YNU Spurn residential weekend. Day 3

The last day included fewer scheduled activities and we were encouraged to pursue our own interests in the site. it was another warm day which started cloudy and then became sunnier, but the breeze was lovely and made the heat bearable. As I arrived to the Observatory, the moth team were about to finish. Kate had mentioned that some dragonflies were caught in the Heligoland trap - a large funnel-shaped permanent contraption made of wood and chicken wire designed to catch migrant birds for ringing. I walked with her to the trap to find at least five Common Darters flying about in it. They had plenty of food inside, as there were many of Episyrphus balteatus about.

Common Darter resting inside the Heligoland trap. Many rare dragonflies have been caught in these traps at Spurn along the years.

Cinnabar moth caterpillar

Episyrphus balteatus

Small Tortoiseshell.

The pond snails congregated in the last small puddles in the Church Field pond.

Tiny toad leaving the pond.

Tiny frog leaving the pond

A mayfly in Sharon Flint's pond-dipping tray.

I decided to walk along the sea wall of the Triangle by Canal Zone. It was low tide. A Little Egret hunted just off the Crown and Anchor.

A high-pitched noise alerted me of the presence of a hovefly. It was a male Eristalinus aeneus, a coastal specialist. It was very active, but it finally settled to rest on a rock.

Male Eristalinus aeneus

I went down to the sandy beach by the saltmarsh walking south. It finishes on an innaccessible section of saltmarsh due to muddy or flooded conditions just off the visitor centre, but it is a lovely little walk off the Canal Scrape bank. The saltmarsh was looking stunning.

Samphire.

Sea Lavender.

Fresh Badger footprints on the beach.

The beach by the saltmarsh.

Sea Lavender with feeding Eristalis tenax.

As I returned to the bank, I noticed a Common Seal resting on top of a rocky pier. The seal also saw me and descended the rocks and started sliding towards the Humber (top shot). A flock of Redshank paid very little attention to it.

Back on the path, I finally caught up with an Essex Skipper, a butterfly lifer! I had been checking all the Skippers and all had been Little Skippers.

My first Essex Skipper.

A female Black-tailed Skimmer resting on the saltmarsh.

Male Common Blue Butterfly.

Three Small Skippers with bumblebee on Knapweed.

The brightly coloured hoverfly Helophilus trivittatus.

Helen Kitson, Gabrielle Jarvis and I met with Brockadale Nats Joyce and Paul Simmons, who wanted to explore the area too and we set off from the Discovery centre. Everyone wanted to check the Strawberry Clover that Kate had found by Clubley's Scrape yesterday, so we headed that way but by the sea path.

A migrant female Marsh Harrier, in moult, flying over the car park.

The colours of a sunny day at Spurn.

A very well camouflaged Migrant Hawker, an immature with milky green eyes, flew over the usually marshy area near Clubley's Field and then landed. Joyce spotted it as it sat on the dry grass! As it is often the case with this species, it sat patiently through a long photographic session, before flying away. This is species number 24 for my Yorkshire Dragonfly challenge.

Four-spotted Chaser.

Joyce photographing the Strawberry Clover.

Chrysops sp, a Deer Fly that loves biting humans!

Mature Emerald Damselfly

The driest of Clubley's scrapes.

At the lunch time YNU meeting, two entomologists reported on some good finds in the Observatory owned 'Corner Field', near the Blue Bell cafe, where there is also a large pond. After the meeting, Peter, Sharon and I headed that way to investigate.

The entrance fabled Corner field, normally only accessible to members.

Mating blue-tailed damselflies.

Two Emperor females ovipositing near each other.

Close up of an ovipositing Emperor. 

Lesser Marsh Grasshopper, Chorthippus albomarginatus

A hawker larvae.

It was on a formerly flooded, now dry area in a path moved amongst rushes that I found my first male Ruddy Darter, the 11th odonata species recorded in the weekend.

My last half an hour was spent inside the sauna-line hide at Canal Scrape (above shot), where I watched some more odonates. In the way to the hide I flushed a Roe Deer who was feeding on the car park and jumped onto the bank. And on some Wild Carrot I found a Banded General.

A Banded General, Stratiomys singulatior.

I would have liked to have some time to inspect the borrow pit by the Blue Bell car park, but that will have to wait another visit.

Overall, a wonderful residential weekend in great weather and better company, hopefully the first of many to come.

YNU Spurn residential weekend. Day 2

The second day had a tight schedule. Moth trapping and bird ringing in the early morning, dragonfly expedition in the morning and afternoon, a YNU meeting and an evening walk on the beach with Richard Middleton.

