Tuesday 28 June 2016

Spurn Head and Kilnsea Wetlands

I took a trip to Spurn Head on Monday, a windy day with sunny spells. I walked the between the Blue Bell car park to the Warren on the coastal path and then back on the road with a stop on the Canal Scrape hide. Although it wasn't warm at all and I saw few invertebrates, the birds compensated, with Linnets, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks busy singing or feeding young. Three Swifts flew south overhead. Several Sand Martins flew over the lagoon.
Little Egret on the pond. It was an egret's bad hair day! (top shot).  
Meadow Pipit with food for young 
Skylark with food for young
Singing Linnet
and Sedge Warbler feeding young.

Two Magpies by Canal Scrape
 As soon as I moved north of Beacon Lane the sunny spells became a bit longer and in the shelter of the hedges many invertebrates came out. Butterflies included Common Blue and Large Skipper, later joined by a Ringlet and a Meadow Brown.
Scorpion Fly, Panorpa sp.
I moved onto the dunes south of Beacon Lagoons. A few dragonflies flew by without stopping, I could only identify an Emperor Dragonfly, which seemed totally undeterred by the wind but didn't settle.
Mating Garden Snails.
A wolf-spider Arctosa perita
A dune chafer Anomalus dubius
A Four-spotted chaser settled for a little while.
A nymph Short-winged Conehead on hawkbit.
A dune robberfly Philonicus albiceps.
This Arctosa perita basked at the entrance of her burrow. It retreated when it saw me, but emerged shortly after.
A female Black-tailed Skimmer on the cliff face.
I returned to the Blue Bell cafe by the beach with little of note. I drove to Kilnsea Wetlands. Another Emperor Dragonfly hunted alongside the ditch by the path. After a short time in the hide, I carried onto Beacon Lagoons. A raptor-like bird flew ahead chased by a small one. I thought it might have been a cuckoo, but I couln't relocated it. A few minutes later, while I watched the Little Tern colony, I heard the cuckoo call distantly a few times. 
Avocets, Shelduck and an Oystercatcher at Kilnsea Wetlands.
A distant shot of a group of Little Terns, some carrying fish on Beacon Ponds.

More information
A detailed site map of Spurn Head and surrounding nature reserves. 
Information on Beacon Lagoons and the history of the site.