Thursday 11th August 2016

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Guided Walk No 13 ...


Today was our thirteenth guided walk of the season, a Strandline Safari.

We started by taking a look at a plant I happened to notice as I approached the entrance to the reserve, Twiggy Mullein, a plant which has been noted in the county since the 1970's but not on a regular basis.


Twiggy Mullein

Nature has a way of doing what she wants and today most of the strandline was covered by sand with nothing out of the ordinary washed up, nevertheless we had an enjoyable stroll along the beach looking for the elusive "Beachcomber or Strandline" beetle, no we didn't find any but its pretty rare so.....

What we encountered were more signs of the onset of Autumn in the natural world, with good numbers of migratory birds on the beach, with 405 (and counting) Sanderling 44+ Common Ringed Plover and a handful of Dunlin.


Distant, Sanderling with the odd Dunlin


We made our way off the beach and over the dunes taking a detour to look at the salt marsh plants (the third time in a week),  we disturbed Silver Y moths again on a couple of occasions.


Silver Y moth

Then back towards the vehicles via one of the grazing fields, at the pond we were lucky to flush a Green Sandpiper, another migrating wader, from the very muddy margins, this is the first record for 2016.










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