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Moth trapping 05/04/2019
We put the moth trap out on Friday night and we had a reasonable catch with the following results: 9 Hebrew Character 6 Common Quaker 1 Clouded Drab 1 Early Grey Total 17 moths of 4 species Also we had a nice surprise when we found a Powdered Quaker in the kitchen last night which was a new species.
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Moth trapping 01/04/2019
Low moth numbers caught last night as follows: 6 Hebrew Character 2 Clouded Drab 2 Common Quaker Total 10 moths of 3 species
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Moth trapping 29/03/2019
Last night’s moth trap didn’t produce the best numbers with just the following caught: 6 Hebrew Character 3 Clouded Drab 2 Common Quaker Total 11 moths of 3 species.
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Moth trapping 27/03/2019
We set the moth trap up last night with the following results: 8 Hebrew Character 4 Common Quaker 2 Clouded Drab 2 Early Grey (NFG) Total 16 moths of 4 species. 1 NFG
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Moth trapping 23/03/2019
Last night I set the moth trap up again. Numbers had more than doubled from last time, with the following totals: 19 Hebrew Character 7 Common Quaker 4 Clouded Drab 1 Red Chestnut (NFG) Total 31 moths of 4 species. 1 NFG
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Moth trapping 20/03/2019
20th March was the first opportunity I had to set up my portable Skinner moth trap in the garden. We caught 14 moths of 5 species, all of which were new to the garden: Macros: 5 Hebrew Character (NFG) 4 Common Quaker (NFG) 1 Clouded Drab (NFG) 1 Mottled Grey (NFG) Micros: 3 Agonopterix heracliana (NFG) Total 11 macros of 4 species, 3 micros of 1 species making 14 moths of 5 species. 5 NFG NFG = new for garden and NFY = new for the year
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17th March 2019
Chelmorton 95. Barn Owl Renishaw 96. Common sandpiper
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Great Grey Shrike
Yesterday I went to Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire with the hope of seeing the long-staying Great Grey Shrike. The journey to the site was in no way uneventful as I saw my first Swallow of the year near Ashford-In-The-Water, which was very early. We found the area where the shrike had been seen and it soon appeared. It was well worth the journey and we had great prolonged views of the bird. It stayed in the same area for ages flitting from bush to bush, probably looking for mice. It didn’t seem to mind our presence at all! The species has been seen wintering at the site in a number of previous…
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Waxwings and Starlings
Over the February half-term, I had some very good birding experiences. On the 18th, me and my mum travelled to Bull Lane in Matlock to see some Waxwings that had been reliably seen over the past week. They are stunning birds and were very easy to see. This is the first time I’ve seen them properly, I saw them last year at school but I was in a lesson and the windows were almost impossible to see out of! We counted a total of 19 individuals. The birds were quite reluctant to come close and were mainly perched chattering in the ash trees, but they did once come down to…
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18th February 2019
Bull Ln, Matlock 90. Waxwing
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17th February 2019
Jodrell Bank 87. Lesser Redpoll 88. Siskin 89. Peregrine
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9th February 2019
Carsington Water 84. Great Crested Grebe 85. Tree Sparrow 86. Lesser Black-backed Gull
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26th January 2019
Home 81. Redwing
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New year birding in Lancashire
On the 2nd of January, me and my mum travelled to Lancashire. We started off at WWT Martin Mere near Southport. In the first hide we went to there were thousands of wildfowl. The vast majority were made up of ducks including Teal, Wigeon, Pochard, Shelduck and good numbers of Pintail. We also had close up views of Whooper Swans and a few had colour rings. There were also many Ruff and Black-tailed Godwit feeding close up. It was really interesting to see the plumage and size variation on the Ruff as they are not a species we see very often. We then walked around the reedbed and didn’t see…
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20th January 2019
Pavilion Gardens Buxton 79. Mandarin Duck 80.
