The Geese Have Returned.

 September got off to a good start, a morning walk to the front produced this lovely Wheatear, very relaxed and enjoying the morning sunshine on the clifftop bench.

I was hoping the month would produce some new moth species to get my tally up, on the 4th I bagged a new species for the garden, a Juniper Pug.

On the 8th the first group of geese flew over the house, letting us all know the changing of the seasons are upon. A count of 31 Pink footed geese flew over and in days to follow a few more groups were seen heading towards the broads. Also on the 8th I caught 2 new moth species for the garden, a Centre Barred Sallow and a Narrow Winged Pug.

With the middle of the month already creeping up there was a movement of birds, namely Siskins. I counted quite a few groups moving over the house. 

I was getting some lovely moths during the middle phase of the month, some new for the year and one or two new for the garden, beauties such as Sallow, Brindled Green, Red Green Carpet and a lot of Black Rustics.

On the 19th I heard a Yellow Browed Warbler calling from trees beyond the back garden, the trees were moving too much in the wind for me to pick it up though.

There had been a few sightings of Redwing around and a couple of possible sightings for me gave hope of connecting properly but unfortunately it didn't come about. On the 21st I counted 13 Common Buzzards pass the house all in a line, there had been a count of 16 birds moving past Beeston so these would of been the same group but a few were no doubt just out of sight or had already passed, lovely procession to see though.

A walk down the lane, still on the 21st, and I found a Yellow Browed Warbler, it was a very elusive bird and over the next few attempts at  trying to see it I only managed to hear it calling.

On the 22nd I witnessed yet another movement of Siskins, but this time they were in their hundreds, I must of had at least 300 go over the garden during the morning!

I managed to get a couple of new moth species for the garden before the weather would change!

Autumnal Rustic and Large Ranunculus.

Then the weather changed and we were hit really bad, the worst since the 1987 Hurricane for sure. The 70+mph winds battered everything and caused so much wind damage to the plants the effects could be seen all over, most stuff had some dying foliage, very sad to see, and it stopped mothing for September with my macro list standing at 199 species!!!

With the seas rough and a strong wind blowing in off the sea for days I ventured to the front to seawatch, plenty of wildfowl and a possible Leach's Petrel and also the second geese species for the autumn with a decent amount of Brent Geese moving west.

Onwards and looking forward to October.

 

A Windy August.

 A Windy August which hampered mothing but did bring some nice bits in. The first half of the month brought in new birds and new moths. I found this huge beetle near the moth trap one night, I had seen one the year before but this time round I was able to get a closer look and some photographs. It is a Great Silver Water Beetle, not the sort of thing you'd expect near a moth trap but they do inhabit coastlines along here and get attracted to the light. When it flew off it was like a mini drone taking to the air, you can see the size next to my little finger.

Around the garden or in our neighbours and overhead I saw a few species of dragonfly, Southern,/Migrant Hawkers, Brown Hawker and Common Darters. This male Common Darter was seen with a female on the lawn and looked like it was laying eggs?

These next two moths were both new additions to my garden moth list, the Canary Shouldered Thorn and Twin Spotted Wainscot. The Canary Shouldered Thorn is a favourite with its bright yellow almost furry body.

Once again I was lucky to see a few Pied Flycatchers as they moved through on their way south, such a lovely little bird and one I won't tire of seeing every year hopefully.

The second half of the month saw a movement of birds moving through but also strong windy conditions which gave way to some sea watching. There were groups of wildfowl and waders being blown through the choppy seas with sightings of Skuas and the odd shearwater too. I was able to see a group of 3 Black-tailed Godwits which were new for the patch list, in this photo we have the other Godwit, the Bar-tailed. The Black tailed has a white rump, whereas on these birds the white extends up the back.

This group of Sandwich Terns were resting up on the beach one morning, normally actively feeding as they pass along here.

Smaller birds passing through over land were not matching the numbers of birds passing out to sea but I still managed to see a few nice ones, this Lesser Whitethroat was my only sighting of one this year.

Wheatear had also been a no show bird in the spring just like the Lesser Whitethroat, so a couple of birds in front of me on the cliff one morning was a welcome sight even if it was for the briefest moment.

A young bird and adult Blackcap were a nice sight as they moved and fed in the bramble.

As the summer draws on I now check for the large Convolvulus Hawkmoth, watching the Nicotina plants every time I ventured out in the garden in the hope one was feeding on this favourite flower of theirs, and approaching the end of the month I got one, but this time not on the plants but resting up next to the moth trap.

Joyful July.

July was a mixed bag of weather, some sunny days, some windy days, some rain and some warmth, but here we didn't have the heatwave some had experienced further inland. At the beginning of the month there were a lot of Swifts on the move. They seemed to be moving in different directions some days but what was noticeable were the numbers. a few hundred birds estimated some days but on the 8th I must of seen close to a thousand birds head east/southeast, what a sight seeing them move over wave after wave. After that day the numbers eased and returned to the odd group now and again.

I finally got to see a Hobby this year, on the 11th !!, and sure enough just like buses they continued after that, on one occasion I had a pair feeding over the house along with a Peregrine. The garden was attracting plenty of insects, the marjoram was alive with bees and hoverflies, the butterfly bush was in bloom and bringing in a lot of butterflies.

This Hornet Hoverfly was seen regularly in the garden, a large Hoverfly, largest in the UK, it mimics a Hornet to help keep predators away, but is entirely harmless.

Dragonflies were up in numbers now the weather had warmed, I was seeing Brown Hawker over the garden and even saw a couple of Banded Demoiselles!

This Four Spotted Chaser sunned itself for a time, enabling me to grab a camera. 

Sarah and I found out what had been cutting down plants and indeed making plants vanish? I watched a Nigella plant moving back and forth wondering why it was the only plant seemingly doing so, we then saw a Bank Vole run from cover to the next plant victim and watched it chew through it in sections before taking it away! It continued doing this till it had all but one piece stashed away. It was obviously well fed as it even looked a decent size and we continued to watch it running around the garden selecting different plants to eat, even the dogs were catching sight of it as it was so busy moving around.

I believe this is a Essex Skipper that visited the marjoram, the antennae don't seem to show any orange on the underside as a Small Skipper would show.

On a few days I would see Hummingbird Hawkmoth in the garden, with more than one individual as this one was very bedraggled and unlike the pristine one seen other times.

A Holly Blue butterfly ventured down from the Holly trees to feed, happily showing off the silvery underside of the wing.

On a couple of days during the month there were hatchings of insects which attracted a lot of gulls. The first hatch at the beginning of July were flying ants, and my god did they bring in the gulls. There must of been 300 or so overhead picking off this newly emerged feast, most were Black headed Gulls but I did see Common Gulls too. The second time was at the end of the month and involved just Black headed and just a fraction of the numbers, but I watched them doing circuits over the trees and garden close enough to grab a couple of shots, including this gull about to gulp down a insect.

Mothing produced 45 species for the year list which now stands at 171 macro species. A few of these were new for the garden also which boosted the list numbers up.

Barred Straw

Bordered White

Scorched Carpet

Oak Hook-tip

Pine Carpet

Grey Arches

Varied Coronet

JUNE. In the studio much of the time!

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.