Wednesday April 13 - another day, another year tick.

 This evening I decided to have another look at Mappleborough Green flash. There had been some more rain, but it was largely sunny when I arrived.

Yesterday, Gary Jilks had seen five Avocets and eight Wheatears after I had left. Would they still be there? Well the answer turned out to be no Wheatears, and just one Avocet. So I'm guessing that his five had been the Morton Bagot foursome and an interloper, which has chosen to remain.

Anyway, I'd better mention the #LocalBigYear tick. About 40 Black-headed Gulls were on the largest flash, and they were briefly joined by a second calendar year Common Gull. That's the tick...amazing how scarce they are around here. It flew off before I could focus the camera, but returned for a second brief stay 30 minutes later. 

Common Gull with its admirers.

The Avocet

I established there are now at least two Green Sandpipers and four Little Ringed Plovers, although their habit of hopping the hedge between the two scrapes caused a degree of checking and rechecking. The place looks ideal for Yellow Wagtails, but I could only find about six Pied Wagtails including a female which was at the pale end of the greyness spectrum. Its rump eventually confirming it was just a Pied.

Green Sandpiper

Pied Wagtail - female

A lot of Willow Warblers were feeding in the hedges, most of them silent. I estimated seven, but there could have been more. As I was heading away I got one final tick, Gary Jilks. He lives really close to the place, and found it last year. It was great to meet him at last.

Tonight the moth trap goes out, so this post will be extended if I catch anything new. 

PS: The temperature dropped to 5 degrees C overnight which is probably why I only caught 14 moths of seven species. New for the year were Brindled Beauty 4, Brindled Pug 2, White-shouldered House Moth, and Twenty-plume Moth 2.

Brindled Beauty

Now that's what I call an impressive moth.