Yesterday the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the insects were buzzing for the June volunteer Sunday work party. 11 people arrived on a beautiful morning ready for some work including trimming encroaching vegetation off the public footpath – important to keep the access nice and clear, especially now with our new car park and re-surfaced path open. The group also helped to finish off our new pond dipping platform, that will hopefully provide educational activities for school children in the future and continued on with the beach hut renovations – which will eventually serve as a welcome area/mini visitor centre for when our internal access opens later this year.
A massive thanks to all who attended the day, loads of work done and a really enjoyable day!
And the wildlife wasn’t bad either, with 3 hobby’s over Phase 1, 4 buzzards and 2 avocets providing the avian entertainment and plenty of insects too. Firsts for the year included adult Gastrophysa viridula, otherwise known as the green dock beetle. A very gravid female (full of eggs) on a dock plant on Phase 2, but only the one - a poor year for these guys seemingly. Cocksfoot moth, or Glyphipteryx simpliciella was another first, a tiny but very pretty micro-moth. They fly during the day from May – July and are showing up well resting on ox-eye daisy flowers on the Phase 1 grassland.
Hundreds of damselflies were swarming all over the Phase 1 grassland too, mostly common blue, azure and blue-tailed damselflies, presumably there has been a mass emergence in the last few days now the weather has improved.
Cercopis vulnerata, the red and black froghopper are now out in force and can be seen perched out on tall grass stems, but you have to be careful to get a good look – being froghoppers, they can jump well if disturbed!
And a quick update from this morning - 3 hobby still over Phase 1, a Mediterranean gull circling with black-headed gulls, also over Phase 1 (my latest site tick!), the damselfly emergence contiunes and a lovely little micro-moth by the viewing screen, identified as either Cydia or Dichrorampha - got to love micros, certainly an ID challenge!