And they're off...

Huzzah! The moth season has finally kicked off, and in true form the garden produced some goodies. Three new for me (but I didn't trap this early last year, so that's kind of to be expected) in the form of these crackers.

 My first moth was found on the sheet after only an hour of the light being on. A Pale Brindled Beauty.

 This little fellow came next to the sheet - Tortricodes alternella. Very subtle colours on this one, very impressed.



This Chestnut was my second garden record, after catching one in my first season, I missed out last year. On the sheet.

An in the morning, this Early Moth was also found on the sheet.








So, it has to be said that the trap itself didn't catch anything, but the light did it's job. Hopefully they weren't having a party out there and scarpering when I came out to check....but we'll never know!

2012 Moth Count - 6 of 5 Species. It's a start!

A try out at Whitemoor Haye 7th Feb

7th Feb 2012
After reading an interesting blog from the AlrewasBirder I decided to try out Whitemoor Haye for myself. Some good birds have been seen there that I find difficult to add to my yearlist, so I headed out with the hope of bumping into someone that can point me in the right direction. That's exactly what happened and within 10 minutes we were watching a Little Owl staring straight back down the scope towards us! Great bird and in bright sunshine too. Further down the road were a nice flock of Tree Sparrow and the years first Yellowhammer looking resplendant in the afternoon sun. After an interesting wander round the lanes in roughly a square block, we had added Lapwing and Golden Plover, Fieldfare, tons of Mute Swans and lots of commoner birds. We got back to the car and drove down towards the Little Owl with the intention of grabbing some photos through the scope. However in typical birding style the little devil had buggered off but I received the third year tick in the form of two Grey Partridge sitting hunkered down in the grass right next to the car! The only bird that I REALLY wanted to see was the local Merlin that was regularly seen around Sittles Farm. After a quick look it was getting towards teatime and with the light slowly fading we headed home. As we drove along the lanes past the Gliding Club the Merlin flew across the road in front of the car and kept low over the fields the come to rest in the hedgerow. Amazing! I never would have thought that I would have been so lucky to get four year ticks, pity I couldn't get any photos though!!

Fairly quiet on both fronts

The lack of posting is probably a good indication that I don't have much to tell! The birding has slowed considerably after January's mad dash, and I'm slowly creeping up the list (105 at present). Work and family have kept me rather busy, and snow has kept me indoors (excuses, excuses!)

Recent additions include a Grey Wagtail over the car park at work.
A wander round Alvaston Park, Derby and down the river Derwent provided some Goosander, Stock Dove and about 20+ Linnet on the new reserve near Raynesway.
And Kingfisher fell onto the list as the resident bird at Codnor Park Reservoir showed really well on the slightly frozen canal section. If anyone reading this wants to see Kingfisher REALLY well then I advise a visit!

Tuesday night I visited Elvaston Castle to see if any Tawny Owl were about but I think it was so cold they'd given up any ideas of action. The only birds seen were the roosting Herons. I did manage to add Winter Moth (372nd Species) to my Derbyshire list though, in the headlights as I was putting my kit away.