March 16th 2011

Woke early to visit Grandborough Valley but again too misty so turned my attention to the garden moth trap which had record counts for March of Hebrew Character, Clouded Drab and Common Quaker plus 3 other species including only my third record of Pine Beauty in six years.


Pine Beauty by Bob Hazell

Bit early to ring Bob for photos so checked for updates on Fridays steam train movement from Carnforth to Southall and they had just published that LMS Class 5MT 4-6-0 no 44932 would be going through Rugby today at 12:23pm heading north – now I rang him.
Bob arrived for the Pine Beauty then a check on Dave’s trap which had 41 moths of 8 species including a micro that was unfamiliar to us before we moved on to Cathiron joined by April.
Being mid-week we had the place to ourselves and watched 30 Linnet in a partially ploughed weedy strip and 27 Golden Plover fly over low heading north while we waited. She soon appeared out of the gloom just a couple of minutes late with only her support coach attached.

coming

coming

going
44932 passing Cathiron - middle pic by Bob

Moved on to Brandon Marsh for lunch then a walk to east marsh and carlton hide (both empty) which produced 8 Shelduck, 10 Snipe, 69 Shoveler, 3 Buzzard, 2 Oystercatcher, 2 Redshank, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker while earlier we had 2 Coal Tit and heard a Chiffchaff.
Came home via Bob’s estate in case the 70 Waxwings that appeared yesterday evening were still around but we had no luck. Later on this afternoon he had some in Lawford Rd near the Holly Bush

Richard