Messingham Sand Quarry

My first visit to this fantastic Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve. What was formerly a sand quarry has become a patchwork of lagoons, reed beds, conifer woodland, wet woodland, ponds and heath. There are two hides overlooking the northernmost lagoon and benches with a view scattered around the perimeter path. Just upon arrival, near the car park, there were hundreds of Common, Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies. A Hairy dragonfly hunted atop trees, aggressively charging towards the branches to dislodge insects, but it didn't settle. As I watch the dragonflies, and from the south end of the reserve a Bittern starts booming, and does do intermittently.

 

 I walk around the perimeter path, visiting the hides and taking any possible detour. Birds don't disappoint, with a Spotted Flycatcher (above) on a glade amongst pines, hawking for insects with Chaffinches and Long-tailed tits. When I return to the spot for lunch, it has been joined by hawking Black-headed Gulls over the wood. There is plenty of insects about! There are at least five Garden Warblers singing, and two Cetti's Warblers. In the water, two drake Red-crested Pochards, one Avocet and a common Pochard with ducklings. Also with young the Black-headed gulls and Mute Swans. A Cuckoo calls most of the morning. Then a female calls and I see the male flying over and calling again on a dead tree, where i manage a shot.

Spotted Flycatcher.

Great Crested Grebe with young.

Pochard with young.

Red-crested Pochard.

Black-headed gulls with newly hatched chick.

Cuckoo calling.

Garden Warbler.

Dragonflies and damselflies
The reserve is well known for the abundance of Odonates. Overall I find six species, which is 6 more than I had in my year list at the beginning of the day. I see 3 Hairy dragonflies, but they are hunting and don't stop.

Very abundant Blue-tailed Damselflies.

A couple of Four-spotted chasers.

Red-Tailed and Blue-tailed damselflies.

Azure Damselfly.

Large Red Damselfly.

Common Blue damselfly.

As I check the edge of one of the lagoons, I see the exuvia of a dragonfly, and a damselfly larvae emerging from the water.

Other invertebrates
A wide range of invertebrates around. Including at least 5 Brimstone, with a mating pair, a Speckled Wood and an Orange Tip.

One of several Cinnabar Moths.

Bee Fly, Bombylius major.

This was a new beetle for me. Ontholestes murinus, on a scat, possibly fox, strongly smelling of carrion, with a couple Oiceoptoma thoracica (below).

Cercopis vulnerata.

Brimstone.

Tetragnatha sp.

Nursery web spider, Pisaura mirabilis.

Hornet.

More information
There is a car park, but no other facilities.
A detailed map of the reserve can be found here.
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust page for the reserve.

North Landing to Thornwick Bay

A beautiful sunny day with light wind, I headed to Flamborough early in the morning. I took advantage of the low tide and went down to the North Landing beach, where I ticked the first Puffins for the year. A Grey Seal was visible on and off on the surf line, where rafts of Guillemots and Razorbills sat on the water. The usual assortment of sea birds around, with the also usual House Martins back in the bay, with a sprinkle of Sand Martins too. I walked towards Thornwick Bay. Just after Holmes Gut, on a gully by the cliff Three Wall Browns were chasing, with one occasionally settling to feed on Sea Pink.
 I carried on towards Thornwick Pools, a site I hadn't visited before. It took a while to find, but it is a lovely, open and shallow wetland with a narrow belt of reeds and protected by an earth bund. There are two hides, the lower one had the best light. A pair of Little Ringed plovers were very excited in one of the low islands, doing parallel little races, hunched up, yaffling and making all sort of odd noises. In the hide I meet Andy Hood, from Flamborough Bird Observatory. After a good chat, it's lunch time and I descent onto Thornwick Bay, realising I've never beed there. There is a beach of rough pale and chalk boulders. The chalk makes a shallow platform, giving the water a beautiful turquoise colour. A perfect place for a picnic.

Raft of Guillemots, Razorbills, a Puffin and some Kittiwakes.

North Landing.

Razorbills.

The cleptoparasitic bee Melecta albifrons.

View from the cliff east of North Landing, with Bempton in the distance.

Holmes Gut.

Thornwick Pool.

Shelduck.

Singing Linnet.

Puffin.

Thornwick Bay.

Wall Brown Butterfly.

Singing Sedge Warbler.

Possibly Nomada fabriciana on daisy. A cleptoparasite of several mining bees.

Another view of Holmes Gut.

North Landing.

Thornwick's Bay.

 Thornwick's Bay panoramic.

Green Hairstreaks at Spurn

A beautiful family and friends walk to Spurn lighthouse from the visitor centre. The tide was up and dapper summer plumage Grey Plovers sat on the edge of the marsh with dunlin, knot, and Brent Geese. Plenty of flowers about with several patches of Scarlet Pimpernel near the breach. Just getting near the lighthouse a small moth-like insect fluttered in front of me. I jumped for joy, my first live Green Hairstreak! I first saw this beautiful tiny jewel of a butterfly in May 1987 near my hometown, a recently dead individual by a group of gorse, which I still keep in a small plastic bag. At Spurn this individual was not in great shape, having had some problem while emerging, one of its hind wings was folded on itself.

My first live Green Hairstreak, with its deformed wing.

I got an inkling of the lovely behaviour of this species when I offered my finger to it and it promptly jumped on...

...showing its better side.

We eventually got to the lighthouse and set up a picnic. We wandered around the dunes and there were at least three hairstreaks about. One individual, likely a male, sat on marram grass atop the dune, returning time and time again to its favoured spot, from where it inspected and chased a Wall Butterfly and another Green Hairstreak. They are extremely approachable and it was easy to photograph them with our mobiles. Depending of the angle of the light they appear to glow green,

Totally at ease amongst our picnic.

I followed one of them as it fed on dandelions...

...and daisies.

This is going to be my home screen for a long time!

View north from the lighthouse.

Spurn Lighthouse.

All day, many swallows, a sprinkle of house martins and a swift flew south over the peninsula

Humber by the breach.

The broad beach at the breach.

Brent Geese

The caterpillars of the brown tailed moth already clustering on the sea buckthorn.

A ferry enters the Humber.