08/08/20-Bee and buddleia in the garden and birds and butterflies on another scorcher at Farlington Marshes
It was lovely to watch the yellow and purple buddleia in the garden before we went out today in very hot sun glowing nicely, seeing Large White butterfly and bees around it. I took the first picture in this photoset of bees and buddleia in the garden.
This afternoon I made my return to the coast again this year after an obvious gap in going there due to strict lockdown, visiting the coast for the first time since we went to Portland and Lodmoor in Weymouth, Dorset the culmination in principle of our splendid June week off which kicked off here at Farlington Marshes. On the hottest of days once more today it felt so good to make the most of being at the coast and the sea air. I just loved seeing everything look so blue and pure and I liked the almost creamy look of the landscape with the hot and bright sun sitting nicely on the edge of the clouds all walk with some interesting cloud formations in the air too. I took the second, third, fourth and fifth pictures in this photoset the views here today, as well as the eighth of some seaweed (or similar) very visible in some incredibly clear water beside the sea wall.
As we walked along the sea wall I was very happy to see a big and erratically flying butterfly come towards us, we just made out it was a Painted Lady. It was the first time I had seen this iconic migratory butterfly species this year after seeing them again and again last summer in a boom year where I did see one here. This made me very happy they are a special butterfly and never one I’m guaranteed to see in a year. But to fall flat after last year with them would have been sad. It’s butterfly 41 of my year which I am so thrilled with it’s only one butterfly behind the amount I saw in 2018 so I still have a shot at making my butterfly year list my second highest ever behind last year which is something it would deserve for how lucky I’ve been that its been this good. It was my first butterfly year tick since Chalkhill Blue at Stockbridge Down four days sky of a month ago so it was nice to tick off another species.
What’s more it was the only butterfly that you can submit sightings for in Butterfly Conservation’s ‘Big Butterfly Count’ which I had yet to see whilst doing it this year. I was able to include this in a big butterfly count today so it’s the first time I have ever counted every single species at least once over the course of this survey in the summer so this felt amazing. Elsewhere in the count I saw 7 Gatekeeper, 5 Small Heath, 3 Meadow Brown, 2 Common Blue and Large White, 1 Small White and 1 Peacock.
We saw some top wading birds on the lake, including many splendid bronze plumaged Black-tailed Godwits, full plumage Grey Plovers and lovely looking always Greenshanks in big numbers. As we walked around the sea wall we came to a nice piece of reedbed where we got a cracking view of a Sedge Warbler. It was great to see one of my favourite birds and what’s more for a second time in a year after my first of the year at Common Marsh in June. These days I do rather often only see them once in a year or the second might be when it’s a bit easier too when watching the BTO ring them in the demonstration at the Bird Fair at Rutland Water. So it was good to see one twice this year, and even more positive in a sense this coming here and Common Marsh and not along the River Itchen at Shawford where I saw them the last two years as it broadens where we can rely on to see them when the time comes in years now. I also saw a gorgeous Hobby fly over the lake putting all the birds up from here.
As we had a nice walk along the sea wall we saw loads of orange erratically flying butterflies that were a little smaller flying around the grass, the dirt and the wall and even out to sea. They could only be Wall Browns, a butterfly we had seen that day in Portland but didn’t get the very best of looks at with it flying over the bill car park. But today there was no doubt these were Wall Browns and it was fantastic to see them again they are so beautiful. One of our most prominent species of butterfly really. They frequent this kind of raw, relatively bare/short grassed habitat often by the coast. They do seem to have had a burst out in this hot weather judging by social media. This was special though as this is the first of the species I have ever seen in my home county Hampshire. This is a species I first saw in Pembrokeshire, Wales in a perfect coastal path location for them and saw them again and again there and it was mind blowing enough finding out they were about in neighbouring Dorset at Portland in 2016 and Durlston in 2017 I’ve seen them in Dorset between those two locations mainly Durlston every year since but to actually have them in my home county is something else as I associated them as a far away species really. I really was so lucky to see so many of then today what an experience. All of this really underpinned what I’ve learnt the last couple of years and our last visit here in the late spring that this nature reserve we’ve always known for birds is a fantastic location for butterflies too with so many about in the season. It does stand to reason actually as its renowed for its rare and varied grasses I was once told on an information tour round there.
We walked in the grassy cut through and were happy to see and hear hundreds of Starlings probably noisily chatting and flying and piling into trees. A hive of activity which it was fun to witness many flew over our heads. I took the seventh picture in this photoset of some in trees. There were also quite nice large groups of Oystercatcher flying high over us against the blue sky at this point which was lovely to see too. I took the sixth picture in this photoset of them no Farlington visit is complete without this bird the last few years I’ve found, and ninth and tenth pictures of Meadow Pipit and Redshank both on posts nearby to each other it was great to see them both stars of Farlington too especially the former which I saw my first ever of here in 2007. A brilliant way to safely spend a very hot day today I did really enjoy it.
Wildlife Sightings Summary: My first Painted Lady of the year, four of my favourite birds the Little Egret, Shelduck including a young one, Sedge Warbler and a Buzzard that like a Carrion Crow sat on the same pole for the entire visit pretty much which was memorable, Hobby, Goldfinch, Starling, Linnet, Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting, Woodpigeon, a cracking view of a Swallow right beside my head over the sea, Herring Gull, Great Black Backed Gull; Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Mallard, Moorhen, Canada Goose, Redshank, Greenshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Lapwing, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Grey Heron, Wall Brown, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Peacock, a dragonfly could not quite see which with how fast it flew and moths.
