14 JULY 2025 - FINGERINGHOE, ESSEX
John had booked an MOT on his car
(which passed) so we weren’t able to set off until shortly after 10.00 a.m.
from mine.
About an hour later, we arrived
at Fingeringhoe Nature Reserve - operated by the Essex Wildlife Trust and
immediately set off after checking out the most recent sightings.
Firstly, we attempted to find
White Letter Hairstreaks on elm trees from the car park, but only got Commas,
Peacock, Red Admiral butterflies, and Hornets nesting in a bee ‘hotel’ nearby.
Then, as we’d arrived later than anticipated, we did a rather rudimentary circuit
of the reserve, in an endeavour to get as many butterfly, dragonfly and bird
species as possible before returning to the car for lunch and setting off to a
hide on the River Colne in time for high tide at around 3.00 p.m.
Our first decent record was of a
single male Purple Hairstreak that I found feeding on Bramble; it wasn’t in any
sort of prime condition (although I missed another one nearby that was in a better state) but I managed a couple of telephoto shots before we moved on.
Other Purple Hairstreaks were seen at varying locations, but normally on Oak
trees. Other butterflies included Red Admirals; Peacocks; Commas; Speckled
Woods; Gatekeepers; Meadow Browns and both Large and Small Whites. Mike found a
female Peregrine soaring overhead with gulls, which was unexpected here.
Dragonfly species included a single Ruddy Darter and a Brown Hawker, but
nothing exceptional; and a species of Ichneumon Fly which refused to settle as
it hawked around for wasp burrows to lay eggs in. On the way back to the car, a
single butterfly flashed by us (I was behind the guys so didn’t get a good view)
but John thought it was a White Admiral, and sure enough it was relocated along
the ride when eventually we gained super close views as it settled on a
bramble, in competition with Whites and Red Admirals. Fortunately, I was able
to fire off several shots before the butterfly zoomed off - as they are
extremely strong flyers. It was a first for the year for all of us, and our
good fortune to see it. Back at the centre another (or the same one maybe) was
on a buddleia bush with Red Admirals and Peacock butterflies.
After consuming our lunches and
spending another futile 20 minutes or so looking for White Letter Hairstreaks
(well, to be fair we did in fact get glimpses of Hairstreak species on the elms
but were unable to specifically identify them as White Letters) we headed down
to Margaret’s Hide in time for the high tide. Meanwhile, the Hornets were a
little more active at the bee ‘hotel’ but of course I needed to be extremely
careful when taking photographs for obvious reasons.
On the way to the hide, a Turtle
Dove could be heard ‘purring’ gently somewhere close by, and it didn’t take
long before John had the bird in his scope and we were enjoying excellent views
of this beautiful, enigmatic dove, that this year had shown a decent recovery
in migration numbers from the disastrous numbers of recent years.
The guys tramped on to the hides
whilst I lingered long behind trying to take in the excellent numbers of
butterflies – mainly Gatekeepers and Meadows Browns, with a sprinkling of Small
Skippers, Small Heaths and Common Blues, along the extremely dry pathways,
together with a few dragonfly species such as Ruddy Darters; Common Darters and
Common Blue Damselflies. Nearing the hides I picked male and female Common
Blues, a male Brown Argus, and a Small Copper butterfly.
Into the hide and I’d just missed
a distant Spotted Redshank feeding along the banks of a dyke off the River
Colne, but was just in time to see a Common Greenshank and an adult Whimbrel. There
were many Common Redshanks and Black-tailed Godwits - well in excess of 200
individuals - huddled together on mud islets, or out on the still exposed
mudflats - with small numbers of Grey
Plovers, and Little Egrets, with sporadic gatherings of Oystercatchers and
Black-headed Gulls - all waiting for the rising tide to push them off; which of
course it did eventually - indeed considerably earlier than we believed it
would. It was only 2.30 p.m.
On the way back to the car - with
a Turtle Dove still purring in the distance - we enjoyed another brief
encounter with a White Admiral - before
finally taking drinks in the café. The last bird we saw was an adult Red
Kite soaring over the complex in the mid-afternoon sunlight, but still no signs
of any White Letter Hairstreaks on the elms in the car park.
We’d seen fifteen species of
butterfly; six species of Dragonfly; and around twenty or so species of birds.
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