Xmas bits

I've managed to sneak out and check Cuttlebrook a couple of times over the Xmas holidays, checklists here and here. Highlights have been a pair of Wigeon flying over the Thame, the Egyptian Geese again (one of them is partially leucistic), Raven and Common Snipe. The number of winter thrushes have dropped right off (just a handful now) and I haven't seen any Lapwings or Golden Plovers flying around the Thame Flood Plain and the flood waters have dropped a lot in last couple of days.  It's been very windy over the last few days too so things might be keeping down. No sign of the Otter again or the Great Egret but there has been a couple of Reeve's Muntjac out on the path. 

Nothing from the moth trap apart from a Light Brown Apple Moth.

We added a few new species to the mini-zoo over the xmas holidays including a couple of carnivorous plants (one for vegetarians to philosophise over), two land Hermit Crabs and Pachnoda Beetle grubs. We had a shock this morning when we saw the Sharp-ribbed Newt in the Paludarium- we hadn't seen it since last February despite attending the enclosure daily. Considering it's a total captive audience situation in less than a square meter enclosure it's shocking that something like that can go unrecorded for 10 months. Who knows what's really out there in the wild? 

Reeve's Muntjac

Male Wigeon

Raven

Little Egret

The Sharp-ribbed Newt- now called Lazarus

One of the Land Hermit Crabs

Sleepy Richards- our Leopard Gecko 

Venus fly-trap, we also got Nepenthes pitcher plant

Xmas family meet up