It’s all action on Digger Alley now, with all of the usual suspects on show: bee-wolves, ornate-tailed wasps, red-banded sand wasps, ruby-tailed (jewel) wasps, pantaloon bees, green-eyed flower-bees, pointy-bum bees, dunes chafers and much more besides. Steve and Davene, our Digger Alley experts, even think they may have discovered another new species of pointy-bum bee this week!
Ruby-tailed wasp by Steve Everett
Butterflies are putting on a good show too, with excellent numbers of silver-washed fritillaries and white admirals along the Woodland Trail as well as several purple hairstreaks both here and around the oaks in the North Bushes. Graylings have now emerged and can been around the dunes or even on the Buddleia bushes. Other butterflies to spot include brown argus, common blue, small heath, large, small and Essex skippers, red admiral, peacock, comma, ringlet, meadow brown, gatekeeper and painted lady.
The pond continues to be a great place to spot dragonflies, including emperor dragonflies, brown, southern and Norfolk hawkers, four-spotted chasers, red-eyed, emerald, azure and blue-tailed damselflies. More surprisingly, we’ve had reports of banded demoiselle both at the pond and on Whin Hill this week – this species is more typically associated with slow-moving rivers, so is best seen around the New Cut.
Banded demoiselle
In the reedbed it’s great to see several marsh harrier fledglings on the wing, and often perching in bushes close to Bittern Hide. Bitterns are still seen regularly, as are hobbies and bearded tits, while at least one glossy ibis and great egret remain. There are good numbers of moulting gadwalls and mallards at Island Mere as well as several broods of great crested grebes.
The Scrape sadly continues to be badly affected by the double-whammy of bird flu and the continuing dry weather, with numbers of gulls and terns rapidly declining as birds begin to migrate away. In their place, we’re seeing numbers and variety of southbound waders increasing, including common, green and wood sandpipers, spotted redshanks, ruffs, dunlins and snipe.
Green sandpiper by Paul Lloyd