December and a look back at my highlights.
Not much to report during December, plenty of geese back and forth over the village and still a lot of Blackbirds are around. Finch numbers are up on their groups with a lot of Chaffinch around my house. The only other note during the month was a mouse up in my bird feeder halfway up the tree!
With little of note here are some of my highlights of 2020:
This Ring Necked Parakeet put in an appearance over a couple of the days during the spring.
This Rough Legged Buzzard was reported further along the coast during the morning of the 25th April, how lucky was I to see it fly over my house, then if that hadn't sealed the day a Osprey flew along the coast whilst I was in the garden.
During the summer months with the birding quieter except for local breeding birds, my attention turned more to mothing, and the onset of some new species kept me trapping as much as possible in the hope of something rarer, here are some of the new garden additions caught through summer.
Scalloped Hook-Tip
My first Lime Hawkmoth was a very welcome tick.
Varied Coronet
Canary Shouldered Thorn
The approach of autumn brought the prospect of some migrating birds and a new wave of autumnal moths.
The arrival of the Pied Flycatchers have been lovely the last couple of years, I hope this is repeated every year, this year the numbers were up on the previous and I never tire of photographing these birds.
Centre Barred Sallow (above) and Sallow.
This seasonal moth is appropriately named..the Autumnal Rustic.
We had a welcome move in weather during October and easterlies started to bring birds in, I was so pleased to find a little Siberian Jem along the lane past the church, the stunning Pallas's Warbler. What a little beauty and my highlight of the year.
Pallas's Warbler
And if that wasn't enough I was able to see at least 3 different Yellow Browed Warblers, not as scarce as the Pallas's but still a great bird to see.
Yellow Browed Warbler
As the autumn moved to winter I kept adding a few moths to the year list, but the weather was to start having a effect on how regular I got the trap out. One species I had been waiting for since moving here finally gave itself up, the beautifully marked Merveille Du Jour.
Merry Christmas to all.
