A few more moths

 It's the penultimate weekend of the Garden Moth Survey and for a change it was pretty mild.

Determined to outfox the next door Wasps I turned the light off and hauled the trap inside an hour before it started to get light. The plan worked well and as dawn approached I noticed a moth on the doorframe of the utility room. It was something new.

Checking it against the books I established it was a Beaded Chestnut. A bit more research revealed that the species is common, and is very similar to Lunar Underwing, which is also common.

Beaded Chestnut

This is only my third year of moth trapping, and so it's still exciting to peer into the trap to see what's there. I also still experience an unsettling feeling that maybe I am making some fundamental error causing me to overlook something. Learning that Beaded Chestnut is a common moth and knowing that I have recorded quite a few of the confusion species, makes me wonder if I have misidentified some Lunar Underwings in the last few years. Hopefully not.

I only caught eight moths of five species, the full list being: Light Brown Apple Moth 2, Red-green Carpet 3, Double-striped Pug 1, Vapourer 1, and Beaded Chestnut 1.

These were the first Red-green Carpets I had seen since April and they included a particularly green one which caused a flurry of research.

A normal coloured Red-green Carpet

A very green Red-green Carpet

The other notable moth was the Vapourer. It was quite a late one, and also only my second this year.

Vapourer

The light was very poor for photographing the moths this morning, but once the sun came out this afternoon one or two of the above looked ready to leave, so I let them take their chances.

Thursday October 29 - Lion Wood

 At the risk of sounding like the pessimist I am, I poked my head outside last night and saw clear skies and  the moon. This was not good. It meant that the Red-flanked Bluetail may have also looked up and thought "time to be off".

The fact is that most passerines migrate at night, and they prefer to see stars. It is assumed that the night sky plays some part in navigation, although there are plenty of other cues thought to be used. Whatever it was using, the Bluetail had got it all wrong and had turned up thousands of miles from its intended destination in the Indian subcontinent or even further east.

However, hope springs eternal, and I joined thirty or so of the usual suspects in the wood this morning just after first light for another go.

Someone had brought a secret weapon, and after an hour of standing around near the spot where it was twice seen yesterday, it was deployed. The playing of tapes to attract birds can be frowned upon, and it is not fair on the birds during the breeding season. The chap with the tape was very good, and asked everyone if they had any objection. Of course we didn't.

So the call was played for about 30 seconds. I thought "so that's what they sound like". Further down the track a couple of birders, the Peplows I think, got a bit excited having been unaware of the plan. I was impressed that they knew the call.

The upshot was that nothing happened. Optimism plummeted. The bird must have gone. The next hour was spent chatting, scanning, and eventually wandering about. 

When we started photographing each other (in case we never see each other again, someone said) I knew that pessimism had won the day.

From the left: Graham Mant, John Sirrett, and Mike Inskip

Actually meeting up with old friends is a large part of the attraction of twitching. 

But then a text message arrived at 11.00. It had been found. Three hours later, after chasing false alarm Robins, Nuthatches, and probably leaves, I followed directions (behind the birch) and saw the bird for about two seconds.

A slender pale chat with orange flanks ... er that's it. Good enough for a tick, but I'd like longer views.

So I was tempted to go back again. Finally, at 16.40 it landed in front of the remaining crowd and I could see its blue tail. I took a photo, but in a gloomy wood under grey skies late in the afternoon I had left the setting on "birdwatching". This was a mistake. The resulting shot is so terrible I cannot bring myself to exhibit it here. I realised my mistake, switched to "auto" and took another shot about a second after the bird flew out of frame.

I'm all Blue-tailed out. It'll be back to moths and Morton Bagot for the foreseeable future.

Wednesday October 28 - Spernal STW

So here's the plan. It doesn't look as though I'm going to find a Yellow-browed Warbler at Morton Bagot any time soon. Just down the road lies a sewage works, and earlier this year it hosted several wintering Chiffchaffs. This makes it a better bet for other insectivores like Yellow-broweds.

