Tuesday 23 April 2013

St George`s Day - Cuckoo

Lade - 0800hrs - warm, dry, sunny, sw 2 -  A stunning morning with blue skies and a light breeze, until a bank of fog briefly rolled in! Walked out to Mockmill Sewer where the first Cuckoo of the year (169) was good to see on its traditional arrival date of St George`s Day. Plenty of Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats, Linnets and Reed Buntings in song, plus 2 Snipe flushed by Barney. At the back of the airport 5 Whimbrels on the deck and a Greenshank over calling, while 8 Med Gulls loafed on south pit. The sun returned as we checked out the ponds and another Greenshank passed overhead.
As for moths, well there just haven`t been any (at least not in my trap) with another negative `catch` from last night. This is my 5th year of trapping and by far the worse start so far, although most other local moth`ers are also having poor catches as a result of the lousy early spring weather.
ps: News from around the bird reserve today included Common Redstart, Pied Flycatcher and Spotted Redshank.


                                Grass Snake, Lade ponds

                                Mockmill Sewer

     
Peacock, Lade ponds
 
 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Paul. Mothing up here in Tenterden hasn't been much better with a modest 12 species to date this year. Tonight is looking very promising though so fingers crossed. Thanks for all your blog posts. I moved down here in October and have had some great bird sightings off the back of your detailed info. Much appreciated. I'll hopefully bump into you on the Marsh at some point. Cheers, Chris.

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