Friday 15 April 2011

April 15th

I was looking forward to recording the moths today as it certainly felt a bit milder. There weren't loads of moths but there were a couple new for the year, the best find was our second site Blossom Underwing, after the one earlier this month, our third Dotted Chestnut of the year was also a nice record, new moths included a well marked Waved Umber, Angle Shades, Swallow Prominent and an early White spotted Pug.
Blossom Underwing

After the moths I met up with Alex, I was hoping for a maybe a first Cuckoo for the year, one has appeared on April 9th in 3 out of the last 5 years so they are running a bit late for me! We do now have our SWALLOW back in it's summer home where it roosts in the log shed, it headed off when we finished recording the moths. We stayed out in the fields today and were accompanied constantly by SKYLARKS, up to 5 and a SONG THRUSH, that could be heard from almost every point of our walk. Again LINNETS were everywhere but the light wasn't the best for photos. We came across the COMMON WHITETHROAT again and a male REED BUNTING sang from the top of a blackthorn in the hedge. Two smaller flocks of HERRING GULLS flew south west again, 14 and 9, probably yesterdays 23 having had some sort of argument!! I was hoping to hear NIGHTINGALE as Alex hadn't heard one before and just when I thought it wasn't going to, it did give us a few phrases as we approached it's favourite spot. Also whizzing around the fields this morning we saw 2 GREYLAGS 2 CANADAS a GREY HERON and about 10 STOCK DOVES.

5 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Odds on you'll hear that Cuckoo tomorrow Alan - good luck :-)

Greenie said...

Alan ,
Is the Nightingale still favouring down near the the bridge ?
Good luck with the Cuckoo over the weekend .

ShySongbird said...

I hope you get a Cuckoo soon Alan. I hope I do too ;) I only heard one last year and that wasn't very close to home. They used to be such a familiar sight and sound here. Thankfully, I do still see and hear Skylarks where I used to when I was a child :)

Similarly the Song Thrush is a much rarer visitor to the garden than it was just a few years ago. I still remember with great sadness the one which serenaded me night and morning for weeks and then fell victim to the neighbour's killer cat :(

ShySongbird said...

Whoops! I forgot to say thank you regarding your kind words about my header photo...if only they would all pose like that :)

Alan Pavey said...

Hi Warren, I was visiting friends at the weekend, so the patch wasn't visited by me but Stephen had one on Sunday.

Hi Greenie, The Nightingale is still in the same area, it still amazes me how small the area is and still how difficult it is to see!!

Hi ShySongbird, Thanks, I hope you get the Cuckoo soon, it's good the Skylarks haven't disappeared.

Our neighbour had 7 cats when she moved in a few years ago, so I haven't fed the birds in the garden for sometime as I felt I was probably luring them to their demise! Now she only has 3, I'm thinking about starting again next winter, still with some trepidation! I must add she is a really good neighbour :-)