Monday 7 June 2010

It was back to work today, and back to the much shorter, and so less productive afternoon visits to my patch.

Birding was slow, as it almost always is on my patch on a June afternoon, however, I did manage to pick up a new species for the months list when a PEREGRINE (62) flew over Migrant Alley. Also seen flying over whilst I was there were, HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS, a GREY HERON, KESTREL and the local SWIFTS, SWALLOWS and HOUSE MARTINS.

Just six more species needed now to beat the June record, and they will be hard to come by, I should add Common Buzzard at some point this month, and I might find the Garden warbler if it has indeed stayed to breed, Grey Wagtail is a possibility, as is a flyover Cormorant. There is an outside chance of a flyover lapwing, but thats still only five, so i'll need a special species to turn up in the next few weeks !

I decided to take a walk around the hedgerow and rough grassland of the Tree Nursery ( it's not been cut yet!) to try and find some butterflies, the weather wasn't really conducive, being cloudy and windy, but I did find a Common Blue and a few Small Whites. Failing to find find many butterflies, I had to resort to 'mothing' and I did find a couple of species, but I know nothing of moths so i'll leave it to the more expert 'Moffers' out there to help me out with the ID.



Above is a ........... , Any clue Dean, Josh, or maybe the king moth man Stewart
Edit: Thanks Greenie and Dean. Aove is a yellow Shell, and below is indeed a mother shipton - both new to me - but all moths are :-)

The moth above may well be a 'Mother Shipton' but i'm not certain :-)

Above is the Common Blue I found, not looking quite so blue in the dull conditions.
Below are some garden bird pics to fill todays post out a bit. Top is the COLLARED DOVE, Middle is a HOUSE SPARROW and Bottom is the GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. The fianl photo is of a Foxglove, which I just liked the look of :-)





6 comments:

Greenie said...

Warren ,
I had several of those yellow/orange moths today , and reckon they are Yellow Shell , but await confirmation from on high .
Your second is positively a Mother Shipton , witches head on each wing .

Anonymous said...

Yellow Shell it is and Greenie`s spot on with the other.

Nice one with the Peregrine, Warren.

Kerry said...

I wish the woodpecker would come to my food supply.

Two moths new to me as well, but like you most moths are.

Re comorants, there are a lot flying overland at the moment, which is unusual even here close to the sea.

Ken. said...

Hi Warren.
Well done with the Peregrine. Some nice photo's, especially the Foxglove. I am not into flora that much, but that is a good picture.
Well done with the moths too, they are not easy to I.D. There are so many of them, aren't there?

Jann said...

Really sharp moth and butterfly photos! Your house sparrows look just like ours in the US (unlike the robin and goldfinch). That foxglove is really sharp too. The spotted woodpecker, like all woodpeckers, is striking.

ShySongbird said...

Well done on the Peregrine and with the moths, Warren. I have seen the Yellow Shell on several blogs recently but admit I had never heard of it before.

Lovely to see the GSW again and the pretty Foxglove.

I thought I had commented on your last post because I remember wondering if the chap had a torch in one hand and the mower in the other but apparently I didn't :( However, it was nice to see the Little Owl.