Lunar Marbled Brown

Suffice to say that April has been a poor month for numbers of moths in the garden. Whilst this is not a complete surprise with only April 2007 resulting in a total of more than a hundred individuals, and the fact that I am restricted to using an actinic light to avoid disrupting my neighbours' sleep patterns, my return this year of 27 is atrociously low and included 4 nights with nil returns. However by contrast the trap has held 2 new species for the garden in that time in the shape of Brindled Beauty and the Lunar Marbled Brown pictured right which was trapped on the night of the 24th April.
Out on the levels things have been ticking over nicely with no startling records but good birding most of the time. Best of the bunch by far was the Wood Sandpiper on Down level on the 26th creeping around in the reed fringed pools, also on the 26th my first Hobby of the year was on Horse-eye, and 2 Greenshank and a Ruff were on Down.
Today, the 2nd May, Down held Greenshank, Hobby, and Swift, while Mappins' had 2 Gadwall. All the residents and summer breeders now seem to be in and settling down to the business, hopefully the fragments of Lapwing shell I found in the week were indicative of newly hatched offspring and not predation though I am yet to see any youngsters.
On the mammal front Brown hare are an ever present and welcoming diversion from birding. Keep it real.