July homepage picture:
Puffin - an atypical sight at Chew in the summer. Or at any other time for that matter.
This is a plug for my new Flickr pages, where I've uploaded a load of Puffin shots from my recent trip to Skomer.
Over the last few months I've accumulated rather a nasty backlog of photos taken locally, and a load from Cuba, which I'm getting rather behind with both processing and uploading. Because the photo pages on this site are hand-coded, each upload is a tiresome affair, even with the able assistance of Messrs. copy and paste.
So, updates from now on will link straight to Flickr, although there'll still be an index and some galleries on this site.
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JULY at Chew
Moulting flocks of Coot, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Gadwall and Great Crested Grebe should be noticeable - there might even be a few scarcities such as a Garganey or Common Scoter. The increasing evening flocks of gulls should include the first Mediterranean Gulls of the autumn, and if the water levels start to drop, then Bernard King hide and Villice Bay might be the best places to look for waders. Green Sandpipers will be among the first to appear, along with 'local' species such as LRP, Lapwing, Redshank and Common Sandpiper. Perhaps the first Black Terns will be through by the end of the month.
You might see these:
Mute Swan - Usually at least 100 birds as non-breeders arrive to moult.
Canada Goose - A big moulting flock of several hundred should be on the lake. Check them for the occasional exotic!
Gadwall - There should be a build-up of moulting birds as the month goes by - there could be over a hundred on Herriott's Pool by the end of the month
Ferruginous Duck - Check the Aythya flocks at Stratford Bay and Herriott's - the usual male is likely to be around somewhere
Common Scoter - Sometimes a few appear for a day as they move through (usually drakes)
Hobby - Keep an eye out as they could be around any time
Coot - Numbers should build up to well over a thousand as birds arrive to moult
Green Sandpiper - The first returning ones should trickle through at anytime
Yellow-legged Gull - One or two birds should appear; look for them perched on bouys in the middle of the lake first thing in the mornings
Common Tern - Usually a few birds pass through
Swift - Expect thousands in wet or windy weather
Also:
Red-eared Terrapin - An introduced species. In hot weather they like to sun themselves at the waters edge - check any exposed logs or branches looking north from Herriott's Bridge
Purple Hairstreak - Usually reliable in the old Nunnery car park by the B3114; climb to the top of the gravel pile at the far end and look on the ash trees
Lunar Hornet Moth - Difficult to find, but check the base of sallows in the morning and you may catch one of these impressive wasp-mimics after they hatch out from inside the tree trunk!
Small Red-eyed Damselfly - Never occurred at Chew, but definitely on the cards. What about Heron's Green Pool?
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