Most of the group had already arrived as I drew into the car park at the Rimac entrance to Saltfleetby/Theddlethorpe NNR, one of my favourite places to visit. The walk was organised by Natural England who manage the reserve and led by Lincs Butterfly Conservation committee members, Dave Wright and Toby Ludlow. Dave and Toby are both incredibly skilled at butterfly ID and knowledgeably about their ecology. Twenty of us made our way south from the car park, taking in the easy access trail and then following the path through the dunes to the MOD track which we followed to the edge of the salt marsh. We returned to the car park by following the path along the dune/msalt marsh edge. We were very fortunate with the weather. It was sunny and warm despite the constant nagging NE wind which we have had for days now. We saw the following butterflies: brown argus, small heath, green hairstreak, small copper, peacock, wall, common blue, small white and orange tip. Day flying moths included: burnett companion, silver Y, grass rivulet, lattice heath, mother shipton, cinnabar and yellow belle. We were fortunate to see a few dragonflies and damselflies: female broad-bodied chaser, four-spotted chaser, hairy dragonfly, azure damselfly and large red damselfly. Notable birds we saw were skylark, swallow, swift, woodpigeon, crow, reed bunting, marsh harrier, mallard, gadwall, tufted duck, grey lag, grasshopper warbler (reeling from the top of a sea buckthorn - amazing!), chiffchaff, chaffinch, cuckoo, pheasant, avocet, little egret and buzzard. As well as southern marsh orchids I was delighted to find early marsh orchids.
An absolutely excellent day.
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