the Fort's entrance sign first thing. Worth a mention is that one of our pair of Great Tits has gone to the effort to produce a second brood.

Busy old moth traps included a handful of the commoner migrants plus only the 4th site record of Poplar Lutestring.

Ringing: 5 Great Tit, 5 Linnet, 1 Whitethroat.

Tuesday 20th July 2021

Another hot sticky morning with migrants consisting of southbound 5 Swallow & Yellow Wag plus another Yellow Wag on the reserve. Offshore southbound 5 Common Scoter, Curlew & Whimbrel. Early morning tern numbers are building up with at least 21 Sandwich & 10 Common feeding in the estuary. Another dispersing juv Great Spotted Woodpecker visited with the numbers of this species so far this summer suggesting that they had a good breeding season.

Marbled Clover is a Red Data Book species in the Brecks & north of us along the Suffolk coast where this one has possibly wandered down from although with the onshore breeze it could by a migrant coming in from the continent.

Ringing: 3 Wren, 1 Blackbird, 1 lesser Whitethroat, 1 Linnet.

Monday 19th July 2021

 

Stinking Goosefoot - one of only two 'Schedule 8' plants on site

A bit of cloud first thing but essentially another hot, sunny day with a little onshore breeze; a similar spread of birds as well but it was highlighted by a Roseate Tern briefly off the jetty before moving north along with which included a Curlew, 3 Sanderling and a Redshank south, 5 Mediterranean Gulls, 7 Sandwich Terns, 10 Common Terns and another dispersing juvenile Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Ringing: Dunnock 3, Wren 1, Robin 1, Blackbird 1, Whitethroat 1, Linnet 4

Vapourer is regular as a daytime sighting in the autumn but few find the traps

Sunday 18th July 2021

After some detective work (& better photos) the emerald damselflies at the Butts pond present since Thursday are actually the first site records of Scarce Emerald Damselfly Lestes dryas, not as identified at the time. If one is interested in such subtleties of identification then at least two males are still present today. Landguard is not the sort of site one would head to for Odonata but 13 different species have been noted in the last four days alone which indicates some major dispersal presently going on.

Stinking hot day with the temperature reaching 24.1 Celsius by 1030 hrs before a characteristic on shore breeze developed bringing it down a few notches. Very few migrants noted but included 2 Sand Martin & a handful of terns.

Good variety of moths presently including only the second site record of the nationally scarce Rose Plume with our only previous one back in 1997.

Ringing: 2 Linnet, 1 Dunnock, 1 Great Tit.