November Moths

Just to prove that it can be worth setting the moth trap in November here are some of the moths that can be caught in early/mid November. Not trapped in the last couple of weeks due to v cold nights but have still seen the odd winter moth about.

A combination of 3 nights trapping in early November saw the following in the trap;

Mottled Umbar- 11
November moth sp- 88*
Merveille du jour- 2
Feathered thorn- 27
Red Green Carpet- 2
Large Wainscot- 10
Yellow lined Quaker- 10
December Moth- 2
Spruce Carpet-1
Chestnut- 1
Beaded Chestnut-1

Not bad at all considering the temperatures

Red Green Carpet ------------- Spruce Carpet

Mottled Umbar ----------------Chestnut

Merveille du jour

Green brindled crescent---------- Red-Line Quaker

December Moth

* The very similar group of November Moths are beyond me, I aggregate them to Nov moth sp, in reality they could be November, pale November or Autumnal moth. They look so similar by the time they have warn that without checking their goolies I cant be sure, I would have thought the top left image could be different to the other two but it could just be the difference between male/female or fresh/warn. Any tips or comments??

Wells

Day off today so managed to escape to the North Coast, I spent the morning at Wells Wood. I managed to get a subspecies tick in the form of Northern Bullfinch, I saw 2 females and a single male briefly. The females were as big as Waxwings and just sat there when all other bullies flew away, I didnt realise the females didnt have the trumpet call so spent too long trying to clionch the call, unsuccessfully of course. I did manage to hear a clear trumpeting from a male as I was leaving, he flew in and out quite quickly but perched calling for long enough to realise some subtle differences. All in all they were all far larger than our Bullfinches with stronger wing bars, more bull necked, male had saw edge to wing bar and a more pink tinge than red, wheras the females were a different hue being a slightly duller colour. They are just the sort of birds I love seeing, they are subtle but obvious when seen well, especially if heard!

While out and about I also managed to find 17 Shore Larks, 11 Waxwings (in off) and at least 3 Meally Redpolls in amongst a very flighty flock of lessers.

After Wells I headed to the Burnham overy car park where I picked up a Rough legged Buzzard hunting, it was distant but showed well enough to be sure of ID, there were also 3 Common Buzzards viewable from here at the same time.

Unfortunately my day was cut short by having to pick Ruth up from work and then go shopping, still I had a successful morning with 3 year ticks and a subspecies tick in 3 hrs!

The Fog

I was planning a trip to the east coast this morning, however it was too foggy to bother wasting the petrol. I decided instead to drive to Strumpshaw, a 3 minute drive from home, very handy indeed!
I arrived to the expected view of fog and not a lot else but decided to sit in the Fen hide and wait to see what happens.
For a day that didnt look too promising I got a few quality species. Bearded tits were evident pinging in the reedbed as well as 7 Marsh Harriers still roosting in one of the cut strips from Fen Hide, it was good to see them interacting with each other while on the ground.

After a kingfisher also put on a short performance on one of the perches, the first good sighting of the day occurred when I noticed ripples in the water, an Otter popped its head up and to my surprise it was being followed by 2 much smaller heads! Brilliant stuff, finally I was watching the bitch and cubs that so many visitors have been reporting lately.

Equally as impressive was the fact that a Bittern decided to finally show well for me in the cut plots, I have seen a lot of Bitterns recently however they have mainly been short flight views. The bird flew in and was feeding for about 20 mins in the open giving really good scope views, photography was a joke due to the mist but I gave it a go anyway, its behind the crow in the photo...and wont win any competitions!

I left the hide quite satisfied and continued round the fen, highlights were decent numbers of winter thrushes, a few Brambling and Redpoll flying over as well as more bearded tits. I checked out one of the reed plots I cut last week and manged to flush 2 Jack snipe, 16 Snipe and 2 Water pipits, a positive bit of habitat creation!

For some reason today had a few hints of spring about it, despite being cold and foggy I have heard Great Tit, Song Thrush, Blackbird and Wren singing. I also noticed a female Marsh Harrier flying around with a reed in its talons, the Black Swans have decided its a fine time to raise their young, I suppose it would be if they were still in Oz.

With the news of an Arctic Redpoll on the North coast I think I'll check out the local redpoll flock and hope for a mealy or two, I wouldn't mind an Arctic but I'll remain realistic for now!