That was the theory. I put it to the test this morning in sunshine and a light south-westerly, and I did find plenty of insectivores, but not the right ones. The site is frustratingly hard to work. A footpath runs along the river Arrow on the opposite bank to the sewage works, and tantalising glimpses of a small pool bordered by reedbed suggests that anyone working for Severn Trent would be getting wonderful views of the resident wildfowl. 

Meanwhile, outside the fence and beyond the river I can see four Teal, two Grey Herons, and hear the squeal of a Water Rail. But all is not lost because I can also see lots of gnats and hear several Goldcrests. What I can't find are any warblers. Eventually I rectified this with a male Blackcap back by the car-park.

The best moments came from pasture grazed by a flock of sheep at the northern perimeter. A flock of Long-tailed Tits filtered through trees bordering the Arrow, and several Grey Wagtails.

Grey Wagtail

to be continued.

I've just heard there's a Red-flanked Bluetail at Lion Wood three miles from my house. I'm off.

DIPPED! 

Where were we? Also present among the sheep were 37 Pied Wagtails, two Meadow Pipits, 23 Siskins, and five Lesser Redpolls.

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Lesser Redpoll

I spent a while watching birds feeding in the shelter of a hedge within HOEF land, the above Redpoll being one of them. 

Little did I know that a lifer was being ringed and released three miles from my house. I have to admit that missing it was a bit disappointing. 

A flock of Dippers

It was seen twice while I was there by Craig Reed and Rob Clipson, who even photographed it. Everyone else as far as I know was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sunday October 25 - spooky birding

 A morning of sunny intervals and light south-westerlies. Dave is still experiencing car troubles, so couldn't join me. Meanwhile I was still on a mission to find a Yellow-browed Warbler, as numbers continue to grow in the Midlands. Someone even found one outside my old office in the centre of Birmingham. Good grief!

I began by checking whether the ringers were here. They weren't, but their favoured area hosted quite a few Redwings and Chaffinches. 

A female Chaffinch

I've put the above shot in because it was just about the only bird today which wasn't spooked. Certainly the Redwings were hard to see well. I decided to walk along the road towards Bannam's Wood on my Yellow-browed hunt. 

A spooked Redwing

As I approached the wood all hell broke out. Jackdaws scattered in panic. Accipiter at large?

Jackdaws in a tizz

Some years ago we had a Goshawk for a few weeks, and its presence always created this kind of panic. So I was expecting that an Accipiter of some kind will have caused this strife. Sure enough a Sparrowhawk appeared. It was quite a big one as they go, but not all that much bigger than the Jackdaws. I took a couple of shots.

Accipiter with mobbing Jackdaw

Just in case you are thinking, as I did when looking at the shot in the back of the camera, looks a bit long-necked, a bit short-tailed, I am showing the second image, horribly blurred though it is.

Same Accipiter

Now the bird looks long tailed, but also the tail tip looks a bit rounded. Just a Sparrowhawk, I think. I don't mind big accipiters or small accipiters, or close accipiters, but I bloody hate the biggish, distant ones.

No Yellow-broweds called, and the only 'crests I saw were Goldcrests. I headed down towards the pool. A couple of dog-walkers appeared. As I approached the pool, more spooked birds appeared. A flock of 10 Shovelers were circling around. A little while later 12 Teal were up. I couldn't see what was causing their anxiety, the dog-walkers had long gone. By the time I reached the flash field it was deserted.

It looked as though my day was done, but it certainly wasn't. Along with the usual 120 strong Goldfinch flock, and quite a few Skylarks and Stonechats, I noticed that the weedy field contained a flock of 60 Linnets. This was a big increase, and I was persuaded it might be worth venturing in. 

I had got about half way to the brow of the hill when I almost stood on a Quail. It flushed a few inches from my foot as Jack Snipes do, but as it flew low away from me like a Skylark sized Partridge I knew immediately it was a Quail, and that I wouldn't be seeing it again. 

