Sadly, this title is a bit misleading, as rather inevitably this blog will involve birds at some point but hey, not till the end.
It’s been a productive time for moth trapping recently but the stand out highlight has to be the privet hawkmoth found in the trap last week.
Picture courtesy of Becky Butterly
It’s a an absolute monster of a moth indeed its Britain’s largest moth and quite staggeringly it has a wing span of 10cm’s! Despite its size, it’s not particularly rare in a national context and is regularly found in gardens, parks and woodland. However, it is the only known record on Havergate which makes it a very special record.
The sunny weather has also brought many varied and wonderful butterflies out to play with record numbers of meadow browns, small and large skippers. With ringlets and graylings also coming out to play in the sun. There has also been the occasional record of blue tailed damselfly, dragons and damsels are never particularly common on the island due to the lack of fresh water so any sighting is a good sighting.
Last but not least, after an incredibly slow start our *star* moth the ground lackey has appeared and is now in flight in good numbers.
It’s been a protracted breeding season for birds on Havergate and it’s not finished yet. The gulls are almost complete with many medium to big, to fledged chicks hanging around the colony. However, the real story lies with the black headed gulls and common terns which are still going strong in their little colony just in front of north hide.
Last Saturday we fledged the first two tern chicks since 2011 (having drawn a blank in the wet and cold summer of 2012). This is a great success and means that the island has fledged chicks three times out of the last four years. Not that much to be proud off but considering the island went through a series of barren years in the late noughties, this is a reason to be happy.
There are also good numbers of large black headed gull chicks running around the lagoons and it has been many many years since the island fledged any of them, one might even have go back to the late nineties (citation needed!). Sadly, the story wasn't so good for common gulls or avocets. Common gulls have largely abandoned their usual area. There is some hope that avocets might still be able to do something as three birds are still sitting on eggs but of the 15 that have hatched none of the chicks have survived.
The cold spring had another sting in its tail however for Havergate. It seems to have pushed back the autumn migration (at least for the island) with migrating waders slow to arrive back into the estuary; redshanks are noticeable by their absence. However, on the plus side 11 spoonbills have been using the island and showing great interest in the nesting platforms erected in winter 2013.