I was up early today to switch
the moth trap light off and capture any moths outside the trap before I had
breakfast and prepared for the rest of the day.
Roger joined me at 06:30 and
we began emptying the trap and identifying the moths. We identified 128 moths of forty-six species
but there were no new additions.
The following were trapped:
Coleophora Species [1]; Brown House-moth [1]; Barred Fruit Tree Tortrix [2];
Dark Fruit Tree Tortrix [1]; Timothy Tortrix [2]; Light Brown Apple Moth [2];
Lozotaenia forsterana [1]; Green Oak Tortrix [2]; Celypha striana [1]; Celypha
lacunana [1]; Chrysoteuchia culmella [28]; Crambus perlella [1]; Small Magpie
[1]; Udea olivalis [1]; Bee Moth [1]; Blood-vein [1]; Small Blood-vein [1];
Riband Wave [1]; Silver-ground Carpet [2]; Garden Carpet [2]; Mottled Pug [1];
Common Pug [1]; Clouded Border [1]; Brimstone Moth [1]; Peppered Moth [1];
Willow Beauty [3]; Elephant Hawk Moth [1]; Common Footman [1]; Buff Ermine [5];
Heart and Dart [14]; Flame [7]; Large Yellow Underwing [2]; Bright-line
Brown-eye [1]; The Shark [1]; Polar Grey [1]; The Millar [1]; Dagger species
[1]; Marbled Beauty [2]; Angle Shades [1]; Dark Arches [9]; Dusky Brocade [2];
Marbled Minor species [3]; Middle-barred Minor [2]; Uncertain [9]; Beautiful
Hook-tip [2] and Snout [2].
Coleophora Species
Celypha striana
Celypha lacunana
Bee Moth
The Shark
The Shark
The Miller
Marbled Beauty
Dusky Brocade
Middle-barred Minor
Poplar Grey
It was 09:15 and Roger went
straight off to Eye Brook Reservoir to see if two Little Terns reported
yesterday were still there. I packed my
lunch and also went to Eye Brook Reservoir where I again joined up with Roger.
There was no sign of the
Little Terns or the two Common Sandpipers reported as well but we did have a
Little Ringed Plover and six Green Sandpipers.
The pair of Shelduck still had two young and we had three different Red
Kites, two Buzzards and an Osprey was observed fishing. There was also a twenty Common Terns but it
was quite warm and there was little bird activity.
I saw at least four Meadow
Brown butterflies and a single male Banded Demoiselle, which was only my second
at this site.
Having spent some time at Eye
Brook Reservoir we moved onto Rutland Water, where they were having a Bio-blitz
today. The actual blitz started at 12:00 and so we had an early lunch before
moving off to lagoon three.
We eventually found nine Green
Sandpipers on the lagoon and there were also a single Snipe and three
Black-tailed Godwits. The two Shelduck
did not appear to be so concerned about their remaining two young today, which
should hopefully now survive. The three
first-summer Little Gulls were also present and we had several view of Reed
Warblers and Roger found a single juvenile Yellow Wagtail on one of the
islands.
Shelduck young on lagoon three
Lapwing on lagoon three
Green Sandpiper on lagoon three
Snipe on lagoon three
First-summer Little Gull over lagoon three
Common Tern over lagoon three
From shoveler hide we moved to
sandpiper hide on lagoon three where we found two Ringed Plovers, six Curlew, a
Yellow-legged Gull and twenty Common Terns but little else. Although we did see a couple of Buzzards over
Burley Wood, which were surprisingly the only birds of prey we had seen since
arriving.
We walked back to the centre
and I spent a couple of hours there before going to the Lyndon Reserve as I was
staying for a moth trapping even this evening.
The only birds of note on lagoon one was a few Wigeon and three Little
Egrets.
When I arrived at Lyndon I
walked to wader scrape hide and had reasonable views of the family of Osprey,
the male, female and three young.
I had seen my first Ringlets,
Brown Hawker and Black-tailed Skimmers today and Meadow Browns were
particularly numerous at Lyndon where there were also a few Six-spot
Burnets. As I waited for the moth event
to begin I heard a Little Owl and I had caught a Light Emerald moth on the walk
back from shallow water hide.
The moth event was carried out
close to the centre where the guy running it had placed a white cloth on the
ground and erected a lamp on a tripod.
Initially it was very slow but the moth activity did pick up and I
recorded thirty-four species but only two were actually new, Peach Blossom and
Small Angle Shades. The event
unfortunately finished at midnight as there was still a high level of activity.
Traps out on other parts of
the reserve recorded 151 species with quite a few I hadn’t seen. Perhaps it would have been better to have
held the event early on Sunday morning.
Peach Blossom
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