Thursday 6 August 2020

Not quite happening

Gentle and variable breeze. Overcast all day, but still very warm.

Middleton Nature Reserve early am (from PM)
Vis mig
Tree pipit 1
Grey Wagtail 2
Pied Wagtail 4
Tree Sparrow 1
Swift 3. NO Swallows seen or heard in five hours and not a lot of grounded stuff 
Best ringing records were two Lesser whitethroat 

Lighthouse area (MD)
10:30- tide out. The breeze at this time was very slight, but from the east, there were just a few butterflies drifting in.
Small White 3
Gatekeeper 1
Meadow Brown 1
There wasn't a single gull or wader on the beach next to jetty. They obviously "know" when the sand mason worms are not accessible. I'm plotting Meds numbers against moon phases on a spreadsheet, and I still can't work it out!


Another quIck check at 13:00, breeze now from south and tide in - no insect movement
Rock Pipit 1

Middleton Nature Reserve mid afternoon (MD)
It was 22C without any sun. 
There were lots of darters, many ovipositoring. I didn't see any dragonflies settle, but pretty sure all the darters were Common. 
Male Common Darter


The humid weather inevitably brought out the flying ants and the gulls amassed. 

There were Swallows and Swifts feeding above them.

The overcast and warm weather also seemed to make the moths active, there were several Shaded Broad-bar and Common Wave seen on Middleton. And this Large Yellow Underwing on Moneyclose Lane - from Janet