SUNBATHING LADIES

Another windy seawall walk, this time beside the Strood Channel in the early evening of Monday 18th. The showers had stopped earlier in the day and the sun came out later on. Along both sides of the seawall at the moment are lots of clumps of the flowering hoary cress as in the picture above.

The high tide meant no mud was on show, not that there are many waders around the Island at the moment to look out for. Only a handful of oystercatchers could be seen on the saltmarshes along with various gulls. A pair of little terns crossed over the seawall and hunted along the borrowdyke, calling out excitedly as they flew along. Two little egrets and a grey heron were also looking for food along the ditches and dyke. A male marsh harrier was seen in the distance hunting over the Feldy fields on the mainland.

As on Friday evening the cuckoo crossed onto the Island from the Ray and perched on the overhead wires for several minutes calling out near the caravan site. In typical pose the long tail was tilted up and the wing-tips drooped down. Three male corn buntings jangled their songs from various points and skylarks and meadow pipits were also heard. Over the fields a few swallows and five house martins were seen while over the houses 10 swifts were noted.



Face to face with one of the 8 painted lady butterflies seen along a section of 200 metres of the seawall. This seems a good spring count in one locality of painted ladies here on the Island. The wind kept them down low but they were all trying to catch some of the evening sunshine while basking on the concrete seaward side. If one of the painted ladies flew over one of the others basking, they would both quickly spiral up into the air together.


Also keeping low down amongst the grass was a group of blue-tailed damselflies. These common damselflies were just a short distance from the water in the dyke and like the painted ladies, were enjoying the last of the day's sunshine.