Friday 25 May 2012

Another scorcher - but very windy

The Safari set up the moth trap with high hopes last night.
Unfortunately the catch was very small. just a couple of Codling Moths and an escapee which could well have been a third.
Biggest was a Garden Carpet which was on the piece of wood the bulb is attached to rather than actually being in the trap itself.
This small nondescript Caddis Fly has been posted on iSpot but as yet there have been no IDs offered.
After a morning and half of the afternoon taken up by garden prep work we got out onto the North Blackpool Pond Trail for a shuffy, hoping for some Bee Orchids either in flower or at least buds in advance of the Bioblitz, which is now on its countdown.
Could only find these very small rosettes, the second one looks like it may have a starts of a bud forming.

Be(e) there or be square as they say!
Lots of Marsh Marigolds still in flower round the ponds and House Sparrows and Swallows everywhere.
The Swallows were attracted to the Horses or at least to the insects that are attracted to what comes out of the other end of the Horses.
Only a very few House Martins and no Swifts, although we did get one over the garden this morning (Garden #34). Anyone else noticed an apparent serious lack of these two so far this spring, or is it just us?
Also present were a couple of Whitethroats and a singing Sedge Warbler in the reedbed which was good. A pair of Mistle Thrushes gave a Magpie some serious gip.
Despite the very warm sunshine, although there was a stiff breeze, we only saw two butterflies both unIDd whites.
Once again the local gulls failed to put us onto any passing Honey Buzzards :-(
Where to next? Mothy will be on again tonight and tbh we don't expect to get much in this wind.
In the meantime let us know what's missing in your outback



1 comment:

cliff said...

Re. the lack of swifts. "Our" swifts, that nest in a neighbours eaves, have been out in full force for a while now dave, I tend to be seeing up to six several times a day, with morning & evening being the best times to see them, there have been as many ten on a couple of occasions.