The Bald Birder (and Moffer)

Monday, 29 April 2013

29 April 2013 - East Malling Research, Kent

Well done to Clare who found two male Wheatears on site yesterday. The record getting even better when it was realised that there were three on site today including a rather nice female. Two of the birds were really quite co-operative.

Wheatear - male

Wheatear - female

Whitethroat - female (with the the male watching from a short distance)

Friday, 26 April 2013

26 April 2013 - East Malling Research, Kent

Congratulations to Adam for finding two Whinchats on site whilst searching for yesterday's Wheatears. The two birds, a male and a female showed well and even lingered long enough to be twitched by the Bearded One.

Whinchat - male

Saturday, 13 April 2013

13 April 2013 - Dungeness

A pleasant trip with four year-old son to climb the lighthouse at Dungeness, resulted in a few year ticks: Wheatear (several), Swallow (1), Sandwich Tern (3), together with a Firecrest, Little Egret, etc. Just nice to get out without the thermals on...

Wheatear

Goldcrest

Sunday, 17 February 2013

17 February 2013 - Stodmarsh NNR

Had a nice morning trip out with Max to visit as much mud and puddles at Stodmarsh as possible... The Penduline Tit showed well after a short wait - nice to see a rarity for a change.

Sunday, 28 October 2012

28 October 2012 - The Lakes Larkfield

A Swallow over this house this afternoon - latest record so far this year...

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

24 October 2012 - Queendown Warren KWT

A good couple of hours trapping at Queendown last night including a couple of migrant micros.

Grey Shoulder-knot

Grey Shoulder-knot (above) & Blairs Shoulder-knot (below)

Willow Beauty

Oak Nycteoline

Rusty Pearl Dot

Diamond-backed Moth

Thursday, 18 October 2012

18 October 2012 - The Larches

Went to The larches this evening, a KWT reserve just near Detling. A relatively good catch, by recent standards, with Mallow, Pine Carpet, Frosted Orange and Merveille du Jour being teh highlights of the macros. Of the micros, only one actually gets named...

Acleris emergana

Dunno 1

Dunno 2

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

16 October 2012 - Leyboune Lakes

Spent a short while searching some Ivy flowers in teh hope of finding moths during weather that doesn't allow a trap to go out... One of the first moths was this Dark Chestnut - at least, I'm pretty sure it's a Dark Chestnut - 's' shaped wing and all that, but now a few doubts have entered my wee mind. Any comments much appreciated.

Dark Chestnut

Sunday, 16 September 2012

16 Sept 2012 - Cliffe Marshes RSPB

A fairly decent catch last night, with Marc Botham attending again to ensure a few more micros get named. Highlight was an L-album Wainscot - not new for me, but a much better specimen than a couple of weeks ago in Aylesford.

L-album Wainscot

Other interesting species included: Dusky Thorn, Whitepoint, Rush Veneer.

Rush Veneer

Whitepoint

Frosted Orange

Dusky Thorn

Saturday, 15 September 2012

15 Sept 12 - Kent

A interesting night out last night, with Marc Botham, starting with some checking of a Marsh Mallow clump I had located a wee while ago. After setting traps, we headed off in search of Hog's Fennel - mindful of keeping on the right side of the law for a protected species, we searched the plants from footpaths until finding our quarry species - Fisher's Estuarine Moth. This awesome female looked as fresh as a daisy as she rocked to and fro on her on her embellifer!