A good night for the nocturnals

A minimum temperature of 8.5C  but the willows all around here are now in flower, the moths numbers in the trap this morning was bound to be low, and indeed it was. 24 moths of 5 species, thank God for Orthosia. . The full list was

Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda) 5
Powdered Quaker (Orthosia gracilis) 1
Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 12
Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 1
Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 7

Powdered Quaker  caught overnight

I think its time to start sallowing.


The Tawny Owls last night were going mad with their calling, various combinations of the hoot and 'kvick' and though I only saw a shadow of one, they were obviously flying around quite a bit and there was at least 4 birds   involved. They will probably all have chicks now. A Red Fox was also calling, doing that 'waaaah' call followed by a single bark. at the same time. Not sure what was happening in the woods in the middle of the night. In addition to all that I heard a Woodcock roding. A good night for the nocturnals even though I didn't see a thing!


It was a good morning too, a familiar looking shape at the top of the one of the trees by Waldridge Hall farm was indeed a lone Waxwing. It spent just a few minutes there preening before it flew off. It could not have been there long because I was watching the Great spotted Woodpecker in the same tree shortly before and it wasn't there then, I just happened to glance up again at the right time.

Waxwing at Waldridge Hall Farm