Landshipping Quay this afternoon

It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so we did one of our regular walks to Landshipping Quay. A few more waders were in the area, including a couple of redshanks and six common sandpipers in two groups of three. 

A distant shot of three of the sandpipers resting on some bladder wrack

A mixed flock of gulls was feeding near the Eastern and Western Cleddau confluence. They were mostly black-headed, but we could see at least two Med gulls in the flock (adults more or less in winter plumage). Our view was  bit distant so there could have been more. 

However, the main reason for our walk today was to record butterflies along a transect route we walk almost weekly between April and September. The highlight was holly blue – we had our highest ever count of this species in 20 years of annual recording. The second generation of this species seems to have benefitted from the excellent spring weather earlier in the year.