WINTERTON TO HORSEY AND BACK

   Parking the car at Winterton I made the leisurely walk through the dunes to Horsey looking for butterflies and dragonflies without much success as the sun disappeared as soon as I started! Apart from a few Grayling  the only butterflies of note were one or two Small Coppers both species being shown below.

   Reaching Horsey I noticed one or two people with scopes looking in the distance for the Roller that had been reported in the area for the last few days. Eventually we spotted it but it was very elusive and so I spent the next couple of hours trying to get a picture but the bird never came close so I had to settle for this long range shot which at least shows the fantastic colour of this very rare visitor who normally frequents southern and eastern Europe and Africa.

   Returning to the dune area I encountered the amazing Kestral featured in the previous blog and then a beautiful male Stonechat which showed very well on a bramble bush. Turning around and looking at the flowers on the western side of the sea wall I saw several different looking butterflies which turned out to be Dark Green Fritillaries.

   Deciding to walk along the beach back to Winterton I immediately came across two Arctic Skuas which unfortunately chose to fly before I could get any pictures and so I carried on noting several various Terns diving for fish a little way out to sea. About halfway back I passed the area that is fenced off with electric wire to prevent people or predators disturbing the Little Tern colony as these small birds are very prone to disturbance. I was walking  a good 40 yards from the fencing along the beach as the tide was low when I heard the alarm calls of Little Terns and one or two adult birds flew straight at me just swooping up at the last minute. Looking around for the reason for these attacks I spotted a recently fledged youngster hiding in the footprint of one of the hundreds of people who had walked along this beach during the day. This fledgling was at least 50 yards from the protected area and must have been making it's way down to the shoreline to join the other youngsters who were being fed by the adults. I was encouraged by the numbers of young which would indicate a successful year of breeding for these at risk birds so after snapping a quick picture from a distance I hastily removed myself from the area and made my way back to the car.