Sunday May 22 - overwhelmed by wildlife

The thing about wildlife watching at Morton Bagot as Spring eases into early Summer is that the creatures available leave you quite dizzy. There's so much to see. The only calm period is the first hour, when it should be just birds.

Dave and I chose to walk up the road for a change, noting that the Garden Warbler is still singing, a Grey Wagtail may have a territory, and at least 10 House Martins are hawking insects over their traditional colony at Netherstead. Better late than never.

By late morning we were walking down the slope from Bannams Wood, and the emphasis started to switch to insects. A Small Yellow Underwing was flitting low over the grass. This little moth emerges each year, but we never see many.

Small Yellow Underwing

Butterflies included double figures of Small Heath, our first Common Blue which disappeared before I could get a shot, and several Brown Argus which were much more obliging.

Brown Argus

Before you know where you are, it feels impossible to look up. But we must. Anything could be flying over. So we proceeded, trying to look everywhere, and constantly finding new things...all of them insects.

New moths for the year were Celypha lacunana, and Silver-ground Carpet, a new damselfly was Blue-tailed Damselfly, and best of all an extraordinary insect tick (definitely the first I've ever seen) was an amazing longhorn beetle called Agapanthia villosoviridescens. 

Just wow !

We finally got to the flash field, where there was a decent edge. Having now seen all the expected summer migrants, the best hope for a new bird will surely be from here. Today it tantalised. A pair of Avocets have returned, and a single Little Ringed Plover walked into view. The most unexpected species was a fly-over Redpoll which called twice as we failed to locate it. Presumably there is a tiny population which has not withdrawn to the north when the rest of them went back for summer.

The Avocets

A single male Teal remains, and we were delighted to see a single Lapwing chick. Its prospects for survival are not great but it looked to be at least a week old, so maybe it will be the lucky one.

When I was young I was only interested in birds, and summer felt like a closed season. But a broader interest in other creatures, which has slowly developed through the years, is life enhancing. Now I love all the seasons equally.