Friday, 3 August 2012

White-beaked, Shark and the 600 Club

Having had a couple of days in Northumberland which produced my first White-beaked Dolphins away from Shetland waters then locally I’m finding it hard to get motivated on the birding front though the last few days have seen a trickle of waders through the pond though the conditions are not favorable with thick vegetation on the shore-line hiding anything that lands and heavy disturbance from olympic wannabies. The odd passerines are turning up in the valley and surrounding high ground while the large gathering of Swifts last Sunday will probably be the last of the year with Yellow-legged Gull numbers continuing to increase.
On the mothing front the last week of July was dominated by micro moths with Dave easily passing the 600 species mark with his garden list standing on 602 with a few more awaiting identification while the six micos added to my garden list since I last posted puts me on 552 species. The best macro moth I caught was Golden Plusia while Dave trapped his second Shark, the last in 2007.
Today has been typical with sunny periods spoilt by heavy down pours which on our visit to Napton Reservoir and Just So produced Common Tern, Sparrowhawk and 5 Buzzard while amongst the more commoner butterflies species we found 6 Shaded Broad-bars and 2 Yellow Shell moths. Dragonflies included Common Blue, Blue-tailed and Azure Damselfly, Brown and Southern Hawker, Emperor Dragonfly and Ruddy Darter. all pics by Bob Hazel


Shark

Pale Prominent

Yellow-tail

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