Wahay! Monday is dry and - are my eyes deceiving me? - sunny! Yep the weather forecast looked good for Monday morning so I got up at dawn and headed down to Attenborough to mop up as much as I could of the recent summer migrant arrivals. I was hoping for Black and Arctic Tern and Little Gull, but none of these were on show. However, I did manage an impressive list of 48 species in 2 hours! 
The difference a bit of sunshine makes is phenomenal. There were birds everywhere and each one had a song in its heart! The Linnets at the Tower Hide were looking brilliant, this female (left) sat up long enough for a snap. Blackcaps stood out warbling proudly, Chiffchaff chiffed and chaffed happily in the morning sun and this Whitethroat was one of many scratching out it's little song from the tops of the low shrubs. You tell by my writing that even I'm a bit infected by this spring feeling. The new additions to the yearlist came in the form of Sedge and Reed Warbler, Common Tern, the aforementioned Whitethroat (and I'm pretty sure I heard a Lesser Whitethroat too), Swift and to top it off, a quick chat with a photographer on the bridge by the Nature Centre made us pause long enough to spot two Hobbies flying over. A truly fantastic spring morning, and made all the more pleasing by the shiny yellow thing in the sky!
A couple of flowers caught my eye on my wanderings and I wonder if anyone reading this can identify them for me (flowers are still a bit of a black art for me!). No doubt they are common species but one's that I haven't noticed before.
The day just got better with temperatures reaching 19degrees on my way home. "The trap is definitely going out tonight" I thought to myself. "It'll be brilliant!". The temperature stayed around 12 degrees until I got home from the City/Man U game and I inspected the trap.
The only new visitor was this V-Pug, found on the shed wall. In fact he was the ONLY visitor. As the rain started again about 2300hrs I packed the trap away to discover that I hadn't caught anything!
Is the trap not up to spec, or am I still a bit too hopeful? We'll see soon enough I'm sure...
Bird Year List = 136
Moth Year List = 27
Hi - I'm not brilliant at wildflower id! but I am pretty sure the white flower on the left is Garlic Mustard (or Jack by the Hedge) and the yellow flower looks like one of the Ragwort species to me.
ReplyDeleteDue to awful weather I have not put out my moth trap for over a week but up until then I was catching very few moths. Roll on some drier, warmer weather!
Best wishes - Caroline