The shape of things to come

The absolute indicator that Autumn is here is the appearance of Lunar Underwing in the garden moth trap as occurred for the first time this year on the night of the 3rd with the individual pictured on the left. Whilst many more can be expected this autumn, since they are usually one of the moths I record in 3 figures annually, they appear in such a variety from dark through to ginger or very pale that they are always pleasant to see as well as obvious - a bit like Robins. The only other newbie for the year came in the shape of 2 White-points on the night of the 1st. Numbers for the past week have been good with, as predicted in my last post, Large Yellow Underwing usurping Dark Arches as the commonest moth trapped in my garden this year with a total of 209 for the 4 nights trapped (30/8, 1/9, 3/9, 5/9) taking it to a total (so far) of 449 against Dark Arches 421. The only other moth of any note was a Hummingbird Hawkmoth at Beachy Head on the 6th. Totals for the year as follow 2483 macro's of 168 species and 922 micro's of 72 species.

The main focus at this time of year though has to be birds and things have picked up a bit over the last week. Waders have included Ruff on Down Level on the 5th and 6th, Green Sandpiper on Down Level from the 1st, and a Snipe count of 12 on Down Level on the 3rd. Other bird higlights included 2 Whinchat and 2 Wheatear on the 31/8, 30 Teal on 3/9, and the first Wigeon of the autumn on 4/9. Over 200 House Martin and Swallow were at Rickney on the 5/9 and Raven, Buzzard, Little Egret, Cetti's, and Hobby also put in regular appearrances. Elsewhere a major influx of Wryneck has occurred nationally and included 3 at Beachy Head. I saw one of these enigmatic birds late on the afternoon of the 6th at Chat Vale though, when alerting other birders present, the "frontiers of fieldcraft" demonstrated were beyond belief...

 
On the mammalian front the highlights of the week were 2 fold with a Weasel watched hunting on a roadside verge on New Bridge Road on the evening of 4th and 2 Brown Hares walked up on Down Level on the 7th while looking for Snipe during my WEBS count. The last named never fail to fascinate me and both burst from the cover of their forms when I was virtually on top of them. The form pictured on the left was taken from the point at which the Hare left it and has not been zoomed in on, just as well I was looking for Snipe and expecting things to burst out of cover at close hand or it could have got messy!