Moths
When I arrived at the observatory the moth recorders had already been very busy after a productive night of trapping. There were over 120 species before identifying the tricky species.

Jill, Terry and the moth team busy at work.

A notable species trapped was the Star-wort, Cucullia asteris.

Poplar Hawkmoth

I popped to the bird ringing station. Things were a bit slow, but a juvenile Blackcap was ringed, and later a Blackbird. I went to the almost dry Observatory pond and had a male Emerald and a Four-spotted chaser.

Male Emerald.

Four-spotted Chaser on his perch.

Bird trip to Kilnsea
Led by Ken White, a group of us jumped in his SUV at 8:30 and we were at Kilnsea in no time. The hide was packed (I was told that a larger hide is on order to replace this small one). We had some good birds, including a Knot and a Bar-tailed Godwit but no Med Gull this time.

Kilnsea wetlands from long bank near Beacon ponds. Looking pretty dry.

The Hebridean sheep came to check us out, but were quickly disappointed.

Fresh Red Admiral.

Sandwich Terns (we also saw a few Common Terns later) loafing in the sand bar between Beacon ponds and the sea.

Young and adult sandwich terns.

Dragonfly expedition
At 10:30 we were ready to start the dragonfly survey around Spurn and Kilnsea led by Dick Shillaker. We started by Clubley's scrapes (top shot and below).

Clubley's Scrape.

Peter Flint shows Helen how to recognise an emperor larvae.

We checked the surrounding vegetation, patrolling males and settled or ovipositing individuals. Dick and Peter had their nets and were collecting larvae and other aquatic invertebrates. The aim was to try and obtain evidence of breeding for each dragonfly species seen. Plenty of evidence was obtained for Common Darter, with several mating...

...and ovipositing pairs

A male Emperor was owning the pond at all times, cruising about 1 m above the water and chasing even the ovipositing darters and any other dragonfly.

My best shot at the patrolling male emperor.

I spotted this ovipositing female near the centre of the pond.

The male settled for a little while on the bank. It is obvious he has won many battles, with one of his wingtips missing and very abraded edges. 

And watching from the dry mud on the edges were male Black-tailed Skimmers. At some point three chased each other and then each settled on a spot on the shore leaving two or three meters between them.

Male Black-tailed Skimmer

Sharon Flint in search of caddis flies.

I managed a poor shot of this female damselfly, which I couldn't ID. Dick remarked on its reddish eyes. Steve Routledge and others have identified as a female Small Red-eyed Damselfly, which makes species number 23 for my Yorkshire dragonfly challenge!

A patrolling male Four-spotted chaser.

Mating Blue-tailed damselflies.

Dick collected a hawker a darter and a damselfly larvae in Clubley's to ID. Several aggressive Saucer bugs were also caught.

I thought this was an otter print, but it appears to be a young Badger print on the shore of Clubley's.

To those illustrated with photos, we had to add ovipositing Four-spotted chasers, a Common Blue male, and Emerald, a total of 8 species at Clubley's, 4 of them with evidence of breeding.

Chalky bank
After lunch we met again to continue our dragonfly survey at Kilnsea Wetlands. We checked two locations. The first one just beyond the car park - provided with a pond-dipping platform, above photo - had three species.  A single male Common Blue was seen.

Four-spotted Chaser, which was observed ovipositing.

And many Blue-tailed damselflies were seen, with at least a female ovipositing.

We then moved to our second location, on the western side of the wetlands. Unfortunately, the pond was completely dry, so we surveyed the wide ditch by the sea wall near Chalky Point. This only had a patrolling male Emperor and ovipositing Blue-tailed damselflies.

Dick Shillaker by the wide ditch.

The mudflats by the shore were covered by feeding Dunlin on our way back.

We had our YNU meeting, where members put together the day's observations. Richard Middleton gave a most interesting talk about his geological and fossil collection he has amassed through several decades. He had brought a large selection of findings and we all had a good look at them.

Seaside walk 
At 5:30, with a low tide a group of us was led by Richard Middleton and were introduced to various rocks, minerals and fossils that can be collected at Kilnsea and Spurn, amongst them agate. Ken showed us some specimens of Larvikite, a type of feldspar rock that comes from southern Norway, having travelled inside the glaciers that pushed into the north sea during the ice ages.

A Grey seal checking the dogs on the beach.

Two ringed plovers and two Sanderlings in summer plumage run along the beach ahead of us.

 After this leisurely walk, we headed for the Observatory, where we were going to be treated to a delicious BBQ cooked by Jonny Fisk. A lovely social end to a day packed with natural history!