July Garden Safari

 With the abundant ground cover under the perennials, my flowering plants are surviving the drought pretty well and have been covered in insects through the hot weather including lots of flies, bees, spiders, hemiptera and butterflies. A real treasure trove for an insect recorder!! Yellow flowers are definitely favoured in the garden at the moment for visiting small Andrea bee species and hence the hunting territory for the Candy-striped spider.

RSPB Titchwell

The second venue on our RPS Nature Group weekend was Titchwell, one of my favourite reserves for its wide variety of habitats from the Mussel beds that are uncovered at low tide giving feeding opportunities for Black-tailed Godwits, Oyster Catchers and Knot, lagoons with Ruff and Avocets and the ponds and scrubland with a variety of insect life.

Waders at RSPB Snettisham

Friday evening at Snettisham should have seen a 'Wader Spectacular' when thousands of waders roosting on the mud in the Ouse Estuary are driven off by a spring high tide and form murmurations etc. Because of the strong onshore wind and the very high tide, this did not happen - the waders appeared able to anticipate this happening and went straight to roost on the gravel pits behind the beach in 'spectacular' numbers. Lots of species seen Knot, Black-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Common and Sandwich Terns, Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls, Egyptian Goose here plus an extra inquisitive Hare. Also recorded Spotted Redshank, Spoonbill, Avocet, Egret, Cormorants, Lapwing,  Greylag and Canada Goose, Herring and Common Gull

Spoonbills at Snettisham

Great excitement to see a Spoobill very close at Snettisham even if it was asleep only waking occasionally. Later, an adult flew in and immediately the youngster started begging for food. Eventually, the adult allowed the young spoonbill to put its beak right inside the gullet and retrieve food. It continued to beg but the adult flew off to join other spoonbills (9 in all) and it followed. Not the easiest to photograph as difficult lighting with the sun coming out occasionally but a great sightings.

 

Garden Project 13 - In the Summer Heat

The garden is a mass of flowers and insects at the moment. Here are photos from the small  meadow, vegetable patch, pond, flower beds and woodland meadow area. The best insect species are the teasels, scabious, wild carrot and wild parsnip, knapweed, ragwort, linaria, marguerites and evening primrose.