HERONS IN THE HEAT

There continue to be three grey herons often seen beside the park pond, this one pictured above seemingly trying to stay cool with its beak open. Also up to twenty little egrets at the pond for the high tide roost.

A couple of broods of mallard ducklings have been feeding along the park borrowdyke. The mute swan family along here have five cygnets while the swans on the pond still have the one cygnet.

The pair of kestrels with their four young have been regularly seen hovering over the park looking for food, with the young still spending most time on their tree at the back of the fields. A siskin flew over the car park calling on Tuesday 14th while a yellow wagtail was also heard calling over the park.

At the western end of the Island a hobby flew across the Spar car park in Upland Road, as it hurtled north-westwards about house height early in the morning of Tuesday 14th. At the end of that day a hobby was also seen at Maydays by Steve Entwistle, chasing the resident group of house martins, also 26 long-tailed tits of note here too.

At Reeveshall a common sandpiper and two avocet chicks were seen by Martin Cock on Tuesday.

On Sunday 12th a common buzzard drifted westwards along the north side of the park. On the mud near the Point a small variety of waders included 20 golden plover, 15 turnstone, 20 dunlin and ringed plover while 30+ redshank and 10 curlew were noted in flight.
At the end of the day a little owl was seen near the park entrance at dusk and called briefly.

Two wary adders were seen briefly on an overcast Sunday morning at the park.
There was the unusual sight of a banded demoiselle fluttering across the car park on Sunday which was sadly soon lost to view.
On Saturday dragonfly species noted at the park included emperor, black-tailed skimmer and ruddy darter while 50+ small red-eyed damselfly were along the dyke along with hundreds of blue-tailed damselflies.

A handful of colourful six-spot burnets were feeding on field scabious, as above and also on some nearby knapweed flowers.

The moth traps have been operating a few times during recent nights at both the country park and the Firs Chase garden. A successful muggy and cloudy night on the 10th saw about 250 moths of nearly 60 species in the trap by 4am the next morning.
Star attractions were the large number of hawkmoths inside the trap with four privets (one pictured above), four elephants, two poplars and two pine hawkmoths.

One of the pine hawkmoths was itching to fly off, rapidly beating its wings to get them warmed up before it shot away over the neighbours gardens.

Not sure if the vapourer moth is making a bit of a comeback but a few individuals have been noted in the last couple of years, whereas it used to be a scarce visitor to the trap.

Three common emeralds were noted in the Firs Chase trap at dawn the next day.

The sycamore is an annual visitor to the trap but usually making just a single appearance. Its cousins the miller and the poplar grey were also noted in the garden trap.

Other moths of interest included three red-necked footman, lackey, maidens blush, least carpet, green pug, early thorn, white satin, dot moth and silver-Y.

This beautiful hook-tip was found at the country park trap on Saturday morning, a species that seems to have become more widespread over the last two or three years.

The bordered beauty was the most interesting moth on the 12th at the country park. It too has become an annual visitor to the trap in recent summers.