June 29th 2011

After three days of large catches resulting in well over 2000 moths trapped between mine and Dave’s garden I was relieved that last nights catch was very low giving Bob the chance to play catch up while I gave the valley a long overdue bashing.
Clear blue skies soon turned cloudy with rain threatening but I managed to stay dry resulting in finding 12 Whitethroat, 3 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Blackcap, 2 Garden Warbler, numerous Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers, 4 Yellow Wagtail juveniles, Great-spotted woodpecker, 5 Buzzard and 2 Sparrowhawk between Grandborough, Sawbridge and Broadwell.
Napton Reservoir had a family of Grey Wagtail, 3 Tree Sparrow and 2 Cetties Warbler among the many Reed and Sedge Warblers plus a Fox while on the other hand there was hardly a bird seen on Napton on the Hill with only Coal Tit worth reporting. A good flock of Long-tailed Tits at Calcutt and it’s been a good breeding year for Skylark, Great Tit, Blue tits, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch and Bullfinch with many seen today while smaller numbers of Stock Dove and Lapwing indicate they have also had a good season.

Played catch up with our moth lists for the year and Dave is on 247 while Im lagging behind on 240 although we are both heading for a record year. The first batch of 29 photos arrived from Bob so just a few to show.

Large twin-spot Carpet

Common Footman

Clay

Small Yellow Wave

Lozotaeniodes formosanus

Richard