Slippery customer

After a visit to the Lowestoft North Beach area yesterday evening, I resolved not to look there this morning as I had seen very little.

This was a big mistake as a Roseate Tern spent the early morning on the groynes there but as usual I missed it, this must be around the 12th time I have twitched one unsuccessfully in Lowestoft and not to mention the countless visits I spend trying to find one myself in this area in July & August. 

Some birders go in for year lists, I could never do this as I have rotten luck I usually miss a lot of birds this way & Roseate Tern is currently my bogey bird this year, I've even missed them at Minsmere this year where everyone else has seen them. Perhaps I should compile a list of birds dipped, I'm sure I'd be the undisputed winner here, last year in the Spring I tried to twitch Thrush Nightingale, Great Reed Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Purple Heron, Temminck's Stint and missed them all I had about 8 successive unsuccessful trips to Minsmere for these birds, this must be some kind of record.

Back in the garden, 4 Painted Lady butterflies were on the Buddlea and at around 11am as I was attempting to hook the washing line onto it's hook, I heard something rustling underneath and I was just in time to see a Grass Snake slither out of sight.

Greenfinch R.I.P.

Yesterday I was out in the garden photographing Red Admiral & a couple of Painted Lady butterflies (after seeing Migrant Hawkers dragonflies flying early in the morning & a Brown Hawker in the early evening) when I heard a rustling noise from the fish pond and a very bedraggled male Greenfinch was literally a foot away from me. It sheltered under a bush, but was clearly something very wrong with it. The bird just stayed put and didn't fly off as you would expect from a healthy bird.

I put out some seed and left the bird. I checked the bush again this evening and sadly found it's corpse. I retrieved it and buried it in the garden, a sad end for such a fine looking bird, but I take heart that it's descendants; juvenile Greenfinches are feeding on the sunflower seed feeders as I type this blog.

Two by two & deja vu!

2 female Migrant Hawkers were seen in the garden this evening hawking for food, one of them perched for some time of the wooden pagoda, whilst 2 Painted Lady butterflies also sunned themselves too.

Whilst relaying a tale to a work colleague this morning about being stung by a Wasp for no apparent reason when it alighted onto my finger whilst I was in Norwich market place yesterday, I heard an irritating buzzing noise near my left ear and I swotted the offending insect away, it was another Wasp and it got its revenge by stinging me on the neck!!

Hawk Moth caterpillar

A large black 2 and a half inch caterpiller seen feeding on the lower leaves of my runner bean plants proved to be the larvae of an Elephant Hawk Moth.

This caterpillar was mostly black with the telltale spike at the near the rear of its body, a couple of brown eyelets near its head and the tail end showing a distinct trunk-like appendage giving the moth its name.

Apparently Elephant Hawk Moths often feed on Honeysuckle plants and we have several at the moment which have been in flower for several weeks.

The Return & Summer Surprise

A very pleasant early Sunday morning stroll from 8am along the Lowestoft North Beach seawall,

was initially disappointing with no hoped for birds in Links Road car park.

On the old groynes several Common terns were seen and on another they were joined by an immature Kittiwake. On the seaweed encrusted rocks (a wreck of the original seawall) a group of Turnstone and 3 Dunlin, one bird in still reasonably good summer plumage (rufus back and black belly patch) fed on invertebrates amongst the seaweed. 

Amongst the Gulls on the Oval stood a roosting adult Yellow- legged Gull, which when disturbed by the groundsman flew past me and eventually settled on the groynes.

At Ness Point, a very welcome but unseasonal fine summer plumaged Purple Sandpiper, complete with dark cap more rufus back and black mottled band on its breast with more streaking on its back than the more usual ones seen in the winter, fed on the seaweed encrusted prominentary or "finger"

Nearby, a fine resplendent white headed juvenile Yellow- legged Gull stood on another groyne.  

Dashing new garden tick!

As I drove back from my visit to North Norfolk, I drew into the road where we live at precisely 7.53pm this evening and I immediately saw the dark lithe dashing shape of a Hobby fly west over the garden across the road then over the car and west towards Blundeston.

I always like seeing Hobbies, these athletic Falcons are summer visitors and prey on flying insects such as Dragonflies and Cockchafers.

This was a brand new record of this species, at this particular location. Funnily enough when I first moved into my previous residence in Oulton Broad one had flown up the road there also. 

Also seen in the garden this morning were several Peacock butterflies, Large Whites and singles of Small White, Painted Lady & Gatekeeper. 

Second chance for Great Spotted Cuckoo

Just over a week ago, a Great Spotted Cuckoo, usually a summer visitor to the southern Mediterranean, had made landfall at Weybourne in North Norfolk on the Thursday & Friday but had disappeared by the weekend. This is a very rare visitor to these shores and the last one , indeed the only other British bird I had seen was a bright immature seen at Aldeburgh, Suffolk in early November way back in 1992, some 17 years ago! 

However the Norfolk bird was seen again briefly today first thing this morning, then reported as still being by the Weybourne camp radar station. 

Hitching a lift with John, we parked at Kelling and took the mile long footpath to the beach. Where we immediately saw the wonderful adult type Great Spotted Cuckoo perched on a distant wire fence above the compound. It was a somewhat faded bird but a stunner nonetheless!

It quickly flew right and we eventually picked it up perched on a green bush, much nearer to us.

It fed on at least one caterpillar, perched in tall vegetation hunting for food and grubs before it eventually flew over the hill. 

Also seen especially by the beach area were literally hundreds, if not, thousands of Ladybirds of the 7-spot variety, one fence post had over a hundred clinging to it and around 30 alighted onto my person. John had even more on him and was even bitten by them twice! They obviously liked me because I wasn't bitten at all. 

In the last 10 days there have been more 7-spot Ladybirds seen locally but not in the number seen here where hundreds could be seen on the beach sadly squashed. 

The explanation of why there has been so many maybe linked to the rotating weather conditions of hot sunshine and showers which have provided ideal for an explosion in their numbers.  

I remember way, way back during my late middle school years in the summer of 1976, some 33 years ago (I am now 44 years old) seeing literally thousands flying along Worthing road as I walked to Harris Middle school in Lowestoft one morning. They had followed on, weeks after there had been literally tens of thousands of Greenfly, it was almost like a biblical plague.