It's been great in the last couple of weeks or so to see the first juvenile birds around the site, after such a slow start to the spring I certainly think it's rather late to be seeing the first young of some species. So far the list includes robin, song thrush, blackcap, blue, great, long-tailed and willow tit (see last week's post!), treecreeper, mallard, coot, moorhen, shelduck (first confirmed on site since 2010), little ringed plover, ringed plover, lapwing and most recently, mute swan. Only 2 cygnets seem to have hatched on site so far, but still lovely to see them feeding away on Phase 1 with their parents.
Still notably absent so far this year are any great crested grebe young and with at least 5-6 pairs on site and regular breeding in recent years, I would hope to see some this year - do keep an eye open and let us know if you see any.
Insects are gradually increasing, with promising numbers of painted lady. Painted ladies are truly remarkable insects, but not alone in their impressive migrations from north Africa, through southern Europe to the UK. In years of abundance further south, huge numbers of butterflies can make the journey to northern Europe (including the UK) as their foodplants deplete further south. It is predicted that 2015 may be a 'painted lady year', with massive numbers of the butterfly reaching our shores. The last time this happened was 2009, so it would be most welcome to see large numbers again this year.
Painted ladies aren't the only Lepidopteran species to migrate long distances of course....the last two years at Langford have seen good numbers of clouded yellow - another species that, like the painted lady migrates from further south sometimes in numbers. Even tiny moths are capable of making the journey too, the diamond-back moth, Plutella xylostella, a micro moth of the Plutellidae family, is capable of migrating long distances much like painted ladies or clouded yellows, but has a wingspan of a mere 13-15mm - fabulous!
Odonata-wise, we now have both emperor dragonfly and brown hawker on the wing, as well as thousands of common blue and azure damselflies and one of my personal favourites, the red-eyed damselfly.