Tuesday 28 June 2011

June 28th

Back to the moths a very warm and surprisingly dry night brought dividends, there were two new site records, to go with one I missed yesterday (Short Cloaked Moth), they were Bordered Pug and Four Dotted Footman. The numbers of moths were high at over 300 and the night so far for species with a whopping 91 species recorded, some really nice moths supported the two new ones with Beautiful Snout, Red necked Footman, Barred Red, Twin Spotted Carpet, Muslin Footman and Suspected!! plus a really stunning Orange Moth, not amazingly rare but a real beauty as well as 7 Festoons a Nationally Scarce B moth, it took a while to record them all but it was great to have had a really busy night!
Argyresthia Brockeella (tiny!)

Festoon

Orange Moth

Twin Spot Carpet

The birding was a bit more predictable, it was pleasing to hear TURTLE DOVE by the moat. The odd SWIFT was drifting around over the woods and the CHAFFINCH flock was again touching maybe 30 birds. It was surprising not hear or see any Goldfinches, the first time for several months they haven't appeared on the morning list. Two of the SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS were seen this morning and the first young BULLFINCH of the year was seen, I was beginning to think they may not appear!
I couldn't find any early wandering warblers in the hedges only a couple of LESSER WHITETHROATS and COMMON WHITETHROATS, the young REED BUNTINGS were also still around. My gull species this morning was 1 LESSER BLACK BACKED!
Morning skies

7 comments:

Greenie said...

Alan ,
You are certainly doing very well with the moths .
Really like that first one , even if I can't pronounce it .

Anonymous said...

Would really love to see some of those moth species you mentioned, Alan. Great stuff.

ShySongbird said...

I know I'm always saying it Alan but the moth names really are as interesting as the moths themselves :)

Lovely sky photo.

Warren Baker said...

Keep watching those hedgerows Alan, next week onwards I reckon the first chat could turn up ;-)

Alan Pavey said...

Apologies for late replies, stock take preparation for this weekend has kept me busy!!

Hi Greenie, We are doing well, I've missed a couple of mornings, due to the above, that have had a few more moths new to the site!!
My next visit won't be 'til Monday!!

Hi Dean, The list keeps growing here, apparently we had Ni Moth last night!

Hi ShySongbird, the names are great, you can see there are all sorts of influences on them the moth I mentioned to Dean above, must have been influenced by Monty Python's The Meaning of Life!! :-)

Hi Warren, It'll be next week before I get to them! but the anticipation is growing :-)

Ken. said...

Hi Alan.
Love the Moth photo's they are quite fascinating, and some are even quite attractive.

Alan Pavey said...

Hi Ken, I'm glad you are liking the moths! I really enjoy recording them :-)