Obviously I tried. I rang for reinforcements, and was joined by Mike Inskip. We walked a couple of lengths near where it had disappeared from view, but it was all to no avail. All I can show you are the notes I made at the time.

Old-fashioned birding notes

Although this was the 23rd Quail I have recorded in the UK, and isn't even a patch tick, its still only the fourth I have ever actually seen. The other 19 were all spring singers, "wet my lips" as the song is described. Interestingly this one did make a noise as I spooked it, a slightly wader-like "plup-up" is what I wrote.

Who needs Yellow-browed Warblers?

Thursday October 22

 Todays visit couldn't have been more different from the previous one. The sun shone from the off, and there was a moderate south-westerly breeze. Gone were the hoards of thrushes and Starlings which filled the sky last time. A slow, carefully paced mooch was called for today.

Actually, some of the thrushes had remained, but they were now hiding in the hedgerows, guzzling berries. I flushed about 40 Redwings, 10 Fieldfares, and similar numbers of Song Thrushes and Blackbirds but few gave any opportunity for a good look.

Some birds were more obliging. There were a lot fewer Lesser Redpolls around, but one or two did pose quite well.

Lesser Redpoll

My target species, I always have something in mind, was Yellow-browed Warbler. Since my last post, another one has been winkled out of a West Midlands site, a Common in Coventry. So I listened for one, and grilled anything warbler-like. In the end I could find only Chiffchaffs, two to be precise.

Chiffchaff

The Goldfinch flock is still 150 strong, and I counted three Stonechats. Both Grey Wagtail and Yellowhammer flew over during the morning.

The flash field contained no Mallards, which is quite extraordinary, but did host 10 Teal, and 13 Shovelers.

Some of the Shovelers

So it was a pretty quiet visit, as most of them are. It's the bread and butter which makes you appreciate the jam when it arrives.

Sunday 18 October - What are we missing?

I don't know what to say about today. Perhaps that it was in equal measure exhilarating and frustrating. Let me explain.

The east coast of the UK is currently dripping in rarities, I even saw one of them, a Rufous Bushchat, on the Breakfast News this morning. Although it would be unrealistic to hope for anything of that calibre, I was optimistic. For about ten seconds so was Dave. Then he noticed the smoke drifting out of the rear wheel arch of his car.

While we waited for the AA it seemed appropriate to wander along the track to the road and see what we could see. There was nothing too surprising, a few Lesser Redpolls and Redwings flew over, a Marsh Tit or two flitted down the hedge, and a Treecreeper landed not too far away.

Treecreeper

Assistance arrived, and I left Dave to his plight, choosing instead to see if any ringers were present. Sure enough they were beavering away. The song of a Firecrest reached my ears while, simultaneously, my eyes took in the tape machine by the mist-net. Clearly Tony and Leigh were also thinking big. They had a Yellow-browed Warbler tape playing too. With the latter species having been found at Grimley, Earlswood, and the centre of Worcester recently, it was definitely worth a go. They were doing alright, lots of captures and three controls, but nothing rare. The controls were of a Lesser Redpoll they had caught here in January 2020, and another one from elsewhere. They still haven't had the results of a previous control, and I understand it depends on the frequency with which other ringers file their reports.

Dave rejoined me with news that his car was undriveable and would be towed away. However, by now it was clear that thrushes were arriving in numbers, so we decided to crack on.

The weather was gloomy, but we weren't. The only problem was estimating how many birds we were seeing as wave after wave of Redwings/Song Thrushes and Fieldfares either flew over, or pitched into the treetops only their calls giving them away. An extremely conservative guesstimate would be 490 Redwings and 60 Fieldfares, while the frequent "tic" calls of Song Thrushes from the bushes indicated that many of them were also present. Add to the mix over 100 Goldfinches, heaps of Lesser Redpolls, and regular Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and various finches. It was all a bit overwhelming.

At one point Dave looked beyond a party of about 200 thrushes and spotted 90 fast flying Golden Plovers heading south. They were extremely distant, but we were happy to name them.

