GOING GREEN

Fresh breeze all of Saturday 28th but at least the sun continued to shine. The highlight of the day was walking past an oak bush on the park cliff-top and seeing this beautiful green hairstreak butterfly fluttering around. This is the most attractive butterfly on the park with its irridescent sheen on the green underside to the wings.

Luckily the butterfly was extremely obliging for once and even if it folded its' wings, it was still easy to locate amongst the green foliage. The hairstreak name is a bit of a misnomer as the "streak" on the wing in this species is actually only a line of white dots(as seen in the photo).

The green hairstreak first appeared on the Island about ten years ago when it was first seen in the park. Sightings are scarce each year, so the population must be very small. This sighting is at least three weeks earlier than expected. The butterfly seemed very put out by a large group of newly emerged longhorn moths, which danced in the air, waving their very long antennae around.

Other butterflies seen were small copper, peacock, orange tip, large white, small white, holly blue and up to ten speckled woods.

Walking along the seawall there were two newly returned reed warblers who sang their lazy and effortless warble from the reeds. Bird numbers on the park grazing fields have dropped off as the water levels drop. At least three lapwings could be seen nesting, one redshank was shouting loudly at a carrion crow as if it had a nest too, while 24 shelduck snoozed as they waited for the tide to recede.
As well as the usual linnets, skylarks and meadow pipits there were 3 mistle thrushes, a grey heron, pair of stock doves and a male kestrel which hovered nearby on the seawall and successfully dropped onto a mouse.

At the Point there were three linnets and a couple of singing reed buntings but a sedge warbler doing its aerial display flight seemed a bit out of place.

On the saltmarsh lagoons below the Golfhouse there was the very unusual sight of three spotted redshanks wading through the water feeding up to their sooty-black chests. Two greenshanks, whimbrel, golden plover and 5 black-tailed godwits made it an interesting pool to look at.

On the main park two sand martins, swallow, 3 lesser whitethroats and three common whitethroats were noted. At the pond there were still 3 pochard and 2 pairs of tufted duck, while a cracking male yellowhammer lit up the opposite bank with its bright yellow head.

Evening walk to the Reevshall pool was a pleasant end to the day if somewhat chilly with the easterly breeze. Two brown hares sat in a field as I arrived but soon galloped off while on my return, I passed within ten metres of a very obliging or a rather petrified young hare crouching down on the bare earth. As I reached for my little camera, it made its' dash for freedom with its long legs carrying it rapidly away.

On the Reeveshall pool a pair of avocets were still showing interest in the site with an inquisitive carrion crow being subjected to a fierce aerial bombardment from one avocet. Three spotted redshanks bickered away with each other, while two pochard and little egret were also of interest.

A smartly marked male wheatear hopped along the nearby seawall and a yellowhammer spent some time perched in a bush. Amongst the vast sheep flock a few lapwings could be seen as were 10 golden plovers dodging the many frisky lambs.

As the day drew to a close, the cuckoo started calling from the plantation near the Oyster Fishery - bang on eight o'clock, as if timed like a cuckoo clock. Returning to Bromans Lane there was the interesting sight of the tawny owl dropping down into its nest-box - a good sign they're breeding.

On the moth front the picture above shows the tent web of the brown-tail moths whose caterpillars strip bushes of their leaves. They can be real pests and not just because of their appetite. Their hair can be extremely irritating on the human skin and as a result some big infestations in other public sites, are eradicated by spraying them off.

This strange fluffy looking little fellow is a male muslin moth - one of only a few species caught last night. Only 18 moths of 7 species seemed quite disappointing although bright-line brown-eye was the other new one for the year.