Earlswood Lakes continues to prove irresistible. On Friday morning I saw very little on my post dawn visit, just a Common Sandpiper. There was one moment of interest though. At about 06:30 the Swallows started to tower and twitter, so I scanned around in the hope that a Hobby might have caused their discomfort. Instead I got onto an accipiter cruising behind the foliage of the woodland surrounding Terry's. It looked broad-winged but was immediately hidden from view. Ten seconds later piles of Jackdaws piled out of the wood in panic. Goshawk has yet to be recorded at Earlswood, but maybe it won't be too long a wait.
On Friday night the garden moth trap got an airing, and I caught new species for me. I'll come back to that later. Early on Saturday morning I had just finished going through the remaining moths when a Whatapp message from John Oates had me heading back to Earlswood. He had found a juvenile Mediterranean Gull. Sadly I was half way there when he posted that it had flown off.
Later the same day I got news that the long-staying 4cy Yellow-legged Gull had appeared on Engine Pool. Back I went, and this time there was no problem.
Back to moths. The new one was a small macro with the rather uninspiring name of Small Rufous. They are described as "local", the reason being that it's one of the Wainscot clan all of which live in waterside vegetation. Our garden is a little bit too far away from such habitat to benefit from such species. But ironically I caught two of them, and neither was subsequently found next day as I went through the trap.
This wasn't the only species identified on Friday night which was absent the following morning. Centre-barred Sallow (nfy), Dingy Footman and Mother of Pearl had also disappeared by this morning.
The full tally was 118 moths of 36 species, but the best looking moth (arguably) was flying around the front garden when I got back from Earlswood and so could not be included in my stats. It's hard to beat a fresh Flame Carpet.
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