Just for a change the past week has seen warm weather and a bit of activity on the bird and insect front. A walk across White Dyke with Rich on the 27th produced the sub adult male Marsh Harrier, several Hobby hawking low level dragons in the cooler morning air, and a Green Sandpiper along Swan Lane. Earlier in the week I managed to catch up with the Beachy melody on the evening of the 24th and the Cuckmere Hoopoe found by Matt on the afternoon of the 25th, both sites also held numbers of commoner migrants including Whinchats, Spot Flys', and Wheatears.
With the warmer weather there has also been a pick up in the moth trap numbers. One or two White-points have been caught on the nights of 21st, 23rd, 25th, and 26th. A Hoary Footman was a welcome find on the night of the 21st, Sharp-angled Peacock on the 23rd, and a Toadflax Brocade on the 25th. From the micro corner there were Palpita vitrealis on the nights of the 16th and 26th, as well as 2 new micros' for the garden in the shape of Clavigesta purdey (Pine leaf-mining moth) on the night of 25th and Nephopterix angustella on the night of the 26th, all micros' are pictured below.
Away from birds and moths I managed a new insect for the garden in the form of a Figwort Sawfly (pictured below) on the Brambles on the 22nd.
And so to today, the 28th, Bank holiday Monday when I would usually stay put and not venture out! However with news breaking of several Queen of Spain Fritillary at Piddinghoe I decided to brave the roads and spend a short time on a butterfly twitch. I managed to see 2 males during the short time I was on site, and thanks to Ian Barnard who looked after Hazel, I managed to get the pictures at the top and bottom of this piece. Take care and watch out for unusual haze....
