A byproduct not allowed in the barn.
Barred Straw
Moth Quiz 31
Hit by Cupid's arrow and dashed away.
Friday, July 3
Early July is well short of being the optimum birding time. It's a good thing that Pam and I are happy to find, and to see and photograph, natural history in general.
Yesterday, driving up Valley Farm Lane, we noticed a female Pheasant on the verge, holding something in her mouth. Pam stopped to take a photograph as it was on her side of the car. The bird's trophy looked like a small mammal of some sort.
We then drove on to look at the nest boxes, where House Sparrows seem to have gazumped the Tree Sparrows. There are still a few Tree around.
Returning to the pheasant, now on my side of the road, wary of spooking her, the first few shots were taken through the small gap between our hefty side mirror and the car.
Obviously, far too focussed on eating her meal, we were able to inch past so that I had a clearer view.
She kept dropping it, having a peck, and then picking it up again.
Eventually, she turned her back on me and when she came into view again, the beastie had gone. Not on the ground - and her crop was rivaling my bosom in its size and roundness. She then stretched up with open beak,
making a big effort to swallow what, on looking at my photos when I got home, could well have been a Short-tailed Vole. Her eyes have popped.
I knew that birds other than the obvious Corvids and Raptors eat protein but I've never seen it before.
Quiet lane hedgerows are worth a look at the moment too. Mullein is coming into full bloom
Bryony threads its way through Elder
and thistles , purple flowers beloved by insects, are architecturally pleasing.
A Comma butterfly perched high in the hawthorn hedge approaching Abbey Farm,
a small splash of colour attracting my attention when we'd stopped to check the Little Owl tree.
This a familiar sight in Norfolk and Suffolk. Not all are as organised as this one. A pig tenement
A very low tide at Snettisham, a few returning Curlew the only visible waders amongst the random sprinkle of Shelducks.
A new notice advised visitors that the entrance was for disabled only and not for samphire pickers. A shame that it doesn't add dog walkers and joggers who often walk the shoreline where waders nest. A parked car on the reserve, which we'd thought might belong to a samphire picker as it was empty, turned out to be that of a warden. He caught up with us, and very pleasantly, asked if we were members, before giving us an update on all the birds present. The 50+ pairs of Common Tern are nesting on a near island also covered with Black-headed Gull nests.
The new hide is almost finished as the builders carried on during lockdown. Looks good.
We did see an Oystercatcher with one very small chick on the edge of the first pit.
Almost unbelievable.
We caught a second Thatch Pearl micromoth yesterday morning. If accepted, that will be the third for Norfolk. We're taking it to Cley Centre car park at 10 in the morning for those group members who didn't see our first, and to see a Lappet Moth brought in by David. We've seen the latter once before, but it's a lovely moth.
On the way back from tea with Kate and Jim, we called in at the local thatcher's home to find out the barn thatch's country of origin. Our coffee morning group came up with the thatcher info. The reeds he used came from the Ukraine. So, therefore, did our moth, probably in the form of a larva.
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