I've had the LED on at the Beddington 'obs' in the week and had 3 Spring Ushers one night and an Agonopterix alstromeriana on another. When I arrived at the 'country retreat' at the Old Vic yesterday there was an Early moth on the wall. Unlike others who have bothered putting the trap out in deepest darkest winter I have not had Chestnuts, Pale Brindled Beauty, any Acleris sp and of course not the slightest sniff of the deep winter speciality Black-spotted Chestnut which has been caught not too far away from the Old Vic recently HERE.
Sunday 31 January 2021
More January moths
Friday 29 January 2021
A couple of Beddington gulls
A couple of presumed Yellow-legged Gulls from Beddington this week. More on Yellow-legged Gulls that have featured on this blog HERE.
I also did some scoring of recent Caspian Gulls at Beddington using British Birds scoring system HERE. The non-classic first winter that has been around for a while HERE came out with a score of 21- just on the line of an acceptable Caspian. Interestingly as I was scoring the bird and going through the paper it was interesting to confirm that the dark mask and head and body streaking and the dark triangles in the scapulars were at the variation limit of pure Caspian, and not necessarily indicative of hybridisation although the bird was right on the line.
Monday 25 January 2021
Otmoor Winter Wonderland
Had to get another full day in at Otmoor during mid-winter and what with the wintery conditions at the moment seemed like no better day than today. Ebird list HERE. Highlights included a single Crane, 75 White-fronted Goose, a passage of Skylarks moving low southwest (204 counted by mid-afternoon), Hen and Marsh Harriers, at least 150 Snipe and 90 Pintail, Redwings and Fieldfares on the move and a couple of Marsh Tit. Golden Plover numbers seemed lower than usual (about 1500) and for the first time this winter seemed like they were out numbered by Lapwings (approx 2000).
Sunday 24 January 2021
Snow Interval
Well that sort of broke things up a bit. Sounds like its all over by tomorrow but nice to see classic winter landscapes, albeit briefly. Not a real cold spell (it was a westerly airflow bringing an Atlantic front into cold air rather than northerly/easterlies bringing in cold air and snow from the Arctic/ Continent) so presumably only limited bird displacement- just a few Lapwings over Worminghall.
Friday 22 January 2021
Beddington Farmlands, Gull session
Monday 18 January 2021
Local Woodcock
Friday 15 January 2021
Moths off the block
Caught my first adult moths of the year two nights ago at the Beddington trap. The first relatively mild evening in a few weeks.
Thursday 14 January 2021
Red Fox- copulatory tie