Friday March 11 - plodding on

 A morning of grey skies and a forecast of rain to follow, coupled with me feeling slightly off colour, led to a slow walk around Arrow Valley Lake this morning.

I suppose I was hoping for an early Sand Martin, or a "different' gull. One bird present in spades was Siskin, and my count of 78 was probably lower than the true figure. With the Siskins I heard a couple of Redpolls and was offered a brilliant photo opportunity by a splendidly pink male sitting in the bushes near the river. Unfortunately the camera was in my bag, and within seconds the bird joined the surrounding Siskins as they flew off over the lake. Oh well!

At least the Chiffchaffs have arrived. I counted five singing males around the lake. A passer by asked me if I had seen the Otter. I knew that Tony K had seen one here last week, and so I walked slowly up the river before staring at the island in the hope of a bit of luck. There was none.

There were over 100 Black-headed Gulls present to keep me interested, but nothing with them. A Kestrel drifted over as I neared the end of the walk. I haven't seen many here, so that was probably the best bird.

I wasn't going to mention moths, but since this was another quiet day I will. 

On Wednesday night the garden trap went out and the morning revealed 10 moths sitting in the egg boxes (plus one which gave me the slip as I tried to move the box indoors). It was nice to see Common Quakers again, all in immaculately fresh condition, but there were eight of them. Also present was a tatty Chestnut, which had emerged from hibernation, and a very smart Small Quaker, which is the one I'm going to show you.

Small Quaker

They were all left to sleep in the egg-boxes until dusk when they left to get on with the business of producing the next generation.