Big And Small

Thursday night gave me an over-due first for the garden, with my sixth species of Hawkmoth here...

Privet Hawkmoth - the largest resident moth in the UK

And 'The Small', was this tiny immigrant micro moth that I caught last night...

Diamond-backed Moth

I'll bore you all with the full lists for both these catches, but don't worry they aint that big at all! And there's bird news afterwards...

Thursday night I caught 59 moths of 31 species; 10 Common Footman, 7 Bright-line Brown-eye, 3 Single-dotted Wave, 3 Buff Ermine, 3 Clay, 3 Uncertain, 2 Buff Arches, 2 Riband Wave, 2 Dingy Footman, 2 Grey Dagger, 2 Spectacle and singles of: Lackey, Small Blood-vein, Sandy Carpet, Small Rivulet, Brussels Lace, Willow Beauty, Brimstone, Peppered Moth, Poplar Hawkmoth, Privet Hawkmoth, Pebble Prominent, Rosy Footman, Heart and Dart, Crescent Dart (pictured below), Flame Shoulder, Flame, Large Yellow Underwing, Poplar Grey, Common Rustic and Silver Y.

My third of the year

Friday night I caught 63 moths of 30 species; 8 Riband Wave, 7 Bright-line Brown-eye, 6 Common Footman, 5 Dark Arches, 4 Common Rustic, 3 Flame, 2 Early Thorn, 2 Buff Ermine, 2 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 2 Uncertain and singles of: Pebble Hook-tip, Lackey, V-Pug, Brussels Lace, Scalloped Oak, Pebble Prominent, Buff Footman, Dingy Footman, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Double Square-spot, Smoky Wainscot, Nut-tree Tussock, Silver Y, Spectacle, Beautiful Hook-tip and Fanfoot. Also five Rush Veener and the Diamond-backed Moth pictured above.

Ok, it is bird time now...

I have to say, I'm highly gripped by the juvenile Caspian Gull just west of us. The number of Gulling-hours I've put in during the last few weeks, and haven't had anything to show for it! Oh well, I'll keep trying....

The only Gull worth mentioning was a colour-ringed Herring Gull a couple of days ago; orange M6GT.

This bird was ringed by the North Thames Gull Group on 9th Jan 2009 at a landfil site in Pitsea, Essex. This is the third sighting of the bird since it was ringed, and guess where the other two were!? HERE! Gav saw it on the Axe in March and April 2009, see HERE and HERE.

On Tuesday, 14 Common Sandpipers on the lower Estuary was a good count, and I'm sure there were more on Blackhole Marsh and further up river. Today nine Dunlin, two Whimbrel and two Blackwits were on the Esturay, then a look at Blackhole Marsh showed seven Common Sands and this juvenile Little Ringed Plover...

I was going to snap it with my Nikon, but it flew and landed much further away as I was attaching camera to scope! Bugger!

Have done a bit of ringing during the last few days, with sessions in Shute and near Waggs Plot. By the end of the second session my hands were in agony, as I rung eight of these...

All but one were juvs

Whilst netting in Kilmington, a Hobby and a couple of Siskins flew over.

LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE:

Someone somewhere read my moanings further up this post and gave me a nice reward during another scan of the Estuary late afternoon. North of Coronation Corner an adult Yellow-legged Gull looked very smart amongst the local riff raff. It was distant though so any photo was always going to be a rubbish one, see....

You can make out its yellow legs if you enlarge the photo