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!