Saturday 30 June 2012

A day’s birding in Leicestershire and Rutland - June 30, 2012


Roger and went to Wistow Church on route to Eye Brook Reservoir to see if we could locate a Spotted Flycatcher.  As we walked into the church yard a Green Woodpecker flew up silently from the grass.  We began to search the trees where we had seen Spotted Flycatcher in the past but all we could find was a Song Thrush and several Chaffinch.  I the noticed a bird perched on a post on the deg of the copse and it was a Spotted Flycatcher, success.  We had a quick look on Wistow Lake but there was nothing of note.
We continued to Eye Brook Reservoir seeing a Red Kite just west of Cranoe on route.  We approached Eye Brook Reservoir from the Great Eastern end and spent some time overlooking the fields and the old feeding station near the entrance to the fishing lodge.  We did find a single Whitethroat and eventually we did see a Tree Sparrow.  We then drove to the inlet where we saw a Buzzard and my first Osprey at the reservoir this year.  The water level is now very high and the vegetation very lush and it is difficult to see birds other than n on the water.  Something disturbed the birds feeding in the vegetation and there were three Little Egrets, several Lapwings and a single Redshank observed.  We eventually decided to go to Rutland Water.
We went to the north at Rutland Water first where we found four Pochard, two Little Egrets, four Oystercatchers and a single Green Sandpiper.  There was also a Red Kit and several Buzzards over Burley Wood.
It was now lunchtime so we drove to the Egleton car park where we had lunch before setting off for lagoon four.  It was rather quiet but we did find four Oystercatchers, which we presumed were the same four we had seen in flight in the north arm.  There were also three Little Ringed Plovers and a single Ringed Plover and there were two Lapwing chicks on island ten.  I then noticed what I assumed would be a tern amongst several gulls resting on some distant mud.  However before I could scope it, it took to flight and turned out to be a first-summer Little Gull.  There was also a party of larger gulls resting on a distant spit but they also took to flight and settled a lot closer and there were also eleven immature Yellow-legged Gulls.  I then noticed that the Little Gull was also resting on the same spit but shortly afterwards all of them got up and went very high not to return.  I suspected that there might be a bird of prey and scanned the sky but saw nothing that might have flushed the birds.
We returned to the centre and spent the last thirty minutes overlooking lagoon one.  We were told that there had been two adult Mediterranean Gulls present but that they had flown off towards lagoon two.  There was a Little Egret but little else of note before Roger picked up the two Mediterranean Gulls flying over Lax Hill.  They then flew towards the new lagoons below Lax Hill and appeared to come down on either lagoon five or seven.  A Hobby was also observed as it came in high from the east and beginning to hawk over lagoon three.  We eventually called it a day and set off for home having had much better day than we thought when we set of this morning.

It had been a very good day with eighty-two species recorded.  This included the first ever June record of Bittern within the counties and a Peregrine over the house as I waited for Roger.
We had also seen four Red Admiral, a Peacock, three Speckled Wood, four Meadow Brown and three Ringlet butterflies and two Azure Damselflies and at least ten Common Blue Damselflies.

Drake Shoveler in eclispe plumage on lagoon one at Rutland Water


Female Shoveler on lagoon one at Rutland Water


Common Tern over lagoon four at Rutland Water


Common Tern over lagoon four at Rutland Water


Common Tern over lagoon three at Rutland Water


Common Tern over lagoon three at Rutland Water


Robin in the car park at Egleton, Rutland Water


Juvenile Long-tailed Tit from the summer taril at Rutland Water

An early morning at Wigston Magna, Leicestershire - June 28, 2012

This was the forth night in succession that I had put the moth trap out and there were seventy-four moths in the trap that involved twenty-seven species.  It had been a good night.


Garden Pebble


Foxglove Pug


Green Pug


Large Nutmeg


The Shark


Golden Plusia


Beautiful Hook-tip

Friday 29 June 2012

An afternoon walk at Newton Harcourt, Leicestershire - June 27, 2012

This afternoon I had decided to go a walk along the Grand Union Canal west from Newton Harcourt.  There were some good periods of sunshine, which induced a number of insects to perform.  I had six species of butterfly and four damselflies.


Blue-tailed Damselfly


Large Red Damselfly


White-legged Damselfly


Banded Demoiselle


Large Skipper


Bittersweet


Yellow Iris

Wednesday 27 June 2012

An early morning at Wigston Magna, Leicestershire - June 27, 2012


Only thirty-two moths caught last night but included nineteen species.

The following were trapped: Ghost Moth [1]; Willow Beauty [2]; Light Brown Apple Moth [1]; Green Oak Tortrix [1]; Clepsis consimilana [1]; Chrysoteuchia culmella [1]; Crambus pascuella [2]; Ringed China-mark [1]; Udea olivalis [1]; Mottled Pug [1]; Brimstone Moth [2]; Scalloped Hazel [1]; Popular Hawkmoth [2]; Elephant Hawkmoth [1]; Heart and Dart [6]; Brown Rustic [1]; Dark Arches [4]; Minor Sp. [1] and Uncertain [1].


