June was mainly flaming in the unfamiliar manner. But a succession of fronts passing through the area in the last week spoilt what promised to be a record spell of hot weather. In turn, they did bring some welcome rain after an eight week drought.
Two species bred for the first time in the park, but one was rather more obvious than the other. The pair of Common Terns that nested on the northern park were rather defensive of their brood of two youngsters and often took to mobbing people walking along the boardwalk. Although not likely to cause injury, the sudden appearance of a diving tern within inches of your head certainly makes the point that closer approach to their young is not a good idea! By contrast, the Skylark that nested in the northern meadows probably failed to register with most visitors. They were generally inconspicuous while going about their daily round of collecting insect food for their brood of young hidden in the tall grasses.
Wildfowl continued to have a very mixed season, due in part to the weather. The Middle Lagoon all but dried out again for the second successive year. Although eight pairs of Little Grebes were present, only two broods had hatched by 26 June, with one youngster fledging. The pair of Great crested Grebe did not even nest, but the number of birds increased to four in mid month as a failed pair joined the two locals. By contrast, the two pairs of Mute Swans both hatched young and the two broods of eight and six appeared to be growing rapidly and thriving. There are currently only five broods of cygnets throughout the whole of the clay pits from 18 pairs, so the Waters’ Edge proportion is exceptional.
Five broods of Pochard hatched with 33 young being seen. But by the month end, there were less than five of these remaining on the park. Some broods may have moved away from the site because the females do move youngsters, overland, in search of favoured rearing waters but the fledging rate looks to be dismal. Eight broods of Tufted Duck hatched 56 young. This is an excellent total. As usual, they were a couple of weeks later than the Pochard, with most broods appearing in the third and fourth weeks of the month.
Two Ruddy Duck broods look set to fledge 14 young, but Coot are having a second poor season while Moorhen broods are still appearing. The number of summering Gadwall reached 23 in the last week, but as yet there has not been one brood hatched. Mallard have produced 18 broods with 125 ducklings, of which 56 have already fledged.
Sparrowhawks failed to nest again this year and it is unfortunate that Kestrels also disappeared following the incident in April, when their box blew down in a gale.
Waders were poorly represented during the month. No Little Ringed Plovers bred in 2004, but there were three adults on 17 June. A pair of Ringed Plover hatched two young, but only one of these survived to 26 June, by which time it was well grown. Rather un-seasonal was the presence of a party of two to five Turnstone. Turnstones nest in the high Arctic, but these were likely to have been immature birds spending their summer in more southerly climes. A party of four Black-tailed Godwit fed on the new lagoons on 6 June, a male Ruff flew west low over the park on 25 June and the first returning Redshank arrived on 20 June with the first Dunlin on 26 June.
House Martins were a daily sight as they gathered mud for their nests from the edges of the ponds in the northern park, with peak day counts of up to 30 birds. The seeding grasses on the northern meadows pulled in several families of seed-eating finches. Greenfinches originally dominated the species composition when 31 birds were present. However, later in the month, House Sparrows became the number one species with 46 counted on 26 June. Linnets, Goldfinches and even the odd Chaffinch also joined the feeding throngs.
Enthusiastic mobbing by Blackbirds in the south-eastern ash trees on 23 June led to a search for a roosting Tawny Owl. This was doubly successful on the morning of 25 June when two fledged youngsters were visible from Pasture Road as they sunned themselves on the lower branches of an old ash.
The five butterflies added to the park year list in June took the annual total to date to 17 species - an excellent showing. The warm weather in the first half of the month was good for butterflies, but in spite of the good variety, there were seldom large numbers of any particular species. Speckled Woods continued to be much in evidence, with second brood individuals appearing. The last Orange-tips, a male and female were seen on 6 June - an excellent day that produced no less than eleven species on the park. These included the first records of the year for Large Skipper, Painted Lady and Brown Argus. The latter species was not recorded in 2003, so it made a welcome return to the more open bare areas on the northern park. Here, a single individual was seen along with a Common Blue. In total five Common Blues were seen on 6 June when there were also two Small Coppers.
The Painted Lady was the first of this classic migrant for the year. It occurred during a good influx of this southern species, along with several Red Admirals - another migrant. Large Skippers occur in the grassland and can often be seen perching on bramble leaves on the edges of the pathways. They prefer slightly more sheltered locations such as Marsh Lane. Two of the common grassland butterflies emerged later in the month with the first Meadow Browns on 13 June and Ringlets on 20 June. The Ringlet is a very dark brown butterfly with a narrow white edge to the upperwings, which can often be found perching in the long grass or on low bushes and trees in the west of the park.
Dragonflies were rather more disappointing with just the three common damselflies, Blue-tailed, Azure and Common Blues being seen. There were also a few Black-tailed Skimmers and the first Ruddy Darter on 25 June. To date there have been no records of Broad-bodied Chaser or even Four-spotted Chaser this year.