I had a real surprise this morning when I found a beautiful Eyed Hawkmoth in the moth trap a new species for my list of moths for our recording area. Also caught was a Polar Hawkmoth..
On a different note a pair of Grey wagtails have successfully bred at Caldene Fields.
Sighting of Red Kites over the during the first week in June in the Bradford south area, which is great news…Thank to Phil.
Found two new species for our list of insects during the last couple of days.
A Cream-spot ladybird at Toad Holes Beck… National status: Common
Leucozona lurorum (hoverfly) National status: Common
I took a walk onto the Dealburn Road Woodland site in Low Moor today and just as I was leaving the site a daytime flying moth caught my eye as it rested on a leaf. I first thought good it’s a Bramble Shoot moth but on closer inspection it wasn’t so I took some photos and headed home.
I quickly realised that in fact it was a Grapholita lunulana!! Yorkshire moths describe the moth as ‘ Status Rare and Local resident ‘..so what a find and lets hope it becomes a resident at the site.
Over the last few days I have noticed a large amount of snails mainly at Toad Holes Beck.
White-Lipped Land Snail
After doing a bit of research I identified the snails to be White-Lipped Land Snails and they come in various colours ranging from above to light green.
A common Whitethroat passed through Raw Nook Nr on 19/5/16 and the male Goldcrest is still singing from the same location at Toad Holes Beck.
I conducted my local patch challenge on the 11th of May. My aim was to get 45+ species. But I only managed 42 species. There were no real surprises and new migrants in apart from 4 Swifts, no Common or Lesser Whitethroat or Sedge Warblers were seen.
Birds I expected to get but failed were Sparrow Hawk and Coat Tit
The male Goldcrest was located again at Toad holes Beck again in full song which is encouraging and a pair of Linnet are possibly nesting in our area.
I really enjoyed the day and have since contacted Shaun Radcliffe of the Bradford Ornithological Group to suggest a more structured event next year with a wider audience getting involved so what this space…
This morning I set off hoping to see maybe a new migrant that had come in overnight or before dawn but sadly I didn’t. But what I saw was very strange!. At the top of Raw Nook Nr I saw 3 Chinese all with cameras and note books.. On my approach I said hello and commented ‘ What a lovely morning it was ‘ I was greeted with gather strange looks and quickly realised that the strangers spoke very little english. I smiled and off I went. After about an hour I caught up with the party again. I believe that they were on holiday from China and were stopping at a local hotel had an interest in wildlife and were visiting the reserve.
I then showed them some photos of the wildlife I had taken as I had seen then photographing wild flowers.
One of the photos, a Buff-tip moth found last night at Caldene Fields.
The gentleman above became very excited and called his college’s over. Whilst I had not a clue what they were saying they were all excited by the photo’s of the local wildlife. The gentlemen then appeared to say internet, internet..and point to the ground. I think! they may have looked up the general area and found our site on the internet and made a visit.
I must admit, I felt proud and if that is the case it’s brilliant to think that lovely people from the other side of the world have enjoyed the area… just like we the locals do..
Ornithologically it has been another poor day here on my local patch with a single House Martin in and a single passage Willow Warbler moving west through Caldene Fields.
So I have decided to put some more effort in and do a days birding on the patch to see how many species I can record.
So to any other local patch watchers out there, are you up for the challenge and a bit of fun ? I am aiming for 45+ but with little movement here I could end up with EGG on my face!
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOU RESULTS.
The guidelines are:
I,ve noticed recently how well the Smooth Newt is doing in our recording area with 13 seen this morning at Caldene Fields.
Smooth Newts mating at Caldene Fields
The first 2 hebrew character moths were caught last night
And a Long tailed Tit was busy feeding young at one of the site but in general it is fairly quiet at the moment.
There has been no known new migrants passing through our area during the last few days. The weather this weekend and for the following few days look good with a warm front pushing up from europe so fingers crossed..
So this morning it was a time to watch our resident birds like the Blackbird, Wren and Song Thrush all busy at this time of the year.
Male Blackbird protecting his territory
One of possibly 5 Song Thrush within the local patch
