Linacre WeBS - November 2013

This month's WeBS walk took place this morning in dry,sunny conditions with temperatures of just 3 degrees. Waterbirds were present in good numbers with some of the highest counts of the year and I also managed to add a new species of moth to the Linacre List!

First up the birds. Mallard numbers were excellent today with a record count of 116 over the three reservoirs. Tufted Ducks were also present in high numbers; 60 today, which is the highest count of the year so far. Mandarin Ducks came in at 39, which is pretty good and a count of 14 Coot was very good. 9 Moorhens were present (highest count of the year), and included a juvenile bird on the bottom reservoir. The Kingfisher was heard again on the middle reservoir along with 1 adult Great-crested Grebe and 2 Little Grebes. Black-headed Gull numbers are starting to increase and today's count of 78 was the highest count of the year. Also present were: 1 Cormorant, 2 Grey Herons and 2 Grey Wagtails.

The Crossbills were still around and c.20 were seen and heard, along with the first Siskins of the winter (3).

When I got back to the car park I spotted a moth on my window. It looked quite tatty and was very sluggish, but I managed to get a photo and identify it as a Red-green Carpet, a first for the Linacre List.

Red-green Carpet

Moths and a Sparrowhawk

Sorry, but it had to happen. Linacre blogger has started to look at moths. My darling wife agreed to get me a moth trap for Christmas. It arrived last week, and, after a few days of rain and wind, I managed to get it out in the garden at the weekend. I only had it out for an hour, but I managed to catch 2 species of moth, both of which were new for the garden (obviously!).

The first species was a Common Marbled Carpet. Here's a link to the UKMoths website. I know "my" moth doesn't look anything like the examples in the link, but they are apparently very variable!!

Common Marble Carpet

 

The second moth was another carpet species, this time a Red-green Carpet. Link here.

Red-green Carpet

 

Both species are classed as common in my moth book, so it'll be interesting to see how often they turn up in the trap.

These two species take my "garden list" (sorry, you knew it had to happen, another list!!) to 4 species when added to the Large Yellow Underwing and Silver Y that I saw during the summer. Two links again; LWU and Silver Y.

Large Yellow Underwing

Silver Y on the Buddleia

Finally, before everyone nods off, here's a picture of a Sparrowhawk that's taken to eating the Goldfinch in the garden.