30th August

Bird ‘highlight’ (it’s a very low bar!) was a Little Grebe, a very vocal (but elusive) bird in the Magic Garden.

 

They have nested here in the past but this was my first sighting of the year.

There was also some bird movement on  Monday, presumably ahead of the cooler weather, with two Sedge Warblers in the magic garden (my first since some briefly singing birds in April) and around a dozen Chiffchaff there. Chris had a nice male Redstart and a Hobby near the river on the same day. 

I saw what was possibly the same Hobby chasing Swallows in the village on Friday evening.

Today Chris picked up Common Sandpiper on the river and an amazing total of 15 Little Egret. An inconceivable sighting even a few years ago.

John came over on Wednesday to do the first moth trapping in the village this year. This time we just ran a single trap at a new site, Ladyfield. In the end the expected warm, humid evening did not materialise but we still managed  70 moths of 21 species. These included two new micros for the parish, a Skin Moth…

which feed on things like dead animals, owl pellets etc.

And this Straw Conch…

We also caught four of these handsome Feathered Gothics…

I continue my slow progress on finding and identifying the more obvious hoverflies, this is I believe a Tapered Drone Fly…  

And on the neighbouring plant I photographed this little potter wasp, I think one of the symmorphus family but not sure of the species…

23rd August

My first walk down the river for some weeks today, unfortunately the recent rain has pushed water levels really high and any hoped-for wader mud was nowhere to be seen. A single Little Egret and Buzzard and half a dozen Lapwing were very slim pickings indeed.

I did find, however, my first Marsh Woundwort for the parish (seen here with Tansy)…

And despite the cold and gloomy conditions it was buzzing with pollinators, including, unusually, a day-flying Gold Spot moth…

This moth, a Drinker, was caught in the house

And it would be nice to say the same for this one…

but this rare and stunning Bedstraw Hawkmoth was actually caught by a friend in Little Smeaton who fortunately held on to it long enough for me to see it…

The only other record of note was a call from one of the villagers that they had come back from holiday to find this in the house…

A Brown Long-eared Bat. It looked dehydrated, We managed to get it to drink and it became more active and is currently protected in a box to hopefully release tonight.

(BTW I apologise for the misaligned photos etc., the new Blogger editor is rubbish!)