Thursday 09/07/2020

06.50-09.00 from the fishing boats where I joined CP,
Common Scoter: 1E  14W
Gannet: 14E      68W
Cormorant: 3 o/s
Mediterranean Gull: 1W
Sandwich Tern: 7W
Common Tern: 44W
Guillemot: 3W
Swift: 163 out
Swallow: 4 out
Linnet: 4 out
Grey Seal: 1 o/s
Harbour Porpoise: 1 o/s

The only thing of note on my visit to The patch was this Meadow Pipit with what I think is a Hummingbird Hawkmoth caterpillar, I'm sure someone will put me right if I'm wrong.

My daily pic of the Black-winged Stilt taken this morning

2 young Swallows from the nest in the screen hide managed to fly a few feet to the other side of the hide, the image is a little grainy because the birds were sitting in virtual darkness and I had to use 6400 iso to get an image.

The 2 very exposed Islands on Burrowes on which the Common Terns are attempting to nest

A very gloomy walk across the shingle on the public footpath that runs from Boulderwall to the power station across the causeway between Burrowes and the New Diggings. The gloom was made much worse by the fact that 2 weeks ago there were 20+ Common Tern chicks on these islands, today all those chicks were gone, if they had fledged they would still have been around the lake, so I can only surmise that they succumbed to the severe winds we have been experiencing or been predated or both probably. The nesting islands have zero cover or protection for the young Common Terns unlike the TERN rafts, so I fear for the 2 very young birds I saw there this afternoon and those that will hatch from the the few sitting birds that are left. I know Herring Gulls are amber listed, but maybe the RSPB should take a more pragmatic view as I'm sure they do in other cases and move the Herring Gulls off the TERN rafts as soon as they start to build nests, the Herring Gulls will nest elsewhere on the islands. If I were a corporate donor, then saw what had happened to the £1,000s of I'd donated to provide the Terns with a safe nesting platform, I think I'd be more than a little irked.  There are also 2 rafts on the ARC 1 at the moment has nesting Common Terns with chicks, it is impossible to count the numbers from the ground, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were 30+ pairs, unfortunately there is also a pair of Herring Gulls with 3 chicks so I fear for the Common Terns, the other raft has never been deployed due to technical issues I believe. While I was scanning Burrowes for signs of fledged Common Terns  I found 1 Common Sandpiper and 3 Bar-tailed Godwits.

Expensive rafts for 2 pairs of Herring Gulls

Common Tern fishing on Dengemarsh

Now that rafts are no longer deployed on Dengemarsh Common Terns have been lost as breeding species there. As well as Common Gulls.

Success catching a very small Pike

Cattle Egret on Hayfield 3

The hay fields have all been mown, there was 1 adult Lapwing there, but it looks like a blank year for rearing Lapwings and Redshanks. Several pairs of each nested and some hatched young but I and other watchers never saw any young more than a few days old, just too many predators and abysmal weather. 

The cows admiring the Cattle Egrets plumage

Yellow Wagtail bathing by Hay field 3

This pristine female Sussex Emerald flew against the wind the c3 Kilometres to end up in my MV. When i put it in a pot it started laying eggs so I took it back to the shingle and released in some Wild Carrot.

Another pristine moth this True Lover's Knot. Less than annual in my trap.

This very smart micro moth Lozotaeniodes formosana is a fairly regular visitor to my trap.