Warm, dry and sunny, NE 3 - A superb summers day with the warmth tempered by a fresh airflow coming off the North Sea. The wet spring and early June combined with the recent sunshine has resulted in a kaleidoscope of botanical colours across the shingle ridges. As the yellows and reds of broom and foxglove respectively fade, the blues of scabious and bugloss dominate the colour palate; particularly Viper`s Bugloss, an important source of nectar for bees and a wide variety of other invertebrates including moth caterpillars. At Lade yesterday great swathes of the flower were alive with insects, and again today on a walk out to the Oppen Pits behind Burrowes, where also countless damselflies were on the wing in the sun trap between the two lakes along with numerous grassland butterflies such as Common Blue, Small Heath, Small Skipper and Meadow Brown. Birdwise this can be a quiet time of year as the solstice approaches and migration takes a pause, although the breeding passerines will be onto their second clutches by now. The deep water of New Diggings was devoid of birds in contrast to Burrowes which held hundreds of moulting diving ducks, gulls, Cormorants and grebes, while it was good to see several Sand Martins exploring the wall by the visitor centre.
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