What were we missing? Pretty much all of the birds mentioned so far were seen as little grey blobs against the grey sky, identified only by call. A few allowed views which confirmed what we thought, but the vast majority didn't.

Fieldfare

Redwing

The above photos were the best I could manage in all this avian turmoil. Admittedly the seven Stonechats we logged all posed quite well, but enough of those get shown on this blog.

Days like this are not unusual at the end of October. In another month the leaves will have blown off the trees and the excitement levels will have returned to normal. We'll be left to wonder whether, if we'd been a bit sharper, a bit less deaf, a bit more keen sighted, we might have picked out the biggy from the swirl of passing mediocrity.

One day, maybe.

Ringing update

Tony and Leigh targeted mainly Meadow Pipits and Redwings on Friday and caught 20 birds. This morning Tony, Leigh, and Kate used feeders and tapes and caught a total of 159 birds including a Lesser Redpoll which had been ringed elsewhere.

Their combined figures (retraps in brackets) are as follows:

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Blue Tit 57 (17), Great Tit 11 (6), Long-tailed Tit 1, Goldcrest 4 (2), Wren 8 (2), Redwing 9, Robin 2 (1), Dunnock 1, Meadow Pipit 13, Greenfinch 14, Lesser Redpoll 46 (1), Goldfinch 12.

Although I am a layman in ringing terms, I am struck by the fact that the retraps are prevalent among the resident species as you might expect. This could imply that while the Goldcrests caught might be local birds (a small sample admittedly), migrants like Redwings, Meadow Pipits, and Lesser Redpolls are rarely retrapped. So perhaps the 14 Greenfinches, and 12 Goldfinches were not locals.

The moths are back.

After a total blank last weekend, I actually caught some moths last night. Only six of them, but clearly the slightly warmer night was enough to encourage them onto the wing.

The highlight was my first Merveille du Jour since 2018. 

Merveille du Jour

A very pretty moth and well named for a change. It is indeed a marvel of the day (apologies for any mistranslation).

The second new one for the year was a Barred Sallow, also no slouch in looks.

Barred Sallow

For the record, the others were Common Marbled Carpet, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Light Brown Apple Moth, and Ruddy Streak.

Wednesday October 14

 I've had a bit of a nightmare this morning. My photos can no longer be put onto my computer owing to me using an ancient machine and Apple doing an upgrade I can't access. Or something. Anyway the solution is in hand, I think, and I should be able to add them at a later date.

What you could have seen was a terribly small image of an adult Common Gull which was a patch year-tick and flew over Netherstead shortly after my arrival. Ironically this was the only gull I saw all morning.

The other year-tick this morning was a Golden Plover, but even I didn't see that. It just called twice up in the blue sky somewhere as it flew over. No other waders were on site as far as I could tell.

At least 91 Lesser Redpolls and 200 Goldfinches were in the area, along with 25 Linnets. A few Stonechats are still in the pool field, but I didn't see more than three.

There was a fair amount of visible migration taking place. At least 60 Redwings, 72 Starlings, a Fieldfare, and 14 Chaffinches all went west.

The flashes contained 10 Shovelers, 12 Teal, two Mallard, and a Grey Heron.

Roe Deer

A Roe Deer posed beautifully for a photo which I can't show off, and I also got a shot of one of two Yellowhammers which were a welcome reminder of their former presence here.

Hopefully normal services will be resumed in due course.

Back on the patch - Sunday October 11 - Redpoll crazy

It was good to be back at Morton Bagot this morning. I was joined by Dave, and the calm sunny conditions had also tempted the ringers to set up their nets. More of that later.

It wasn't long before it became clear that birds were moving. A flock of 67 Redwings heading south-west were the forerunner of several substantial parties adding up to a count of 238 by noon. We later saw a party of 30 Fieldfares which followed a similar trajectory.

However, four female ducks which flew north had us just as interested. We felt sure that they were Pintails and as this would double the previous highest count recorded here, it seemed sensible to make haste to the flash field. Sure enough they were there, along with five Shoveler and 16 Teal.

