A combination of the Olympics, apathy, and pessimism kept me away from the patch all week, but this morning, despite the frequent showers, I met up with Dave for another attempt to resurrect our year.
The sight of five Kestrels hovering over a grassy field at Netherstead was a clear indication of a successful breeding attempt by at least one of the two or three pairs suspected to be holding territory. One bird group that mysteriously disappears in August and September are the thrushes. Blackbirds and Song Thrushes start moulting and can be hard to find. But this morning a Song Thrush dropped onto the gravel path in front of us and started hammering away at a snail shell.
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| Song Thrush |
By the time of the autumn all-dayer (early September), this species will be a challenge to find.
In fact the damp weather made looking for passerines hard work today, so it was time for the nearest flash to step up to the plate. And compared to last weekend's dire performance, it did it's best to please.
For a start, there was a little more mud and it was occupied by at least 36 Lapwings.
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| Lapwings and mud |
We felt that any one of the little blobs of mud sticking up between the Lapwings could be a rare wader (or any wader), but try as we might we couldn't upgrade them to anything animate.
Never mind, there was always the water surface. Here we found that the 16 Mallard had been joined by 17 Teal (easily the best count for months), and two Shovelers. Year tick!
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| Shovelers shovelling |
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| Grey Heron |
I know its not a lot, but it was a reminder that autumn is underway at last.
We didn't see many insects, but did kick up several butterflies including a Painted Lady and plenty of moths including a Mother of Pearl.
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| Mother of Pearl |
Speaking of moths, I had better report on Friday night's effort. The temperature fell to 11 degrees and it was pretty windy so I wasn't surprised to find a modest 40 or so moths of 26 species in and around the trap. Five were new for the year, but none were unexpected. The full list was:
Carcina quercana 1, Blastobasis adustella 1, Aleimma forsskaleana 1, Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix 1 (nfy), Red-barred Tortrix 1, Celypha striana 1, Cydia splendana 4, Codling Moth 1, Phycita roborella 4, Eudonia mercurella 1, Eudonia lacustrata 1, Agriphila tristella 1 (nfy), Agriphila geniculea 1 (nfy), Agriphila straminella 1, Yellow Shell 1, Brimstone Moth 3, Dusky Thorn 2, Smoky Wainscot 1, Flame Shoulder 3, Common Rustic ag 3, Marbled Beauty 1 (nfy), Dark Arches 2, Shuttle-shaped Dart 1, Large Yellow Underwing 1, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1, Six-striped Rustic 1 (nfy).
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