It’s been a weekend of two halves with grey wet weather on Saturday and glorious sunshine on Sunday. The sightings book reflects this with very few sightings recorded on Saturday, let’s face it who wants to be out and about when the weather is grim! Whether that’s people out looking; or creatures not out and about to be seen!
Sunday however saw good numbers of Lapwing at Big Hole; 230 were counted, 65 Teal at Pickup. A Peregrine caused a riot among the birds over Spoonbill Flash; only to be followed by a fox lurking about. There were 4 Hobbies seen North East of Big Hole and looking back over the sightings from the past few days three to four Hobbies have been popping up in the book quite regularly.
This enigmatic bird arrives in the UK from April on wards following the swallows and martins that form an important part of it’s diet. They breed across central, southern and eastern England, into S Wales and just about reaching northern England and S Scotland. During September and October they start to migrate back to Africa and can be seen fueling up on large insects; especially dragonflies, they catch and eat them on the wing (in the air) like a quick snack.
Image accessed from Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/watching-paint-dry.html
One of the species of dragonflies to see at this time of year is the Migrant Hawker. This dragonfly is tolerant of being in a group and large influxes can be seen together making a real spectacle. They can be seen around the discovery trail and along the riverside walk at Fairburn Ings.
Images courtesy of Alan Kelly
Another interesting invertebrate spotted on Sunday by Elliott one of our volunteer rangers was a Great Diving Beetle, these are large reddish brown to black beetles that live in slow moving water and ponds. These beetles can fly and use flight to find new territories; often turn up in unexpected places (we occasionally get them in our moth trap). They are voracious predators; the larger species can eat small fish, tadpoles, frogs and newts and are not shy of attacking prey larger than themselves. Keep an eye open at any of the pond dipping platforms; you might be lucky and spot one surfacing to replenish their air supply, they do this by poking their bottom out of the water and drawing a bubble of air under their wing case.
Image courtesy of North East Wildlife accessed http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/great-diving-beetle