Linacre Nestboxes - 7th April 2021

 Yesterday I went down to Linacre to meet up with some of the regular Severn Trent volunteers (thanks everyone, it was great to meet you all). One of the volunteers shared photos of  2 caterpillars that had been found on site. One was a Pale Tussock and the other was an Elephant Hawk-moth. Both species were new records for the site.

Pale Tussock

Elephant Hawkmoth

Whilst there, we had a first check in the "owl boxes", and found that 3 of the 5 were in use, albeit not by owls!! As usual, the 3 boxes all contained Mandarin Duck eggs, including 1 with at least 38(!) eggs in it - a classic example of "egg dumping" by several different females. The other 2 contained just 3 and 4 eggs. None of the broods were being incubated yet. Several pairs of Blue Tits were seen entering nestboxes, so it seems that the the breeding season is beginning in earnest. 

Mandarin nest with 38 eggs

After the nestboxes, I had a quick walk around the middle and top reservoirs, and spotted my first Swallows (6), House Martins (2) and Sand Martins (2) of 2021.

Other species seen were: Kestrel (1 male hunting below the top reservoir - my first Linacre record of 2021), Raven (2 over the bottom reservoir), Grey Heron (1, my first Linacre record of 2021) and Sparrowhawk (1 female). 

Garden Moths - An Update

I first blogged about my garden moths a few weeks ago (see here). Since then, I've had the trap out  another 5 times, and have increased the garden list for 2020 to 23 species. Nothing rare yet (as expected), but the following species have been recorded (alphabetical order): Bee Moth, Brindled Pug, Brown House-moth, Common Marbled Carpet, Common Plume, Common Pug, Common Quaker, Double Striped Pug, Early Grey, Flame Shoulder, Garden Carpet, Grey Pine Carpet, Heart and Dart, Light Brown Apple Moth, Pale Tussock, Pine Beauty, Purple Thorn, Scalloped Hazel, Small Quaker, Streamer, Tachystola acroxantha, Waved Umber and White-shouldered House-moth! In addition to these species, I also identified a moth that I photographed in Warkworth, Northumberland, last May, as a Common Swift.

Here are a few photos of the more photogenic species!!

Early Grey

Pale Tussock

Streamer

The weather is set to be warmer over the weekend again, so I'll have the trap out, and hopefully add a few more species to the "garden list". Hawkmoth species perhaps??