The four Pintail

The Shovelers

Anyway, back to Netherstead. We had noticed several Lesser Redpolls before we reached the ringers, but it was evident that they had recorded loads of them. Tony reckoned about 100, nearly half of which they'd caught, and we had no reason to doubt the figure. For our part counting was impossible because they were all over the place in small groups. I got a shot of two in a bush.

Lesser Redpolls

But you know what they say about a bird in the hand.

Adult male Lesser Redpoll

Juvenile Lesser Redpoll

As always, Leigh and Tony imparted a wealth of information explaining how to age the birds they had caught. For example adults have a pinker breast if they are males, and browner wing bars than immatures because at this time of year they have completed their moult leaving pristine flight feathers. These birds are almost certainly all from Northern England and Scotland, and apparently the recovery rate for Redpolls is relatively high so there is a good chance that some recoveries will follow.

Dave and I left them to it and headed back to the pool field to try to count the Stonechats. We eventually came up with 11 for the whole site, a little lower than last week but still a decent number. One disappointment was that the pool had not endured. During the week Sam from HOEF had counted four Mute Swans, a pair and two immatures, on it.

It was not all about winter visitors. We had three late Swallows hurrying south, and recorded a couple of Blackcaps but no Chiffchaffs (although Tony and Leigh saw a couple).

I will add the ringers' final totals as soon as I have them....

The results are in and they make for eye-watering reading:

The total number of birds caught was 176 ! Out of these, 121 were Lesser Redpolls, and out of them 112 were juveniles and only nine were adults. What's more, one of them was a control, so we'll soon learn where it was ringed. Exciting stuff.

The full list:

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Marsh Tit  1

Blue Tit 35 (10)

Great Tit 4 (1)

Blackcap 1

Goldcrest 3

Wren 3

Robin 1

Greenfinch 5

Lesser Redpoll 121

Goldfinch 1

Adult male Lesser Redpoll - per Tony Kelly

Goldcrest - per Tony Kelly

As well as the exceptional catch of Lesser Redpolls, another surprising feature was the very low catch of Great Tits. There is no obvious explanation for that.

Many thanks to Tony and Leigh for sharing the figures.

Pallid Harrier - Middleton RSPB

 Unusually, this morning I checked the RBA web page before heading on my planned visit to Morton Bagot. What greeted me was news that a Pallid Harrier had been identified from photographs of what had been assumed to be a Hen Harrier at Middleton RSPB yesterday. The newly re-identified bird had been seen again this morning.

Time for a change of plan.

I hadn't been to Middleton RSPB since 2014, when I had twitched a Pacific Golden Plover. Pallid Harrier was a bird of similar status although it does rest uneasily on my British list from a distant view of a wintering bird in Norfolk in 2003. This however was the first West Midland record (discounting a perfectly good one that the National rarities committee harshly rejected from Belvide on the grounds that a hybrid could not be eliminated)...or so I understand.

The first challenge was to find my way into the site. You now have to drive past the Aston Villa training ground. Covid restrictions meant that the walk to the pits was a winding one through woodland. I took a wrong turning somewhere and met birders coming towards me who were in fact also on their way there. I followed them and reached the spot where a gaggle of ageing, covid-vulnerable, birders were vaguely trying to self-distance. I felt right at home.

There followed an hour of scanning, and lots of chat with old friends like Glen Giles, John Sirrett, and Graham Mant, while we waited for the bird to appear. Before us were hundreds of Canada and Greylag Geese, Lapwings, and Teal, and smaller numbers of other dabbling ducks. A Sparrowhawk put in a brief appearance causing a panic among birds and birders alike, while a Great White Egret stuck its head up behind an island before flying to a more obvious spot. A couple of Cetti's Warblers sang from the reedmace. A Ruff was flying around with the Lapwings at one stage.

