WHEATEAR WATCH

Two wheatears were at the park on Friday 21st with this one pictured above on the seawall, while the second bird was at the Point for the second day at least. Wheatears will be stopping off at the park over the next few weeks on their southward migration.

The flock of linnets at the Point appeared to be at least 120 birds, here a female perching in a seablite bush.

The female ringed plover was keeping a watch over her fledged chick which was feeding just a few metres away, at the Point on Friday morning.

Also on Friday a hobby circled round casually to the north of the park while 100 swallows and ten house martins called out loudly to each other and tried to mob the hobby away.
A sparrowhawk was seen a couple of times during Friday too, attracted to the area not just for the swallows but also the 400+ starlings in the nearby fields.

At the park pond a kingfisher was present for several minutes late afternoon on Friday along with 52 little egrets. The previous day 66 little egrets were on the pond with a further ten on the nearby pools.
Also on the pools were 12 teal, 20 black-tailed godwits, common snipe and ten lapwing.

There have been a couple of orange swifts in the moth trap during this last week. Around 30 species of macro moth were recorded on Thursday night while the very warm following night on Friday produced nearly twice as many when over 300 individuals were logged in two traps.

Some of the interesting moths have included small mottled rustic, pine carpet, 2 poplar hawkmoths, vapourer, 8 white-points, bulrush wainscot, tree-lichen beauty, old lady and coronet.

The third archers dart record of the summer was found in the trap on Thursday night. A scarce coastal moth in Essex with one or two turning up each summer here. This moth has the distinctive dark "bullet-shaped" dart mark on each wing.

The six-striped rustic is generally a widespread moth but strangely has not been recorded from here before. The larvae feed on a variety of herbaceous plants.

The dark spectacle is another widespread moth but not seen here as regularly as its cousin the spectacle moth.

The small cream-bordered green pea with the thin white edges to the wings was found on the night of the 21st.

The migrant micro moth rusty-dot pearl was seen on the night of the 21st, the first sighting this year.

Two red underwings spent the day resting on the outside of the park's information room on Friday and there was also another appearance of the hummingbird hawkmoth on Friday.

Over the grazing fields a clouded yellow butterfly flew inland on Friday afternoon as if it had just come in off the sea. The first sighting on the park this year.

Near West Mersea a brown hare was seen in the field by Chapmans Lane at dusk on Thursday 20th.