Anne's Journal

Thursday September 26 A scattering of Yellow-browed Warblers, brought in by the easterlies, was a harbinger of Autumn birding.  The moths likewise. A paltry catch of only 24 moths of 7 species in two traps was made delightful by the single Dark Crimson Underwing.. One of the truly Waw moths. The Grey Dagger caterpillar Pam found in the Hawthorn she cut as food for a different cat, has now pupated'   Spinning in progress It's likely to be next spring at the earliest before a moth appears. We went to Titchwell yesterday (Weds) to see a micro David N had brought for us to see. It was trapped in South Norfolk and -  potentially - is a first for the UK. A Phycitodes lacteela. David is an excellent provider of 'good' moths for the group, saying that he enjoys doing so. Thank you. We went on to Holme reserve car park where we met Sue and Ian, ate our meal and called in to Brancaster Staithe.  The high tide was beginning to ebb. Although many boats have already been beached...

 Monday September 16 Blue Sky, warmth, birds and a chance for photography. What could be better.  I can immediately think of a few other enhancements - but I have to be realistic. As planned, we made our way directly to Snettisham after an early start, for us. We left soon after eight a.m., encountering school run traffic in North Walsham with nothing much elsewhere. We knew that it was well past high tide so expected the vast stretch of brown, rippled, muddy sand, interspersed with small pools, which greeted us. A flock of 150 Golden Plover in a long straggle-line, very well camouflaged, just one with a black belly. Curlew, one well ringed, two on each leg, one flag a bright yellow. Pam photographed it using my camera, but only one set of numbers was discernible. Ringed Plover, Redshank, Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit. To our delight, a young Stonechat flew in, landing on a trackside twiggy branch.  The end pit held dozens of Greylag, Cormorants, eight Spoonbills and several...

 Sunday September 15 So long since I posted. Why? A combination of circumstances. No birding to report and - mainly - Google Blogger messing me about re passwords. I've now fixed the latter and hope to rectify the former in the near future. In the meantime. Apart from a plethora of Large Yellow Underwings and Setaceous Hebrew Characters, moth-ing has been quiet. Until the excitement of Pam finding a Clifden Nonpareil on the wall above a trap. We have now been catching one annually for the last five or so years, yet it is still a supreme joy to find one in the garden, big, beautiful, and in pristine condition. They must be breeding locally.   This is how it looked before its transfer into a larger box to take to the Cley session. It managed to flutter around and remove a lot of scales, unfortunately. My plans for a natural background photo were shelved. Still lovely......and it gave a lot of people pleasure. One visiting moth-er had never seen one before. A genuine WAW moth. We...