Eventually a shout went up. The Pallid Harrier was in view. Initially miles away, it then obliged by getting closer. Panicking Lapwing and Teal scattered in all directions while equally anxious birders tried to get on the bird and stay on it. My mission, I decided, was to try to get any sort of image for this blog. These are my best efforts (heavily cropped).

Pallid Harrier showing narrow hand (the shot's not sharp enough to allow the primary tips to be counted)

In this view the white rump can be seen and also some breast streaking

One surprising thing about this bird is that it isn't a juvenile. Its actually an adult female. My shots are not clear enough to show this, but the image from which the original re-identification was made show a streaked upper breast and no real shawl which would have been typical of a juvenile.

Once it had gone out of view I was obliged to head home as I have a routine doctors appointment to attend.

Poor old soul.

Monday October 5 - a record smashing day

Despite failing to arrive before 09.00 I was optimistic for today from the off. Weather conditions were close to perfect, mostly cloudy with a very light north-westerly following days of heavy rain. Admittedly I could have done without the showers, but the birds more than made up for them.

I quickly started to get that early autumn buzz. Two Yellowhammers flew west, and there was a steady trickle of Chaffinches. Where there had been virtually none, Song Thrushes "tsipp" calls came from the hedgerows, while a party of six Mistle Thrushes flew over. A Peregrine took off from the masts by the chat field, and just before I took shelter from the first shower of the morning I could see a pair of Mute Swans bobbing up and down on the pool.

The pool ? Yes it was back, and although the Mute Swans soon left, it was great to see wildfowl enjoying the return of a much missed habitat.

Mallards

Attracted to the rushes surrounding the pool were Stonechats. I started to count them and was soon into double figures. The site record is nine, but on every sweep I could see more. I reached 15, and later added two at Netherstead giving a record smashing count of 17. Wow, could today get any better? It could.

There was no way of getting all 17 in one shot. 

Birds were constantly in view. The Skylark count reached 29, Meadow Pipits trickled over all morning, up to eight Lesser Redpolls were flying around, three Swallows went south, and finally a Redwing, unequivocally Scandinavian in origin, flew over.

Lesser Redpoll

I had not expected to record any waders today, but still heard a Green Sandpiper over the pool, and saw a Snipe in flight beyond the flash. Here was the only place determined not to please, I only counted 19 Teal some of which were relinquishing their dowdy summer eclipse plumage, a few Mallard, and two Shovelers.

I had seen several tit flocks, the best containing at least 15 Long-tailed Tits and several Goldcrests. Of more interest to me were the warblers associated with them, and I tallied four Chiffchaffs and five Blackcaps which wasn't too bad for October.

As I reached the raptor watch point at Stapenhill Wood the star bird turned up. I heard it first, a sort of "tyoop" call that stopped me in my tracks. What was that? It called again, closer. Whatever it was it was going to be good. By the third call I was pretty certain it would be a Crossbill, but the species has a range of calls and this wasn't quite the same as the most common "kyip". That is why I decided I had to see it, and why there is no recording to support the claim. Sorry. It flew right past at close range, and was indeed a Crossbill. The first here since 2015. OK I have seen some over my garden this year, but where we live is surrounded by conifers, while there are none at Morton Bagot so Crossbills are scarce here even in a good year. This looks like being a good autumn for them.

Not many patch days are genuinely exciting, but this one certainly was.

Salford Prior Gravel Pit - Sunday Oct 4

As predicted, it has rained and rained for the last two days. This morning it was still drizzling, but was forecast to stop by late morning. How late though? After a couple of "what shall we do?" phone conversations with Dave I opted to stay at home and he decided to return to Marsh Lane GP for the second day running.

By early afternoon I was thoroughly fed up of watching West Brom lose again, and decided on a new plan. Horrible though the weather is, it had been dropping Common Scoters and Rock Pipits onto various reservoirs in the Midlands. Salford Priors GP looked a good bet, and Morton Bagot didn't.

