So here we are in "flaming" June though the weather has been quite frankly freezing. My talk of the end of the birding season in my previous post may have been a little premature, partly indeed because of this weather as everything is several weeks behind at present. For starters, all the Cow Parsley and May Flower is still in full bloom and Burgess Field is looking wonderful with an absolute riot of flowers and lush greeness - it's fantastic! On the bird front, we're still getting a trickle of late passage migrants coming through: today there were 7 RINGED PLOVER along with the usual OYSTERCATCHERS and SHELDUCK. The floods are looking pretty good still with the algal scum being held at bay by the regular top-ups of rain. There are lots of Mute Swans and a motley miscellany of ducks enjoying feeding off the aforementioned scum and along with the Black-headed Gulls it makes for quite a birdy scene still. It's still possible that we could get another late Wood Sandpiper or even another Spoonbill and I keep reminding myself that only an hour's drive away in Warwickshire this week a Broad-billed Sandpiper spent a few hours on a local reserve there so it's not impossible that it could turn up on the Meadow.
 |
| Yellow Belle |
I've not made much mention of my mothing of late, partly because the cold weather is making for dire catches. Still I have had a few noteworthy moths to mention so far this season. I've actually caught a couple of TOADFLAX BROCADE, still a rather scarce moth for the recording region though it seems to be a speciality of my garden as I seem to get it fairly regularly. I also caught another PSYCHOIDES FILICIVORA, a fern-loving micro that again is rather rare in the recording area. Finally, a couple of days ago came across a YELLOW BELLE in my garden shed. This is a coastal species so to find it inland is highly unusual and it turns out that it is the first record for the VC23 region that I'm in - hurrah! So very much quality over quantity at present.
 |
| Toadflax Brocade - a garden speciality |
 |
| Psychoides filicivora |
No comments:
Post a Comment