When the clouds cleared this morning and sun emerged, an almost constant trickle of white butterflies (seemed to be a mixture of Small and Large Whites from what I saw) began arriving from the east along the beach and over the sea. Nothing like the scenes from Norfolk last week (see HERE) but it's always exciting to see insect migration however heavy or light.
Because of this I took a walk down the harbour at lunch time, where a Painted Lady showed well, only my fifth of the year and another sign of butterfly migration...
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Yes their upperwing has most the colour, but their underwings are spectacular! |
Although most the whites I saw were the ones mentioned in the first paragraph, flying straight through, just for a change one of the local Wood Whites (saw five in all during this visit) actually decided to land for me...
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The wonderfully-shaped Wood White |
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An even better view! Rarely are they this approachable |
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Head-on Wood White |
I saw my first Ringlets of 2025 during this wander too, along with plenty of Meadow Browns. The Everlasting Pea is in flower at the moment at the harbour, be nice if the Long-tailed Blues returned!
I have some birds news too, thanks to a message on the local WhatsApp group. Shortly after midday today I had a five minute view of an Osprey fishing, or attempting to fish, on the upper Axe Estuary. Another consecutive year with a mid-summer Osprey record, presumably something to do with the expanding English breeding population?
We are now up to over twenty Black-tailed Godwits on Black Hole Marsh, but I missed the first returning Green Sandpiper of the 'autumn' which Ian M reported on 25th.
On 28th I gave the sea an hour as the wind was blowing from the right direction. Four adult Med Gulls west were my first for a while, also had 17 Common Scoter, 15 Manx Shearwaters and 10 Shelduck all west. But am still waiting for my first skua of 2025. On the Estuary afterwards I saw my first juvenile Black-headed Gull of the year.
With all this insect migration today, of course the moth trap is out again tonight...