A Birding Blog?

Well it ain't at the moment....cuz there are sod all birds about! Well, considering the date there is anyway!

Blackhole Marsh tonight gave just four Ringed Plovers, nine Dunlin, two Whimbrel and four Blackwits. Earlier on today, I saw the first baby Shelduck of the year with four (plus parents) on the river from the farm gate.

At ten this morning, Karen picked me up and we tried for Duke of Burgundys again. We thought we were gonna have to put in a lot more effort than we actually did.... as we wandered into one of the first clearings one was just there in front of us! This pristine female...

As you can see it allowed close approach

But it did get EVEN closer...

On Karen's finger!!!

Didn't see any Dingy Skippers today but three Grizzled. Karen got all excited by the 'most boring looking Orchid in the world' again. To prove how boring it is, look....

It isn't dead folks...this is it at its prime! I had to turn my camera away in fear of the lens cracking!

Anyway, Orchid aside, it was a very sucessful trip. Lovely little butterfly the Duke, but they are tipped to be the next butterfly to become extinct in the UK.... which is not good at all :-(

Back to the patch again, and last night was the first night for a while I've had the moth trap out. It was well worth it with 22 moths of 14 species. This included three new for the garden...

The rarest was this, with just six records for the whole of Devon all last year...

Square-Spot

And apologies for the rubbish photos of the next two...

Least Black Arches - a teeny little thing!

Foxglove Pug - yes a very very VERY rubbish photo of it! It flew off before I could attempt any better

The rest of the catch included a few new for the year: 3 Brimstone, 3 V-Pug, 3 Common Quaker, 2 Hebrew Character, 2 Shuttle-shaped Dart and singles of: Poplar Hawkmoth, Nut-tree Tussock, Heart and Dart, Angle Shades, Brindled Pug and Streamer. I'll end this post with photos of two of the 'new for the year'...

My first Hawkmoth of 2010

The Heart and Dart