North Cave Wetlands

Yesterday I was given a day pass as the other half had friends over. I decided to indulge my burgeoning interest in inverts but not before I check Holme-on-Spalding-Moor tip for gulls. Amongst a horde of Great Black-backed Gulls were a few Lesser Black-backs and a single Herring. A bonus was a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull with a nice strong mask and powerful build. Sadly the underwing and tail pattern werent seen but still a nice bird.

I quickly moved onto North Cave Wetlands and whilst I saw a few birds it was all inverts. Lots of sun = lots of stuff with Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral, Comma, Large, Small and Green-veined White, Peacock, Small Skipper and Small Tortoisehell in evidence. On the Damselfly front Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies were abundant. Four-spot Chaser, Common & Ruddy Darter plus some larger hawkers including i think(!) Brown Hawker & Migrant Hawker. Plenty of Black-tailed Skimmers were zooming about over the pools. Other bits and pieces included a Six-spot Burnet and a Silver Y. Hoverflies were very abundant and many were dark Eristalis sp. but I did manage to photograph a different morph of Eristalis intracarius to the one I saw at Strumpshaw last month. I also saw a fly with the most neon green eyes you can imagine and plenty more besides.