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| Local Tree Sparrow |
Yesterday evening I took an afternoon stroll around the marina grounds to see if anything interesting had arrived locally. Chiffchaff have been singing for a few weeks now but I've yet to record any additional summer visitors other than several Sand Martin, which took time out on Saturday morning to skim across the water for a quick drink.
I'm glad to report that our Tree sparrow population seems to be doing well, with several still using the many feeders dotted around the marina. It's noticeable too that these have in fact been joined by a small House Sparrow population but they appear to be living in harmony.
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| Linnet @ Brandon |
With the extraction of a vast amount of reed bed around the marina late last year, a decision that I'd rather not comment on, it remains to be seen what affect this will have on the incoming Sedge and Reed Warbler population. I know that through my observations it had an extremely detrimental effect on what was a very healthy Pied Wagtail roost!
Although at this time of year I'm not entirely happy doing it I'd promised to complete two small chain-saw jobs at Brandon Marsh this morning, so took the opportunity to have a good tour around prior to work. Having had two or three Willow Warblers on my last few visits strangely enough there were none to be found today! Three Little-ringed Plover and a lone ♂Wigeon on East Marsh Pool were the best I could muster, along with a small number of Linnet, a single Swallow and 10 or so Sand Martin. Good number of Blackcaps and Chiffchaff were constantly singing around the wooded areas and a number of Bluebells have flowered in New hare Covert.
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| Orange Underwing Moth |
The 'Tip' area was my final port of call after work and lunch in the Nature Centre and I managed to get my first shots of a mysterious little chap called a
Bee-Fly, which has a spectacularly long proboscises, making it look well adapted for taking pollen. I also recorded my first Green-veined White Butterfly of the year and also managed a quick shot of an ageing Orange-under-wing Moth before it took to the wing. Many thanks to Jason
http://shenstonebirder.blogspot.co.uk/ for the Moth ID.
