Chester riverside duck zoo

A quiet night last night on the moth front with only 4 moths of 4 species present this morning. Two of the moths were micro moths - the almost ubiquitous Light Brown Apple Moth and a migrant, the Diamond-back Moth. This latter moth is tiny but originates from Europe, particularly the Mediterranean and can arrive at the coast in its thousands, with a number drifting inland.  The other two were a Red-line Quaker and a Spruce Carpet.  3 of the large Caddis Fly Phryganea grandis were also present.
Several groups of Redwing continued to head west as did a single Sparrowhawk, today but generally it was rather quiet. Usually by now there is a decent sized Golden Plover flock in the fields by Beaney Lane or in the fields opposite, on the other side of the A167, but there was only 5 birds there today, together with 34 Lapwing.
The Wear at Chester-le-Street Riverside Park is currently doing a good job of imitating the duck zoo at Washington as today it held the Whooper Swan a I saw the other week , together with a Pink-footed Goose and a male Mandarin as well as Mute Swan, Mallard, Tufted Duck and 3 Goosander. The Mandarin was in the water  under the overhang on the far bank and looking rather inconspicuous considering its gaudy colouration . 2 Dipper were seen several times downstream past the the sewage works where a Kingfisher darted off it fishing post towards the A1 bridge before I was aware it was there.