Sunday May 8 - trying to relax

So what do you do the day after you've spent 11 hours in the field? Well obviously you sit in the garden and relax, or at least you try to. 

My relaxation lasted about five minutes. Scanning the skies brought me a pair (I assume) of Red Kites circling together high over the garden. By the time I'd grabbed the camera they had separated, so here's just one of them.

 

Red Kite

Lyn joined me, and pretty soon the present state of the garden was mentioned. Personally I like weeds, but Lyn's not so keen. I was encouraged to pull them up, so several armful's of Herb Robert and Precumbent Yellow Sorrell later I was deemed to have done enough...for today, and I could go back to sky-gazing. This brought me #LocalBigYear tick number 121, a Common Swift.

There have been very few butterflies in the garden this year (and fewer bees) despite the garden looking unchanged. Today a Small White was the only one I saw. Nevertheless I was resolved to put the moth trap out.

The overnight temperature dropped to seven degrees. Last year at the same date it was the same temperature and I caught just three moths, so the omens weren't great. 

But, for some reason this year there were moths aplenty. I caught 16 of 10 species. There were no firsts for the garden, but seven of them were new for the year. This is probably because I'm only trapping once every two or three weeks this year.

The highlight, and most spectacular moth, was an Iron Prominent. Only my third ever, and one I didn't see, despite much more intensive mothing, last year.

Iron Prominent

The other ones which were new for the year, all pristine and fresh, were Common Pug, Orange Footman, Muslin Moth, Flame Shoulder, Shuttle-shaped Dart, and Heart and Dart.

Finally, I forgot to share a bit of ringing news. On May 2 2022 the guys controlled a Reed Warbler at Redditch STW which had been ringed at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire on 15 September 2018.

Reed Warbler

So this bird had been ringed as a first year and had then travelled to Africa and back four times before turning up in Redditch, quite possibly still to reach its final breeding destination. Quite a thought.