15 Jun 17

The Fleet

A quick stop to see if there was anything about on the receding tide and in the distance there were 4 Dunlin on the waters edge plus at least 12 Little Terns feeding in the shallows. Also my first Rook here, seen by the entrance of the car park.

Perryfields Quarry Butterfly Reserve

A new Butterfly Reserve visited today on the island, this time Perryfields Quarry just opposite the cottage. Not a single blue butterfly seen here, perhaps it was to windy, but I did record 10 Meadow Browns, 4 Speckled Woods, 1 Large Skipper and 2 Dingy Skippers. Also seen were a Silver Y and a Burnet Moth as to which species I'm not sure as it didn't hang around to be ID 'd more specifically. And a Honey Bee was new for me here.

Always great to see corrugated sheets lying around and the first one I lifted revealed a Slow-worm absorbing the heat coming through from the sun.

Here are a few images from this afternoon:

Perryfield Quarry.........

...another really lovely site designated as a butterfly reserve.

In the distance the Young Offenders Institution. 

A Slow-worm. Not a snake but actually a legless Lizard.

A Large Skipper

One of quite a few Meadow Browns on the reserve.

Not a butterfly but a moth. This is a Silver Y.

A solitary bee possibly a carpenter or mining bee........

......and here is another bee sp.

A Honey-bee on a Dog Rose.

Episyrphus balteatus, often called the marmalade hoverfly.......

.......here it is flight.

A Grasshopper. A species to ID later.

In the quarry was a large pool of water which both Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls were using to bathe in.

Here another Herring Gull arrives as a Carrion Crow looks on.