I'm back from my holiday. I say holiday, mini-break would be more appropriate. It wasn't a birding trip, though I took my bins and managed a couple of hours seeing nothing very much in deepest inland Essex. We enjoyed seeing friends and a change of scene, which was the whole point really.
On my first full day back I chose Earlswood Lakes as the venue, and this was a good move. Even before I had left the house, John Oates had seen four Great White Egrets flying over his.
I decided to start at Springbrook Lane and quickly located four Stonechats there. I was aware that three had been seen yesterday, but it was well after the event that I was told my four were a new record count for Earlswood.
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| Stonechat |
Once I reached Windmill Pool I joined John Oates, congratulating him on his Great White Egrets this morning. Just before we parted a Pipit call intervened. John called Rock Pipit immediately, and it called once more before disappearing to the south over the scrublands. I just got the merest glimpse, but the calls were enough for me to add it to my Circle year list.
The rest of the visit was decent enough. I saw three Common Gulls (infrequent here), while John alerted me to the continued presence of the sub-adult Yellow-legged Gull.
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| Common Gulls (with BHGulls and a LBBGull) |
A few Chiffchaffs remain, but I didn't see a single hirundine. Single Siskin, Meadow Pipit, and Redpoll flew over, but were invisible against the blue sky. It's starting to feel properly autumnal.
My moth trap went out overnight, and despite the temperature falling to just 5 degrees C I awoke to 43 moths of 17 species. There was one which was new for the garden. Frosted Orange is not an especially rare moth, but it was still the first I had seen. It was just a pity that a spider had seen it first.
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| Frosted Orange |
Other good ones included Brown-spot Pinion and Barred Sallow (both new for the year), and newly emerged Turnip Moth (second of the year), Common Marbled Carpet, Willow Beauty, and Riband Wave as the pick of the rest.
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| Brown-spot Pinion |
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| Barred Sallow |
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| Common Marbled Carpet and Light Emerald |
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