Tuesday 10 August 2010

Quickfire bird coverage & more slow-slow moths

Silver Y on ragwort today.  Thanks Janet

Heysham Obs
A couple of mist nets were up for an hour before the wind got up, 5 minutes were spent scanning Red Nab/outfalls, the distant horizon by the windfarm was scanned for 5 minutes ('seawatch' tick box), the outfalls were scanned again in the early afternoon wind/rain for 5 mins and the moth trap was again a fairly lengthy job with about 200 therein.

Ocean Edge/Red Nab/outfalls
Med Gull - adult
Whimbrel - 1
Little Gull - yesterdays ad on stage 2 outfall early afternoon

Office area
Just two Willow warblers calling & an hour's ringing only produced a new Whitethroat & Wren and a retrap Lesser Whitethroat.  Two Raven flew over, the first for a bit as they dont seem to have nested at 'this end' of the bypass this year

Moths
Highlighted by the fourth record of Yellow-barred Brindle and the very localised (and getting scarcer here?) Agriphila latistria, with the next level of interest comprising Barred Rivulet, Nutmeg, Bordered Beauty and another 'plume 1523'.  Straw Underwing seems to be closing out for the year after a bumper crop of about 420 in the trap!