Thursday May 18 - Back to the Arrow

A perfect morning for logging breeding birds and trying to winkle out the unexpected. I went back to Coughton Court and walked north to Lower Spernall and back. It's a most beautiful place for a walk, and until I reached HOEF's Haydon Way Wood I didn't see a soul.

Birdwise it was OK without being brilliant. I heard a couple of Kingfishers (possibly the same one twice), discovered that Grey Wagtails had bred, and found several singing Yellowhammers and Linnets on my return through some arable fields.

Yellowhammer

 

Linnet

The Haydon Wood section was quite different. At least three singing Garden Warblers and a singing Grasshopper Warbler all defied me to get the slightest glimpse. There were plenty of the usual spring butterflies and both species of demoiselles were abundant. 

It was left to a micro moth to provide something new. Sitting on its foodplant (I later discovered) was a Meadow Longhorn Cauchas rufimitrella. Quite common apparently, but new for me.

Meadow Longhorn moth

And speaking of moths, once I got home I decided it would be a good night to put the trap out. 

It was indeed. I caught 35 moths of 21 species, 14 of which were new for the year. The most spectacular was one I'd seen in 2018, but not since; a Scorched Wing.

Scorched Wing

For any moth addicts the best of the rest were; three Seraphims (not seen last year), a Figure of Eighty (also missing in 2022), and Ochreous Pug (only my second). New for the year in descending order of impressiveness were; Cinnabar (second for the garden trap), Pale Tussock, Peppered Moth, Chinese Character, Orange Footman, Least Black Arches, May Highflyer, Red-Green Carpet, Knot Grass, and Codling Moth.

Seraphim

Figure of Eighty

Ochreous Pug

Actually, they were all pretty impressive. May and June seems to corner the market in good looking moths (and a whole lot of tatty Pugs).