June.
The start of the month looked promising for one bird in particular, the Rose Coloured Starling or Rosy Starling as it's also known. There had been a large movement of these birds across europe moving from Hungary and now there were quite a few birds across the water in France. It wasn't long before the odd bird was showing up further south. Then there was a report of a bird in Cromer followed by reports of maybe 2 different birds in Roughton, I unfortunately could not get to see them and despite searching the flocks of Starlings around the village or flying over I could not find one. The adult birds are stunning to look at, this bird in the photos was from Weybourne back in 2014.
Local birders were treated to a couple of Blyths Reed Warblers, one at Beeston and one near North Walsham, the weather was a mixed bag with some lingering sea fog for a few days. Mediterranean Gulls were starting to turn up along at Cromer but I didn't pick any out this way, later in the year is the time I see the gulls feeding on insects over the trees behind the house. There were some large numbers of swift passing over during the second half of the month, I estimated quite a few hundred from the back garden on a couple of days, made up of feeding birds and also non-breeders they probably included younger birds prospecting nesting sites for next year, once the young birds have left the nest they will not land or nest for the first couple of years of its life, they will stay airborne. Near the end of the month a staggering count of around 6,000 swifts were counted past Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire, birds probably feeding further south as the weather was probably rainy further north and unfortunately they didn't venture this way. I had a new garden tick on the 24th with a group of Crossbill flying over low.
The dragonflies are now starting to appear in the garden and down the lanes, a Black Tailed Skimmer was sunning itself early one morning down Church road and a Southern or Migrant hawker was patrolling over the garden.
Mothing has been very productive , although entering the last few days of June has put a stop to that with the strengthening winds. I have trapped 34 species of macro moth that were new for the garden year list which stands at 125 species at the end of June. Here are some of the great moths.
This Sandy Carpet moth was a new species for the garden and a first for me.
Treble Brown Spot, another new species for the garden.
The Scorched Wing, named so because of the 'burnt paper' look to the wings.
These Yellow Shell moths can sometimes be seen during the day if disturbed from hedges or resting on the underside of plants.
