Friday August 28 - Earlswood Lakes

 This morning, with a vague plan to go to either Earlswood or Morton Bagot I stumbled downstairs and checked my phone. John Oates had just found a Wood Sandpiper on the mudflat at Windmill Pool, Earlswood. That made my mind up.

After a brief look at the mudflat at Engine Pool (I hadn't read the message carefully enough), I joined John at Windmill Pool where the Wood Sandpiper was still showing well.

It showed the crisp markings of a juvenile, and although John had been out in torrential rain yesterday without much joy, it seems likely that the recent weather was responsible for its arrival either late yesterday or overnight. It didn't seem particularly bothered by humans walking past, but dogs were a different story and always caused it to flush.

I tried taking some video of it here before I wandered back to the causeway with John. We last saw the Wood Sandpiper half way along the pool with a Common Sandpiper after it had been flushed by dog-walkers.

Back at the causeway John showed me two species of fern for my PSL list: Wall-rue and Black Spleenwort.

Wall-rue

Black Spleenwort

Finally, on my way home I decided to pause along Springbrook Lane to see if any Whinchats had arrived. I didn't see any, but I did get a tick. Peering over the wall of the bridge I noticed a distinctive looking moss. It turned out to be Grey-cushioned Grimmia, The first bryophyte for my list.

Grey-cushioned Grimmia

I'll be putting my moth-trap out tonight, so I'll probably extend this post tomorrow morning.

Garden Moth supplement: Well it was worth it. I caught 101 moths of 25 species. All but one were species I've seen in the garden already this year, but the new one was also a lifer. I could tell it was a Vestal resting on the glass of the front door even from looking at the moth from underneath. This is a migrant species (maybe now breeding in the UK) which is occurring ever more regularly in the Midlands. So it's fair to say it was on my radar.

Vestal

The distinctive stripe can sometimes be red, but my example was largely dark striped (with just a hint of red).

Shortly after I had finished cataloguing the catch, a final sweep of the walls produced a second Vestal. This one was tucked away above the hinge of the door. It's actually not unprecedented for garden moth ticks to come in twos. I suspect that pheromones given off by moth A are detected my moth B, and thus there are two.