North winds throughout August provided lots of interest over the sea, highlights included: two sooty shearwater, 21 Manx shearwater, two roseate tern (19^th), 18 little tern, three long-tailed skua (including an adult), four pomarine skua, 20 great skua, 134 Arctic skua and two black tern. Good numbers of winter wildfowl were also recorded arriving such as wigeon, teal and pintail.

It was a poor year for the local marsh harriers with just a single chick raised from three pairs. Two pairs were thought to have failed with territories abandoned mid-summer. Typically, juveniles will linger around the nest for a couple of weeks before dispersing. Considering the good breeding productivity achieved in recent years it is bound to ebb and flow from time to time. Hopefully 2023 will be a successful year for our local marsh harriers.

Anderby Marsh completely dried up in the first week of the month, when you consider the lack of rain this year, it is astonishing that the water has been maintained here for so long. How will the marsh look during a wet winter/spring? The effects of the drought have also been noticed elsewhere such as at Huttoft Pit. Water levels have reached an all-time low here revealing a considerable muddy margin around the periphery of the lagoon. This muddy margin has produced the perfect habitat for wading birds on migration and is almost acting as a secondary habitat to Anderby Marsh.   

Huttoft Pit highlights over the month were 28 black-tailed godwit, 14 avocet (including all the breeding birds from Anderby Marsh), 24 redshank, 12 common sandpiper, three whimbrel, 23 curlew, three snipe, little ringed plover, two wood sandpiper, seven green sandpiper, two greenshank, dunlin, four lapwing, two ruff, little stint, curlew sandpiper and 90 golden plover. A total of 17 wader species in August!  

Wolla Bank Reedbed nature reserve hosted a spectacular roost of 352 yellow wagtail and 2,200 swallows over a couple of days (19^th-20^th). The yellow wagtail numbers in particular were very impressive and may well be a new Lincolnshire record. Both species were believed to be mostly juvenile birds dispersing southwards on their migration to South Africa.

Despite the drought experienced during the summer of 2022 it is good to see that many species have had a bumper breeding year. The warm weather has enabled many species (notably warblers) to hatch off multiple broods of chicks free from the risks of unsettled weather (wash outs and strong winds).   

Unusual species over the month involved a party of four raven over Chapel Six Marshes on 19^th (assuming a family group), a red-necked phalarope south over the beach on 16^th, calling crossbills at Chapel Pit on 26^th, multiple pied flycatchers and whinchats spread throughout and a further seven red kites migrating through the Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park.     

Non-avian highlights

Butterflies seen during the month were brimstone, brown argus, common blue, green-veined white, large white, meadow brown, peacock, red admiral, small copper, small tortoiseshell, small white and speckled wood. A spectacle was witnessed on the 19^th with a mass migration of small whites, an estimated total of 1,000 butterflies were seen arriving in off the sea and heading strongly north. At times the dunes seemed to be completely white!

The sighting of a female purple emperor butterfly at Huttoft Pit on 5^th August was a real surprise. In recent years this species has undergone a significant range expansion northwards. The reason for this is unknown but could be linked to climate change. Although they are thought to be exclusively reliant on oak trees, willows are also used and is a key food plant of the species. In the future, purple emperor could well colonise the Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park.

Dragonflies seen in August were blue-tailed damselfly, brown hawker, common blue damselfly, common darter, emperor, migrant hawker, ruddy darter and willow emerald. A stunning male small red-eyed damselfly was found sunning itself at Chapel Pit on the 11^th.

Other insect highlights over the month included two hummingbird hawkmoths and two hornet hoverflies at Huttoft Pit.

Harbour porpoises were again sighted in August with four animals seen in the first half of the month. Sightings normally tend to tail off over the autumn/winter months.