September 19th

I was late arriving to check the moths with Steve, we did have 4 year ticks though, with moths that definitely herald the start of autumn, Deep Brown Dart, Black Rustic, Frosted Orange and Pink Barred Sallow, were the 4 new ones. We also had 83 Lunar Underwings.

Frosted Orange

One of the first birds this morning was a SISKIN heading south, it turned out to be the only one in my hour and a bit visit. MISTLE THRUSHES have been more evident in my last few visits after only seeing one or two a month for the last few months but Song Thrushes are, as they say, conspicuous by their absence. There were 4 CHIFFCHAFF, out of this morning 7, in the car park with little else. A few MEADOW PIPITS were going over but in no particular direction. A KINGFISHER flew off the moat towards the lake catching me sleeping as usual. I thought for a while I was only going to get Chiffchaff as far as summer visitors were concerned but eventually a couple of SWALLOWS flew south and a total of 16 were seen in all, still not many though. A WHITETHROAT and BLACKCAP were the only other summer birds to be seen, as Warren said on his Pittswood blog, this is a bit later than usual here too for Whitethroat. 8 HERRING GULLS were joined by 1 GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL, new for the month and lastly a single CORMORANT flew west. I almost forgot, I did add LITTLE OWL to the month list yesterday, heard only though.