June 9th
The morning began with a very nice bird when Derek Smith had a male Golden Oriole flying W at 0615 from Shuart towards Chamber's Wall. Other birds he saw on his walk from Shuart and along the embankment to Coldharbour and Plumpudding between 0530 and 0900 included 1 Little Egret E offshore, 4 Cormnorants feeding offshore, 2 Sandwich Terns, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 12 Shelduck, 3 Tufted Ducks, 2 Dunlin, 2 Cuckoos, 4 Yellow Wagtails, 5 Cetti's Warblers, 26 Whitethroats, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Blackcaps, 26 Reed Warblers, 28 Sedge Warblers and 2 Chiffchaffs.
We walked along the seawall from Reculver to Coldharbour and recorded 2 Pied Wagtails, 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls, 1 Fulmar W, 4 Whitethroats, 11 Oystercatchers, 5 Little Egrets, 4 Linnets, 3 Little Egrets, 3 Shelduck, 1 Kestrel, 32 Mallard, 4 Yellow Wagtails, 2 Sandwich Terns W, 1 immature Eider, 2 Common Terns, 4 Ringed Plovers, 1 Cuckoo and 1 Grey Partridge flying off the beach near Coldharbour. We also saw a Painted Lady butterfly.

Male Yellow Wagtail catching pollen beetles on the seawall

For the second year running, today we had at least 7 Long-horned Bees feeding on Nepeta or Catmint in our garden.

Male Long-horned Bee