Clouded Yellow

Lade - humid, sunny, light airs - An uncomfortably humid night delivered two hours of crash, bang, wallop around 2am as a series of thunderstorms made their way up from the south. The lightening show over the bay was as spectacular as any I could remember, while the ensuing torrential downpour resulted in a much needed 22mm of rain, as recorded at the Kerton Road weather station.

                                Clouded Yellow, an early migrant

                                Small Elephant Hawkmoth, first of the summer

  Despite the weather 15 species of moths were in the garden MV including another Silver-ground Carpet and the first Small Elephant Hawkmoth of the season. Outback our first Clouded Yellow was noted, while a Great White Egret over south lake was also the first of the `autumn`. The recent rainfall had done the trick on the sward with masses of plants bursting into flower, although a thorough search of the Southern Marsh Orchid patch revealed only a single spike.

                                Silver-ground Carpet

                               Southern Marsh Orchid spike

  Everywhere I looked young birds, mostly Starlings and House Sparrows, were being fed on a myriad of insects plundered from the turf, while Whitethroats and Linnets ferried food into gorse thickets. On the lake grebes, Coots, Moorhens and common wildfowl all had juvs on the water.
  A late morning scan from the aerial viewpoint revealed four Marsh Harriers, two Buzzards, a Kestrel and a distant kite high over the airport heading north, which was probably a Red Kite.