I arrived in cloudy conditions and spotted a Stonechat on the hedge by my car straight away. Better than that, in the distance I could see an expanse of floodwater. Very encouraging. I found a way onto the site and set up my scope to look at what is now a muddy prairie. A Peregrine was standing in the middle of it, and nearby were lots of geese, Greylags and Canadas. But hang on a minute, there was something different with them, in fact four somethings. They were Pink-footed Geese, surely wild ones. I scrambled for my camera but then couldn't find them. Geese were flying to the flooded pit, had they joined them?

They had, and I spent an awful lot of time trying to get a record shot. The problem was that they were intent on washing all that gloopy mud off themselves and so were constantly preening. In the end these were my best efforts.

Four Pink-footed Geese plus a Greylag and a Canada

Definitely two P F Geese, possibly three

I tried walking around the back of the pit to get the sun behind me, while I texted Neil D, on whose patch I was adventuring. It turned out he was in Norfolk (and given the recent National news I couldn't blame him). At first Neil thought that Jon B, who had been here this morning hadn't seen them, but it later transpired that he had. So no glory.

The Pink-footed Geese became nervous as I made my way around and all four took off and returned to the fields, greatly enhancing their wild credentials. Like all geese they are prone to escape from collections and tempt patch watchers to tick them. These birds were the real deal.

I headed away from the pit and started scanning the distant (very distant) floodwater. I immediately spotted a long billed wader and hurried to a better spot. From here I could see two Greenshank and a Dunlin. At this point Neil texted back with Jon's full list, and it was long. The stand out was a Knot, the second record for the site. It's been more years than I would like to admit since I last saw a Knot, so I was very keen to see it. Three hours later I had to admit defeat. If it was still here, I couldn't find it.

During the course of those hours, a third Greenshank dropped in, and the Peregrine got onto the tail of a party of Teal I had inadvertently flushed. To my relief they all escaped.

I suppose I had the option of marching into the field to try to get closer, but I didn't want to do that. Instead I settled for perfectly acceptable scope views, and utterly terrible record shots.

Three Greenshanks and a Dunlin (honest)

Among the other birds Jon had recorded was a Rock Pipit. Even with the scope I felt I had no chance. I could see plenty of Meadow Pipits, and at least 50 Pied Wagtails, but if there was a Rock Pipit among them I was going to miss it. Instead, I managed to spot a Wheatear, not on Jon's list. Hah!

As I wandered back I counted four Wigeon on the pit, and saw plenty of Little Grebes, Shovelers, and Tufted Ducks among the numerous Mallard, Teal, Canada Geese, and Greylag Geese all of which Jon had seen in greater quantities. 

Back at the road a final vestige of summer was a party of eight Swallows which flew north. You're going the wrong way!

I have to admit that Salford Priors is a lot more exciting than Morton Bagot, but your patch is your patch, and I'll be back on it tomorrow.

Worrying about moths

 Bound, as I am, to fulfil my weekly commitment to the Garden Moth Survey, I have been eyeing the weather forecast with some trepidation. Friday night looks a washout, and even Saturday night might be. Last night looked marginally better, so I lined the bottom of the trap with kitchen paper to soak up any excess water, and put it out.

By late evening there was a light drizzle, and at 01.00 I was awoken by rain on the window. I managed to get back to sleep but by 05.30 I was awake again, worrying about the moths. I knew that heavy rain was due at around dawn, and I finally cracked at 06.30 and went to have a look.

The rain had stopped and there was a Brimstone Moth on the window. I found things to do until 06.50 when I had another look and saw the first wasp crawling along the edge of the box. Time to act. I turned the light off, flicked off the wasp and hauled the trap indoors. Five minutes later the rain arrived in earnest.

The trap contained eight Lunar Underwings and a Setaceous Hebrew Character (and another wasp). Not brilliant but better than nothing and although some of the egg boxes were soggy, no moths had drowned.

My reward for all this angst was waiting on the wall of the house. A Black Rustic was braving the increasingly terrible weather, my first this year.

Black Rustic

I only hope next Friday is drier.