Monday 26 May 2014

Mostly insects

Heysham Obs
A few insect-dominated observations from the past few days


Today
Wall Brown butterfly by the bottle dump on Middleton (ex Tim Butler area) - really rare around here at the moment, but this area seems the best!
Elachista argentella also seen Middleton
Reed Warbler - a newly-arrived singing male at Middleton was ringed elsewhere (Y954 sequence)
No vis mig (e.g. hirundines) observed
Sedge Warbler singing by Heysham NR office was new in, I think


Yesterday (with Anne Smith and Mike Bloomfield)
Bioblitz of Heysham SD36V part two
Common Blue butterfly - at least 12
Small White - at least 4
Wheatear - one passed through rapidly - seemingly came in-off
Swallow - at least 24 in 1.5 hours north
Cauchas rufimitrella - this seemed to be an out of habitat puzzle, but communication with Steve Palmer indicated that it does occur in this sort of area (e.g. by the sandwinning plant at Marshside) with the larval foodplants also including Scurvy Grass spp.
Celypha lacunana was new for 10km square!!!
Grapholita compositella new for 10k square
Triangle Plume (the coltsfoot one) - four of these were found and were new for the 10k square