Heysham Obs
No known sightings of the Bonaparte's Gull this morning but it was on the pager for 1435hrs between the two outfalls. No other coastal news other than "the odd Med"!
Middleton NR
Fairly mediocre ringing session with about 19 new birds, the most numerous being Sedge Warbler (7). No shelter from the blazing sunlight!
Moths - more SD36 coverage
A sheet and light session between the mound and sandworks last night was quite interesting. There were loads of out of context insects on the move and it would have been a great session if there was a caddis specialist, beetle specialist and small fly/hymenoptera specialist available to add some more 10km square dots. Insects included a single median wasp which was 'removed', two 7-spot Ladybird, a "backswimmer", several normal water boatmen and masses of unidentified small insects
It was a fantastic session for small micros but unfortunately I only had a limited number of pots, so hopefully discarded look-alikes were duplicates and not similar species! By far aand away the best was a spectacular Hedya salicella and a lot of time has been wasted this morning trying to identify what appears to be a "distinctive" Epinotia-type. Presumably it is a variation on a common species which is not illustrated and not a boat-hopping mega (two came into the harbour during the session!). An actinic was also left in the sandworks, thankfully in the lee of the single building and morning sunlight was avoided.
Quite a difference in the catches between the more rocky area (S & L) and the actinic in the sandworks. The former saw Cloaked Minor dominating the sheet and the latter produced 61 White-line Dart. Quite a few moths seemingly wandering out of habitat, notably Light Emerald and Peach Blossom and loads of new 10k square species
