PAINTED LADY SWARM

The bright blue skies on Tuesday 7th brought even more painted lady butterflies out than previous days. In every corner of the park, they were to be seen flashing past or fluttering around a clump of flowers. In previous summers there has never been more than about fifty in the park. Today the main buddleia bush in the car park has about 30 around it while a clump of the yellow flowers of the bristly ox-tongue(pictured above) on the seawall also seemed to have a further 30 painted ladies.Gazing across the grazing fields more painted ladies could be seen feeding on many of the thistle flowers.

Difficult to estimate numbers but probably 200 about the place which is an unprecedented number for here. Last year the painted ladies peaked on 5th Aug when 20 were seen - so the numbers this summer is a veritable swarm. It's possible that some of these butterflies could have arrived from the continent but it would be interesting to hear if other sites in Essex have recorded large numbers too.

Other butterflies included a small copper high up in the oaks, lots of meadow browns and hedge browns too, speckled woods, Essex skipper and one or two peacocks, commas and red admirals.

Moths found on Tuesday morning in the trap included this silver Y moth. The moth breeds in this country but numbers are sometimes boosted by influxes from the continent - just like the painted lady. This is the moth which can sometimes be seen feeding during the day in gardens, hovering amongst the flowerbeds especially lavender. The moth has the distinctive silver Y mark on the wing.

It was not a big haul of moths although there was a reasonable variety but with very low numbers of each. About 60 moths of 34 species seemed a low tally for mid summer. Other moths included the first lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, also lychnis, spectacle, single- dotted wave, purple bar, ruby tiger and a square-spot rustic.

The rowan trees in the car park are laden with ripe red berries and they provide a really colourful scene when viewed against the bright blue sky. One or two blackbirds are finding them irresistible while a pair of mistle thrushes are never too far away either.

The main bird interest on the park involved a large mixed flock of probably 50 warblers and tits feeding together along the bushes in the car park, early in the morning. It was difficult to establish how many birds of each species but at least three willow warblers were passage birds joining the lesser whitethroats, common whitethroats, great tits, blue tits and long-tailed tits.

One of the plainest of white flowers amongst the grass on the park is the yarrow. However in one or two places there are groups of bright pink varieties (pictured above) which help brighten up the grasslands.