Female Ghost Moth


Green Oak Tortrix


Crambus pascuella


Udea olivalis


Motled Pug

An early morning at Wigston Magna, Leicestershire - June 26, 2012

Caught sixty-seven moths last night with twenty-eight species represented.

The following were trapped: Willow Beauty [1]; Clepha lacunana [1]; Carnation Tortrix [1]; Chrysoteuchia culmella [1]; Crambus perlela [1]; Small Magpie [1]; Bee Moth [1]; Garden Carpet [2]; Common Marbled Carpet [3]; Common Pug [3]; Brimstone Moth [2]; Popular Hawkmoth [1]; Elephant Hawkmoth [1]; Iron Prominent [1]; Common Footman [1]; Heart and Club [1]; Heart and Dart [10]; Flame [3]; Setaceous Hebrew Character [1]; Bright-line Brown-eye [1]; Shoulder-striped Wainscot [1]; Brown Rustic [3]; Angle Shades [1]; Dark Arches [15]; Large Nutmeg [1]; Minor sp. [1]; Uncertain [5]; Vine’s Rustic [1] and Silver Y [1].


Celypha lacunana


Small Magpie


Garden Carpet


Iron Prominent


Common Pug


Common Marbled Carpet


Common Footman


Heart and Club


Bright-line Brown-eye


Angle Shades


Shoulder-striped Wainscot


Uncertain

An early morning at Wigston Magna, Leicestershire - June 26, 2012

I put the moth trap out last night and caught thirty-six moths of twenty species.

The following were trapped: Willow Beauty [2]; Light Brown Apple Moth [1]; Pseudargyrotoza conwagana [1]; Chrysoteuchia culmella [1]; Crambus perlela [1]; Barred Yellow [1]; Poular Hawkmoth [1]; Elephant Hawkmoth [1]; White Ermine [1]; Buff Ermine [1]; Heart and Dart [7]; Flame [1]; Large Yellow Underwing [1]; Bright-line Brown-eye [1]; Common Wainscot [1]; Dark Arches [9]; Large Nutmeg [1]; Minor Sp. [1]; Uncertain [1] and Silver Y [1].


Pseudargyrotoza conwagana


Chrysoteuchia culmella


Chrysoteuchia culmella


Popular Hawkmoth


White Ermine


Heart and Dart


Large Yellow Underwing


Bright-line Brown-eye


Common Wainscot


Dark Arches

Sunday 24 June 2012

A day’s birding in Leicestershire and Rutland - June 23, 2012

Roger and I went to Ketton Quarry this morning as Roger was interested in seeing the Yellow Bird’s nest and Bee Orchids.  A Least Weasel had a lucky escape as it ran in front of the car on the A47 but decided at the last second to run the other way and made it back to verge.

When we arrived the weather was quite bright and as we walked down the cutting it seemed sheltered enough for insects but we saw nothing of interest.  We did locate a number of Common Twayblade plants and must a finished with about fifty by the end of the morning.  When we arrived at the site of the Yellow Bird’s –nest we must have found close to 100 plants but they had not come on much since Wednesday.  I also took Roger to see the Southern Marsh Orchids but only four were obvious and I found the fifth with the flower lying on the ground.  The two Bee Orchids at this site were both now in excellent bloom.  We continued to the site where twenty-two Bee Orchids had been seen on Wednesday and we counted twenty-four.  We also had a Ringlet and a Large Skipper.
After some lunch we went back into the quarry and found two Common Blue, a Small Heath and three Meadow Browns.  I also found and photographed a Chrysoteuchia culmella moth.

As the weather was not improving and was now rather overcast we decided to go to Rutland Water.

Common Blue


Common Blue


Bee Orchid


Common Twayblade


Yellow Bird's-nest

By the time we had driven to Rutland Water the weather had improved again and we immediately had a Green-veined White in the first meadow.  After signing in we walked to lagoon four and saw six Meadow Browns in a meadow and three Speckled Wood and a Red Admiral as we walked along the summer trail.  The summer trail also produced several Common Blue Damselfly and my first Emerald Damselfly of the summer.
Lagoon four was fairly quiet but we did locate two Oystercatchers, two Little Ringed Plovers; two Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper.  Lagoon was very quiet although we did watch a Carrion Crow taking seven eggs from what we presumed was a Tufted Duck nest.  It did not appear to eat them but just distribute them to different parts of the lagoon.
We returned to the Bird Watching Centre where we saw two Shelduck, two Curlews and the Bran Owl in the nest box before we departed for a brief visit to Eye Brook Reservoir.



Little Egret over lagoon three


Little Egret on lagoon one


Carrion Crow with egg (Tufted Duck?)

Eye Brook was rather quiet but there were thrity-six Common Terns present, which is unusal at this time of the year and perhaps due to adverse weather and breeding failure.  There appears to be fewer terns at Rutland Water this year and very few can been seen actually nesting.