Brenda writes: “Today a bunch of us had a wonderful day playing string music together to celebrate our friend Roz’s birthday. In the morning I recorded 12 species in the moth trap, all regulars for this time of year. The only new moth for today flew into Roz’s kitchen in Swaffham Prior in the early …
On our way home from Suffolk last night I checked my Rare Bird Alert app in the car (Brenda was driving!) and discovered to my surprise that whilst we had been out of Norfolk a rare Wilson’s Phalarope – a vagrant from north America – had been seen at the pools just east of Wells. …
Today I had been asked to take some drone footage at Dunwich beach in Suffolk, and so Brenda and I decided to make a day of it and visit one of the most well-known RSPB reserves in the UK, Minsmere, which is just down the road from where I was filming. We used to visit …
Brenda writes: “There were 16 species in the trap today three of which were new, a brindled green and two micros that I tried to identify and then sent photographs to James. Having a shot then checking with someone more experienced is a great way of learning. So what I had were a large fruit-tree …
This afternoon I headed over to the other side of The Wash, to the RSPB reserve of Frampton Marsh, as there had been several scarce waders reported there. Within a couple of minutes of my arrival I had been lucky enough to get excellent views of a white-rumped sandpiper – a small wader, similar to …
Brenda writes: “It was a good night in the moth trap and I logged 15 species, three of them new! The most exciting was an immigrant called scarce bordered straw or old world bollworm. Numbers in Britain vary widely from year to year. It is resident in southern Europe and Africa and sadly is considered …
Brenda writes: “Moths in the trap were very limited today – only eight species, but this was actually one more than yesterday! It was nice to see an angleshades and two broad-bordered yellow underwings. Driving around from church to church it’s noticeable how many flower species have now finished flowering. I returned home from the …
Brenda writes: “There were 51 moths in the trap today, 32 of them large yellow underwings and one another blue underwing, our third this year! There are always a few setaceous Hebrew characters and lesser yellow underwings, and it’s a pleasure to see the variety of lunar underwing markings. Today I had a wedding at …
This afternoon I had a couple of hours at Titchwell before heading off to King’s Lynn for a rehearsal. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but I did see yellow wagtails again, and had good views of a couple of marsh harriers. The most interesting sighting was when a largish (about 3cm long) jet …
On our way to Ely for a rehearsal this evening we stopped for a walk at Lakenheath Fen. When we arrived we went up onto the bank that overlooks an area called the Washland as it usually has a good selection of birds on it. We were amazed to see 21 great egrets and 20 …
