Success with Two

Monday June 4

Weeting and then Lakenheath Fen is an, at least, annual trip. Not the best of days, grey, low overcast and a cold northerly wind. Immediate success at Weeting NWT, one adult Stone Curlew, barely visible in the long grass to the right of the solar panel powering the nest cam.

There were also two chicks reported but we didn't see them. They could do with the rabbit we were horrified to see in our garden yesterday, for the first time ever. Last weekend's  Muntjac which ate all the tops off my strawberries was bad enough. Tewo Grey Squirrels was a first too. I love animals when they're not in the garden !

Lakenheath reserve is one of our favourites, for the insect life as well as the birds. Whitethroats, Wrens, a Cetti's and a Blackcap sang as we drove out to the hide overlooking a pool and woodlands. We sat in the hide shelter for almost two hours, despite the cold, ever optimistic. There were not any Dragonflies nor Butterflies flying about, hardly surprising that we only saw one Hobby - and that was a short view. A family of Coot, two adult Great Crested Grebe and their stripe-headed young, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Reed Bunting and Reed Warblers kept us interested, on and around the pool. The Hobby was over the distant clearing, as was a Green Woodpecker. Neither of us remember seeing a pair of Cuckoos do a fly-past, the difference in size and colour obvious. He had been calling most of the time we were there. We usually see boith Kingfisher and Bittern, not to-day.

Back to the comfort of the car. I got there first as Pam was sleuthing the roadside verges, very successfully, she's good at spotting invertebrates.

She drove me back so that I could photograph this Micro moth. One of the Adelidae (Longhorn) family. I identified it as a Breckland speciality, Adela croesella,  but there is another, commoner and very similar, Nemophora degeerella.

Armed with a hot drink from the Centre, we drove home to open our own moth trap. The best was a Clay Triple Lines which we'd only seen once before - at Lynford last year.

Natural Surroundings Tuesday June 5

David N had brought in a nationally scarce and threatened Grey Carpet. Such a featureless moth, shamefully I might have dismissed it as 'too faded to identify'.
My photo is truly 'orrible, in a very dirty and much used pot. And a poor attempt by me. This is not my photo !!

The other moth of note was this superb and uncommon colour variation of a  Lime Hawk-moth, brunnea,  where the green is replaced by a rich chocolate. Shame that one wing is damaged.