Saturday April 8 - Bannams Wood and Morton Bagot

 This morning I was out early (for me) to join Tony and the ringers in Bannams Wood. They had been ringing for an hour and a half when I turned up. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we were surrounding by singing Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. They had caught a couple of Marsh Tits before my arrival, but I was able to watch them ring a few birds including Coal Tit, and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Great Spotted Woodpecker - male

Coal Tit

After about an hour I bid them farewell and walked towards Morton Bagot. A Green Sandpiper flushed from the scrapes before I spotted it, and several Reed Buntings were in good voice. Then just as I reached the edge of the scrape field two passerines flew over me and disappeared behind the hedge. Then one of them reappeared briefly sporting an orangey tail. I hurried to the other side of the hedge where I was able to confirm it was a male Redstart. It then flew to the long hedge and a slow pursuit ensued while I tried to get a record shot. It was impossible to get near, and I had to settle for a pretty long-distance effort.

Redstart

On returning to the scrape field I found Martin W who had just seen a Wheatear. He thought it had hopped into the scrape field, so we proceeded on that side of the hedge flushing three Common Snipe in the process. Eventually we found it in the Red-backed Shrike field, and after checking the flashes I doubled back to get some shots.

Wheatear - male

The flashes had contained two Avocets, a Shoveler, two Shelducks, and six Teal. Unfortunately I felt I had to leave without covering the remainder of the patch. On my walk back I saw a Brimstone and three Peacocks.

Peacock

Despite it being a moonlit night I put the moth trap out and duly caught 27 moths of eight species. New for the year were Early Grey, Hebrew Character, and Beautiful Plume. 

Beautiful Plume

I suppose the only micro caught, the Beautiful Plume, was the pick of the bunch. Although they are not rare, I missed the species last year and its my fourth record in six years of trapping.