Cold july at the wetlands

After yesterday scorcher,  I only grabbed my raincoat as an afterthought, and I am so glad I did. The breeze was quite cold today at North Cave Wetlands, and I had it zipped up all the time. The plaintive calls of the grown up Black-headed gulls were the background noise at the reserve today. There were many, many black-headed gull chicks,of all ages, from fluffy little ones to fully fledged ones flying about everywhere in the reserve. There were also many young lapwings flying. In Island lake, grown up Shelduck ducklings some with an adult, some on their own. Also saw a Tufted duck with fluffy black new ducklings in Reedbed Lake.
 The new development on the reserve are the little group of Highland cattle, by the new workings.

The longhorn moth Nemophora degeerella and a Speckled Bush-cricket, Lephophyes punctatissima, which I only noticed when I looked a the photo.

Adult Black-headed gull and napping young

Lesser Black-backed gulls on Island lake.

Orchid near the maize field

Young Black-headed gulls resting on the maize field

Oystercatcher pair on the maize field

Avocet feeding on the Reedbed lake

Young lapwing

Young Black-Headed gull chicks

I only had a brief sunny spell in the whole morning, but despite this, I managed to see and photograph a few damselflies, all of them on the West path.

Female Common Blue damselfly

Male Common blue

Female Blue-Tailed damselfly

Male Blue-Tailed damselfly

Common Tern and chicks at the new workings

This tern went round and round over me as I left Crosslands Hide

Avocet and chick on the new workings. This avocet had two chicks, one of them swam across the water to join these.

Little Grebe

Gracefully arching necks of Swan and cygnet, just the way swans have of checking their next mouthful, aquatic plants.

A view across Main lake

Bird list

1. Avocet        
2.  Black-headed Gull        
3.  Blackbird        
4.  Blackcap        
5.  Buzzard        
6.  Carrion Crow        
7.  Chaffinch        
8.  Common Tern        
9.  Coot        
10.  Cormorant        
11.  Dunnock        
12.  Feral Pigeon        
13.  Gadwall        
14.  Goldfinch        
15.  Great Black-backed Gull        
16.  Great Crested Grebe        
17.  Great Tit        
18.  Greenfinch        
19.  Greylag Goose        
20.  House Martin        
21.  House Sparrow        
22.  Lapwing        
23.  Little Grebe        
24.  Magpie        
25.  Mallard        
26.  Moorhen        
27.  Mute Swan        
28.  Oystercatcher        
29.  Pied Wagtail (yarrellii)        
30.  Reed Bunting        
31.  Reed Warbler        
32.  Rook        
33.  Sand Martin        
34.  Sedge Warbler        
35.  Shelduck        
36.  Skylark        
37.  Starling        
38.  Stock Dove        
39.  Swallow        
40.  Swift        
41.  Teal        
42.  Tufted Duck        
43.  Whitethroat        
44.  Woodpigeon        
45.  Wren