October 7th 2009

After a damp night the wind turned north east with low temperatures, overcast and despite the forecast slow to brighten. Biggest surprise in my moth trap was a Light Emerald. All my previous 46 records garden records fall in either June & July though in recent years a second generation can appear in Warwickshire in September/October and I have one record from Brandon Marsh in August 2006.

Light Emerald

This afternoon I tried Napton on the Hill for migrants and managed a Reed Warbler in the churchyard but it was not as good as I was hoping with only 2 Chiffchaff, 6 Swallow heading east and 3 of the local House Martins
A brief look at Napton Reservoir produced an eclipse male Pintail and near Broadwell there were 3 Fieldfare.
Arrived at Draycote Water in plenty of time for the roost so searched for Rock Pipit but could only find one of the 5 that John Harris had earlier in the day. Roost was good but distant and only found one adult Yellow-legged Gull. Hanging back for a couple of hours after dark a Tawny Owl kept me company when I ran a light sheet. Unfortunately it was cool but attracted Yellow-lined Quaker, 2 Sallow and Blair’s Shoulder-knot.

Richard