Taiga's

I had to check the salinities at Buckenham and Cantley on Monday. It was one of those wall to wall blue sky days, very little wind and not a bad temperature, in short it was one of those days where you have to remind yourself your at work...the best kind! We had to traverse most of the reserves ditches so it was only a matter of time until we bumped into the goose flock. We were 'advised' that the geese were in a certain location and that we should try not to disturb them for obvious reasons, so in some ways it was lucky that 2 railway people came along the tracks in full high vis and flushed them for us. 140 grey geese got up, typically they flew into the sun so it was tricky to be sure of id's but I'm fairly positive I counted 38 Taiga Bean Geese within the flock of Pinks and White fronts, the shape and size really stands out when silhouetted. I was fairly happy with the sighting (my first taiga's for many years!) however 10 mins later I noticed 10 geese coming in from the North heading straight for me, they cant have seen me until the last minute as they flew pretty much overhead in perfect sunlight, fantastic views! Typically my camera was safely nestled at home so no pics unfortunately, but was good to be able to study them rather than trying to get photos. In total there were 48 Taiga beans, 15+ Whitefronts, 100+ Pinkies, lots of golden plovers, 15+ Ruff, 2 Peregrines as well as all the usual stuff including 2300+ Wigeon, quite a site and sound.

If viewing the geese the best place is from the main footpath from Buckenham, after the fleet check with scope on the other side of the railway. Views can also be obtained from the Cantley village side from Burnt house lane, do not enter the reserve apart from on the footpaths!

weekend wanderings

A fairly chilled weekend, nice not to do too much for a change!
Saturday I went just up the road to Ranworth Broad, not having seen it at this time of the year I was suitably impressed by the number of ducks. I didnt count them all but there were fairly good numbers of tufty's Wigeon, Teal as well as a single female Common Scoter, female Ring Necked Duck flew over with tuftys briefly and the woods held decent numbers of Redpoll and siskin.

I decided to check out the Alders at Cockshoot broad which I seem to remember being good for Redpoll (in the spring at least). Unfortunately the river had other ideas, it was in flood mode and even with wellies on I couldnt walk along the road to the boardwalk! The signs 'Road liable to flooding' came very true. Nipped into Sainsbury's for some essentials on the way home and got 50+ Waxwings.
Sunday- I decided to check out what Lowestoft had to offer, there have been a few Northern LT tits present as well as a Pallas's or 2. i managed a couple of Firecrest's and lots of Chiffchaffs, not a lot else though.
Yet again a Pallas's escapes my binoculars, Its a bit of a bogey bird for me, which is beginning to really annoy me to be honest! I have tried for a few and only ever managed to see a yellow rump dissapearing into the braken at halfway house, blakeney, not the best view of a little gem. Luckily I have been to China so have seen hundreds very well indeed. I'll get one properly in uk one day!

On the way back home I couldnt resist a look at the Yarmouth Waxwings seeing as it was a detour of 3 mins. Light was absolutely rubbish so pics are not great but always a joy to see 80+ Waxwings!

Hopefully the water levels will go down soon, Strumpshaw has come up by 13cm this weekend and I'm cutting reed all week, its going to be a wet one.

Scilly's 2010

I had a great week last week on St Agnes, good weather, good to spend the week with my parents and good walking, its just a bit of a shame there were not a huge number of birds about.
We were staying at the Parsonage, St Agnes which was a fantastic location, always a nice starting point as it has such a good track record of rarities. Unfortunately the best bird I had in there was probably a Chiffchaff, ie not great especially considering the Red Eyed Vireo the week before. Ah well we did manage to see some birds, highlights were;

(yt- year tick)
Lapland Bunting
Shag- (yt!)
4 Black Redstarts
4-6 Firecrests
Whooper Swan
Siberian Chiffchaff?
Yellow browed warbler (yt)
Spotted Sandpiper (yt)
Red breasted Flycatcher (yt)
Dusky Warbler (yt)

From the above list you can see that we had a relatively poor haul considering we were birding dawn till dusk most days, 5/6 year ticks in total and one of those was Shag! The RB fly, YBW and Dusky were seen on the final morning too so you could say that rarities were just that... rare!
Still the weather was very nice which made the holiday very pleasant indeed plus there was a keen westerly wind throughout the stay which always made us believe that the biggy may well be round the corner.
The highlights for me were seeing and hearing the Dusky warbler well on the final morning as well as getting the RB fly on call. Bird of the trip however was a male Lapland Bunting, not a year tick but it was a bird which allowed me to get 2 feet away so could really get a very good look at as well as a few photos. Shame we missed the American bittern when we returned but the large scale twitching of a puddle hoping the bird would return seemed pointless!

This shows the possible Tristis Chiffchaff, unfortunately didnt call, looked pretty good for one.

Dad and I did manage 2 moth ticks however! these came in the forms of Red Sward Grass and Cosmopolitan, I must admit its full credit to dad for checking the flowering Ivy every night, amazing how many moths were seen nectaring in comparison to those that made it into the traps.

Its always great to go to the Scilly's, such a fantastic place even if it does seem to be getting less birder friendly. Thanks to my parents for another great trip.