May 13th 2009

Yesterdays effort took its toll so after checking the trap it was back to bed surfacing mid-morning to wind and rain so caught up with me moth records – here’s some boring info - garden macros 289, garden micro’s 109 so 2 to go to reach 400 moth species for my garden and my total amount of moths caught in the garden since stating in August 2005 is 23,662 and my county total stands at 553 species and 55,771 caught.
OK even I’m bored so early afternoon the thought of terns on a fresh east wind with rain was enough to get the gear on and check the pond out and BINGO the first bird I clap my eyes on is White-winged Black Tern off the valve tower with 9 Black Terns. I raced up to farborough spit but the wind had taken it in to rainbow and was on me way there when John Coleman arrived to say he had seen it earlier from the fishing lodge. We split to search area and the bird was last seen heading for toft so presumably it cleared off. While all this was going on more terns were arriving and leaving so it was hard to get an exact number but at least 13 Black, 16 Common and 14 Artic seen and when Bob Hazell arrived he located a newly arrived Common Scoter bathing, feeding and yawning in toft bay. Also seen were 500+ Swift and 4 Yellow Wagtails. The WWBT is my fifth record with the last in 2005 as I missed last years being abroad at the time.

Richard