A day in Leicestershire and Rutland - June 7, 2014

I put the trap out again last night but was woken during the night by the wind and so I went and switched it off.  I did catch six moths from outside the trap and there was another twenty-six in the trap, which I emptied in the morning.  There were seven new moths for the year but none of them were actually new.

The following were trapped: Light Brown Apple Moth [1]; Pseudargrotoza conwagana [2]; Udea olivalis [1]; Silver-ground Carpet [1]; Mottled Pug [2]; Common Pug [2]; Brimstone Moth [2]; Peppered Moth [1]; Elephant Hawkmoth [1]; Iron Prominent [1]; Heart and Dart [11]; Flame Shoulder [1]; Setaceous Hebrew Character [1]; Bright-line Brown-eye [2]; Brown Rustic [1]; Dark Arches [1] and Rustic Shoulder-knot [1].

Common Pug

Rustic Shoulder-knot

Roger and I had decided to go to Rutland Water after the heavy morning rain ceased.

We had a Red Kite from the A47 just after East Norton but saw very little else on route.  We met Ken in the car park and after checking the book in the centre went to sandpiper hide on lagoon four.  There were four Ringed Plovers to the left of the hide and two Oystercatchers on island ten but other than Lapwing there were no other waders.  There was a single third-year Yellow-legged Gull amongst the Great Black-backed Gulls and two Shelduck near island three.

We moved to shoveler hide on lagoon three were we had nice views of a Reed Warbler but very little else and we moved onto lapwing hide.  There had been three drake Common Scoters reported yesterday and I found these some distance off towards the Lyndon Reserve.  There were also three Buzzards over the Hambleton peninsular and an Osprey was observed beyond Brown’s Island.

We called at the grebe hide on lagoon two on our way back to the centre but there was very little.  From the centre there was a Sparrowhawk observed over towards Lax Hill and Hobby over lagoon two and there was an Oystercatcher on the long island with three more flying over.

We had decided to go to the north arm in the hope of finding the Glossy Ibis, which can be surprisingly elusive.  However we hadn’t been there many minutes when Roger found it on the north shore but it soon disappeared into the vegetation and we didn’t see it again.  A search for a Spotted Flycatcher near Tim’s cottage was fruitless although we did see another two Ospreys and a Buzzard.