Carpets & Cormorant

 With it being a mild night last night I was quite hopeful for a good moth catch this morning, and it wasn't too bad. A total of 57 moths of 29 species was quite adequate considering the time of the year. The best being 4 species of Carpet - Flame, Garden, Common Marbled and Dark Marbled, plus Canary-shouldered & Dusky Thorns, 4 species of Yellow Underwing again, another Hedge Rustic  and my first Frosted Orange of the year.

Flame Carpet

Garden Carpet

Frosted Orange

There were no House Martins over the house this morning but there were at least 50, together with 5-6 Swallow over Daisy Hill but I did see a Cormorant flying over, presumably heading back down to the riverside park area of the Wear where the numbers have been increasing every year for a while now. A couple of Common Darter dragonflies were the only other thing of note with there being few butterflies on the wing today, despite it being rather warm, either over the fell or in the garden. In fact the buddlejas only had 3 Small White and 1 Wall all day.

Went through my books later to try and name a parasitic wasp that was in the trap this morning and I had potted up.  I did manage to identify it as an Ichneumon wasp of the genus Ophion but not to the exact species

Ichneumon wasp of the genus Ophion

Passing Chester Moor, my first Golden Plover of the winter were seen when two flew over the road and landed in one of the usual fields by Beaney Lane where they are usually present every year.