Saturday, 19 March 2022

The Old Vicarage- first moth lifers of the year

Things are picking up at the Old Vicarage with the doldrums of winter fading away. Moths are picking up with 14 species for the year now (most in the last few days) including a couple of lifers. The all time Old Vic moth list is now on 487, hopefully we will now be picking them off regularly towards the 500 milestone. 

There's been the odd migrant bird (52 species for the year) and the first butterfly - Brimstones. I'm trying to get a photo or sound recording of every bird species recorded in the garden this year SEE HERE

It's that time of year so the noc-mig recorder has been out. Best so far has been a couple of Little Grebes. 

Winter male Brambling- been around for a few days. Also been a small influx of Goldfinch, Chiffchaff still singing, Blackcaps were quiet this morning, most of the Redwings have cleared out the Sheep Field now and more raptor action in the high pressure with Red Kites, Common Buzzards and Sparrowhawk around. Tawny Owls calling at night and had a Barn Owl on the way to pick up Jacob from a party this evening. 
The male and female Bullfinch still around- stripping the fruit tree buds. I've finally re-subscribed to some photo editing software (Lightroom) as part of hoping to improve photography quality this year including upgrading gear to Canon mirrorless system (once I've saved up).    

Drumming male Great Spotted Woodpecker on the Poplars
Male Lead-coloured Drab, a lifer (above and below). The feathered antennae of the male is a good identification feature compared to other Drabs.  

Probably Mompha jurassicella but can't rule our Mompha bradleyi without dissection. The default in the area is jurassicella. (above and below)

March Tubic
Twin-spot Quaker
Early Grey
Variation in Hebrew Character ground colour 
Small Quaker (bottom) and Common Quaker
Got a new PhoneSkope adaptor for my Iphone XR and scope. First results below. Also subscribed to Lightroom and planning on making a few other photographic improvements in the near future

Little Grebe on the night recorder - two calls during the night, separated by several hours so presumably two birds

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