Steve was back recording the moths with me today, he does the lions share, there were reasonable numbers of moths but we got through them quickly, Leopard Moth, Large Emerald and Yellowtail were new for the year, we also had 3 types of Hawkmoth another Beautiful Hook Tip, the morning totals were 227 moths of 62 species and the year total stands at 225 species.
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| Leopard Moth |
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| This is the tiny 'micro' Hawthorn Moth (please correct me if this is wrong) |
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| Just to give a size comparison! |
My eyes were still a bit blurry but I started my birding walk close to 5am. A LESSER WHITETHROAT really gave me the run around, singing from various bushes and circling me a couple of times as I tried to get a photo!!!
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| This is the best I could do!! |
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| Greenfinch |
A flock of around 16 GOLDFINCHES were around the veg garden and several GREENFINCHES were whizzing around. SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS were represented by 4 birds this morning and from their locations it could be that we do have 3 pairs, as a bird appeared away from where the others are normally seen.
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| This little chap looks proud to be a Robin! |
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| Young Chiffchaff |
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| Young Dunnock |
I had about 3 hours of watching before work and although there were no new birds, I did manage 50 species this morning and I doubled the normal daily allowance of gulls which instead of one Herring was 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED, another thing I noticed were a few flocks of STARLINGS all flying north-west with about 20 birds in each flock.
It was pleasing to see a KESTREL, which was the first one since I got back from Morocco, which seems a very long time ago now. MARSH TIT and LONG TAILED TIT were both seen and a young GREY HERON was by the lake.
The noise around the fields was tremendous, SKYLARKS were as yesterday just filling the air with song, today interspersed with YELLOWHAMMER, GARDEN WARBLER and 2 COMMON WHITETHROATS. 4 HOUSE MARTINS flew west and a single SWIFT was seen as I followed 3 CORMORANTS along the valley.
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| Skylark |
I actually saw a few butterflies this morning my Small Skipper of the year, 2 Meadow Browns and a Large White, ok not many but I was happy :-) Stephen was out and about this morning and he had CROSSBILLS over and a SPARROWHAWK to add to the tally.
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| Small Skipper |
7 comments:
I`ve only ever seen one Leopard Moth, Alan. Can`t wait to see my next one.
Alan ,
That Leopard Moth is a beauty .
Great shots of the youngsters .
Hi Alan
having read "Sissinghurst an Unfinished history"I went looking for the Roman Ford down the road,with our hiking group.The strange thing is we have had 179 hits on this particular post ,when the average might be 10 or 12.I can only put this down to the general lack of info,and people being prompted to search google for it on the web,as a result of reading the book.
The Leopard Moth really is a beauty Alan!
Love the photos of the youngsters especially the Robin.
That Small Skipper photo is a cracker too.
Hi Dean, I hope you find another one, hopefully this year, they are tremendous looking moths.
Hi Greenie, Thanks, as above I was very excited when I saw my first one a couple of years ago.
I'm sorry I struggled reading your last post but I got a good idea of it from Phils account sounded really good :-)
Hi Twisden, that's interesting my figures jumped a bit a couple of weeks ago averaging 160 or so hits for about a week, that could explain it!! I'm ashamed to say I haven't read the book yet but do have it as one that I will read in the not too distant future.
Hi ShySongbird, Thank you, the Leopard Moth is very striking, it's hard to find too many more so.
I enjoyed watching the Robin he really did seem to be saying look at me.
I think the Skipper was my favourite photo today, not sure why really :-)
Blimey that Hawthorn Moth is Small!!
Alan, I could do with those Crossbills coming this way :-)
Hi Warren, I'm really trying to learn some of those micros but with all those latin names and their size, it's pretty tricky!
I'm sure the Crossbills will get to you eventually :-)
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