June can be a quiet month for birds but it’s a great month for seeing flowering plants on the reserve, with the orchid species all looking at their best over the past few weeks. It seems to have been a particularly good spring for bee orchids (pictured) with at least a couple of hundred spikes this year, along with good numbers of southern marsh orchid and small numbers of pyramidal and early marsh orchid.
The breeding season is well underway for birds now, and it’s been a particularly good year for great crested grebes with up to three birds on nests and one pair with young which first appeared on 22/5, the first on the reserve since 2016. Moorhen, coot and mallard can also be seen around the lagoons with young, while other breeding species including little grebe, gadwall and tufted duck are present and we may still see them with young as well in the coming weeks.
At least two oystercatcher have also been seen on nests and it’s possible that common sandpiper are breeding on the reserve again. Other wader species are scarce at this time of year with just 20 non-breeding curlew, one redshank and one dunlin recorded on the monthly WeBS count on 9/6, while most other birds are away breeding elsewhere. Spring wader passage came to an end in late May with whimbrel recorded up until 20/5, black-tailed godwit until 25/5 with a maximum of six birds on 23/5, and several sightings of ringed plover up until 26/5.
Warblers and other passerines are still very much present but tend to be a little more elusive at this time of year while they are busy feeding their young, though occasional bursts of song can still be heard from species such as reed warbler, common whitethroat and sedge warbler. Small numbers of linnets have also been present around the far end of the estuary track, while wheatear continued to move through on migration during the last half of May, with the last one recorded on 29/5.
Other notable bird sightings over the past month have included a great white egret on 7/6, a cuckoo flying over the lagoons on 8/6, and a fulmar over the estuary on 9/6, a rare sight this far inland with the last reserve record in August 2012.
Although it has been a fairly cool and rainy spring, the warmer days have brought out a variety of insects with common blue butterfly emerging since 17/5, and small tortoiseshell, red admiral and holly blue also noted among the more abundant butterfly species including orange tip and speckled wood.
Dragonflies have included several sightings of broad-bodied chaser (pictured) which seem to be benefitting from the newly rejuvenated ponds, and the first common darters seen from 25/5.