At last we've had a decent spell of settled weather, some reward for enduring the biting winds for so long this year. Of course the combination of sun and what are still often breezy conditions has meant that the floods have been drying out again rapidly and are basically in their death throws once again. As Barry Hudson pointed out in a comment on a previous post, it probably is a good thing from the point of view of the natural cycle of flood meadows and certainly the Creeping Marshwort will have a chance to grow and reproduce.
Now that we're into June things traditionally get very quiet on the bird front. Indeed the only bird news of note is that Adrian Gray reported seeing a PEREGRINE flying around the Wolvercote area. However, at least I can at last report some butterflies in Burgess Field with some Small Heaths now flying about as well as some Common Heath moths.
Small Heath Butterfly
The other evening I went for a stroll about the reserve and saw dozens of small whitish moths flitting about. I'm not sure what they were as they never settled properly but some were Green Carpets and I think others might have been White-pinion Spotted - I shall return another evening to investigate. Both Steve Goddard and I are continuing to moth trap regularly in our respective gardens. For my part it's been very small numbers and moths are definitely struggling this year. You can follow our progress on the Garden Moth Challenge web-site
Cabbage Moth
A Scorpion Fly found in Burgess Field by my six year old son Luke
Hi Gnome, Reference the low numbers of Moths caught in your trap, speaking to an OOS member from Childrey just the other day he has the sad distinction of catching one solitary Moth recently and this followed previous very low counts this season.
ReplyDeletecamboy.