April 24th 2011

There were enough breaks in the cloud to see both passes of the shed last night with the first watched while a pip bat flittered around my head and the second pass scoped.
Last night was a little cooler with a north west wind and full cloud cover by morning so nothing new in the moth trap though notable was a pale form of Powdered Quaker that I have not caught before – almost resembling a wainscot.
Out early again but we could only manage 2 Whitethroat and 2 Red-legged Partridge down the Southam Road and I was not expecting much at the pond and that was exactly what Dave, Colin and I got as we wandered up to farborough spit. All we had in 90 minutes was 2 Wheatear, 7 Yellow Wagtail and 2 Oystercatcher while a desperate search in the gloom for the calling Whimbrel failed even though it was close.
After meeting Dennis for breakfast it was a search of Napton on the Hill with very little of note seen, plenty of Blackcaps singing, Mistle Thrush, Green Woodpecker and 4 Buzzard for our efforts.
On to the Just So café where Naomi had a break in overnight but luckily they had not stolen the Lemon Meringue Cake – orgasmic.
After splitting from Colin and Dennis we tried our luck at Napton Reservoir where we had a Hobby hunting over the reservoir, Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Whitethroat, 6 Reed Bunting, 5 Sedge Warbler and 10 Reed Warbler. On the downside the long running dispute regarding the fencing off of an unofficial path seems to have backfired as the pile of sludge placed by the fence to prevent individuals climbing through has slipped threatening to block the watercourse in a number of places. Hopefully it will dry out.
Back at Dave’s for dinner and a stunning Rhubarb and Orange pudding with Ice cream – more orgasmic food but slightly spoilt by his grinning mug as he gloated over catching his fourth Dotted Chestnut. He’s back on sale on e-bay.
Rest of the afternoon spent dreaming I was slim then a look at the pond before dusk produced Common Tern, Common Sandpiper, male Blue-headed Wagtail by the valve tower and 3 Swift.
This evening Bob kindly sent me 30 photographs of the moths taken recently and done some sterling work identifying the micros – here’s just some of those we have trapped recently.

Knot Grass

Muslin Moth

Waved Umber

Lime Hawk-moth

Iron Prominent

Richard