Spot Fly returns

I might have heard Spotted Flycatcher a few days ago but a confirmed sighting of a singing bird this morning. Good to know they are hanging in round here (unlike Blackcaps which seem to have been wiped out this year in the garden). Maybe the one this morning was one of the couple of hundred that migrated over Portland last week as they seem to arrived late and en masse this Spring HERE. In the past they've usually arrived here in early May. 

Jay yesterday and the Spot Fly today takes the garden year list to 56. It seems quieter this Spring in the garden (mainly because the Blackcaps used to be vocally dominant) but also seems like less numbers of Blue and Great Tits- maybe bird flu is taking a silent toll on passerines? Ebird list from today HERE. Ebird list from same time last year HERE which shows there were lots of young birds around which are not evident at the moment apart from the first juvenile Starlings. 

The days have been warm and sunny but the night clear and cool so the mothing is still slow going- up to 109 species now. A few new for years and other moth highlights from the last few days below. There's also been the odd Red Admiral around and a Demoiselle which I can't pin down to either a female Banded or a Beautiful.   

Overall the absence of young birds, lower bird species counts, lower territories, late arrival dates and depressed numbers of moths are presumably all due to the cold and wet Spring, characterised by heavy rain earlier on and now a persistent north easterly wind. 

Spotted Flycatcher (a pic from last year) 

Scorched Wing

Toadflax Brocade

Figure of Eighty

Commom Wainscot- the first of hundreds

A nicely marked male Common Swift

Light Emerald 

Another unusual Treble Lines amongst the moth of the moment (double figures daily)

Rustic Shoulder-knot (left) and Large Nutmeg

Mission drift in the mini-farm bean bed which has now been turned into a dinosaur swamp