May 30th 2011

Very mild in our gardens overnight resulting in both mine and Dave’s traps overflowing so we closed them up and went down the pond knowing we were in for some rain and boy did we get it. Skinned in waterproofs we had the place almost to ourselves with just two walkers for company as we walked from Draycote village to hensborough bank seeing only a bedraggled Buzzard, Yellow Wagtail and disappointingly just one wader – Ringed Plover. Visibility was poor but as we walked back we had 5 recently fledged Grey Wagtail being watched over mum and a red head Red-breasted Merganser by the valve tower so our efforts paid off but it was too wet to nail the sex down as the bird showed more white than I would normally expect for a female so could have been a first summer male or very late developer. We arrived back home early as Lawford Heath produced zilch and it wasn’t worth trying anywhere else while it was still raining.
Dave trapped 47 species from 181 moths including his first record of Purple Bar plus many micros while mine produced 31 species with at least Common White Wave, Beautiful Hook-tip, Freyer’s Pug and Shoulder-striped Wainscot new for the year.
Back out to the pond briefly to see 3 Sanderling then out later owling with Mark and Mason but no luck though we did have at least 3 Noctule Bats and loads of pips.

Richard