Gibralter Point.....

Common-blue Butterflies

Roosting Common-blue Butterfly

Female Short-winged Conehead

An early start today,to visit this cracking reserve,had me enjoying some great bird and wildlife sightings over the next seven and a half hours.To start with i visited Tennysons Sands to be greeted with an almost Mediterranean sight of 54 Little Egret and 5 Spoonbill all feeding together,talk about brilliant!,this coupled with Wood,Green and Common Sandpiper,breeding Avocet and Little-ringed Plover,made for an excellent showing from the avian world and what a start!.I then wandered up to Jackson's Marsh,seeing at least 20 or 30 roosting Common-blue Butterflies,Roesel's bush-Crickets calling away in the rank grassland here and more Little Egrets and Green Sandpiper.In Syke's Farm,there was plenty of young warblers,which included both Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers and also a lovely juvenile Garden Warbler,these are cracking birds,with their subtle colours.By this time it was getting hot and i walked back to the car to unload some gear and go and look for dragons and butterflies.The best area for the former,was the Mill pond,where i enjoyed excellent views of the increasing Small red-eyed Damselfly,male Emperor,Common and Ruddy Darter and Black-tailed Skimmer.Butterflies where widespread,with a couple of Essex Skipper,Wall and several Peacock.I managed,at last to get some good shots of Short-winged Conehead,with me finding a female in the middle of one of the many paths and she was a beauty!,there was also Lesser-marsh Grasshoppers everywhere and they seemed to be the commonest Grasshopper.Other sightings observed en-route,included a Little Owl sat on a roadside fence post near Ludborough and a Muntjac along the approach road to Gib.An excellent day out despite the travelling.