SAD END TO SNAKE

This grass-snake had been apparently run over in St Peters Road, at the Coast Road end and was found by Caroline Belcher. Although there is a small wound visible, it still seems in reasonable condition if a car had run over it. Sadly quite a few grass-snakes get run over as they move from one garden to another.

At East Mersea a hedgehog dead in Bromans Lane was comforting to know they're still in that area but sad that there's one less hedgehog now.
A muntjac deer luckily had some road-sense near Weir Farm by the East Mersea road when one thought about crossing the road early on Tuesday 13th but turned back towards the copse as I drove slowly past it.

Andy Field counted about a dozen clouded yellow butterflies along the Reeveshall seawall on Monday 12th, one of them pictured above. Together with the three Martin had a few days earlier on the Maydays seawall, these sightings are reminiscent of the last big influx into southern England in 2000 when about 34 clouded yellows were seen in a number of localities in East Mersea during August into September.

The high count of eighteen species of wader were noted at Reeveshall by Andy, including a curlew sandpiper, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, greenshank and whimbrel.

At the country park on Wednesday 14th, there was the usual wader roost on the pools in the grazing fields with 50 black-tailed godwits and 50 redshank gathered here during high tide. Some of the godwits were feeding in the field along with a handful of curlew. At the park pond a boisterous group of 15 magpies were trying to disrupt the little egret roost of 18 birds. A handful of magpies seemed to target the egrets on the periphery of the roost by perching nearby and pestering them with their beaks. The little egrets soon gave in and flew off.

The buddleia bush in the car park has had up to eight species of butterfly on it with the main ones being small tortoiseshells, peacocks and a single painted lady.

Like the clouded yellow butterfly, this dark swordgrass moth is an immigrant from the continent. Although it's regarded as a regular immigrant to the UK, it's not very regular at the park with just one individual a year being noted here.
Amongst the 20 species noted on a cool Tuesday night were poplar hawkmoth, oak hooktip, least carpet, red twin-spot carpet, buff ermine, ruby tiger, magpie, dusky sallow, flounced rustic and common / lesser common rustics.

The micro moth mother of pearl, pictured above, was the largest of the micros in the trap. It is a common moth and there have been several of them noted in the trap over the last fortnight or so. They're often found amongst nettle-beds, the foodplant of the caterpillars.