Pages

Tuesday 1 September 2009

It Only Takes One...

...This phrase is quite well used in the world of birding isn't it!?

None more so than this afternoon, when four of us were seawatching from Seaton Hole. It was fairly quiet, I saw three Balearic Shearwaters, a couple of Manx Shearwaters and four Teal (which should have been Garganey!). Then it went dead, but we all agreed it was the kind of conditions that one bird could come whizzing through the bay and change it all...something like a Fea's Petrel for example!

Today wasn't that day though, the one special bird didn't appear. But it does lead me nicely on to the haul in my moth trap from last night...


I set the Robinson in the back garden despite the wind and far from humid conditions. This morning I had 105 moths of 19 species to look through. Two of them were 'new for the gardens', and one of them was this....

A Portland Ribbon Wave - one I've always wanted to catch! This individual is almost certainly an immigrant as opposed to one from a local undiscovered breeding population

The other first was this...

A Pine Carpet

The rest of the catch was made up of: 41 Large Yellow Underwing, 25 Setaceous Hebrew Character, 8 Small Square-spot, 5 Brimstone, 5 Vine's Rustic, 4 Flame Shoulder, 3 Spectacle, 2 Lesser Yellow Underwing, and singles of: Angle Shades, Square-spot Rustic, Jersey Tiger, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Common/Lesser Rustic, Silver Y, Yellow Shell, Common Carpet, V-Pug and Double-striped Pug.

Back to birds, and I haven't seen much today despite lots of looking. A Lesser Whitethroat on the track down to Blackhole Marsh probably the only thing worth mentioning!

2 comments:

  1. Well done with the PRW, Steve. Now for a Fea`s.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Dean.

    I was real pleased with the PRW. I'd go in to a state of shock with a Fea's though! I may even die on the spot!!!

    ReplyDelete