Messingham Sand Quarry Bird Race 2012

On Sunday Wayne and I did our annual bird race - this year we concentrated on Messingham Reserve only.  A 03.30 very frosty start gave us a Water Rail, 4 Tawny Owls and a few Reed Warblers.  Notable totals throughout the day were; 18 Blackcaps, 5 Garden Warblers, 16 Reed Warblers, 4 Sedge Warblers, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Common Whitethroats plus double figure counts of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs.  On a downward side Willow Tits were right down at only 1 pair and as water levels remain high our only waders were Common Sandpiper, 6 Avocet and a flyover Whimbrel and one drumming Snipe in the car-park - is this the only druming Snipe left in the Scunthorpe reporting area?

When the sun came out raptors were represented by 2 Hobbies, numerous Buzzards, 2 Kestrels, 3 Sparrowhawks and 5 Marsh Harriers.

Our final total was 89 species which isn't so bad for an inland reserve in the middle of a cold wet spring.

Messingham Sand Quarry’s Summer Flowers

The reserve at Messingham is looking truly wonderful at the moment with a wildflower display around every corner- thanks in the main to the hard work of John Davidson and John Petyt who due to an unfortunate turn of events are no longer in the roles of voluntary wardens of the reserve.  So if you want to see it at its best go now as in my opinion the Lincolnshire Trust who manage the reserve will not have the experience or expertise to maintain it in its present state.

Yarrow - Achillea millefolium

Sneezewort - Achillea ptarmica

Heathers with Hawkweed in the background

Narrow Leaved Hawkweed - Hieracium umbellatum

Tansy - Tanacetum vulgare

Great Willowherb - Epilobium hirsutum

Hemp Agrimony - Eupatorium cannabinum

Ragwort with a Cinnabar Caterpillar feeding on it - they absorb the bitter tasting alkaloids that make ragwort distasteful to animals and become distasteful to birds as a result. The bright colours are a warning to birds not to eat them.

Field Scabious - Knautia arvensis

Common Fleabane - Pulicaria dysenterica

Hedge Bindweed - Calystegia sepium

Red Admiral butterfly on Hemp Agrimony - seems to me to have been a poor year for butterflies except for Red Admirals and these are probably continental ones not our own.

Purple Loosestrife - Lythrum salicaria