A very quiet day at the Observatory today. We got up very early to get here before sunrise at 5am to ring, and despite the conditions being good we caught only 3 birds, which is quiet even by Holme standards! We caught 1 new Wren, 1 retrap male Goldcrest and 1 Robin. Both the Wren and Robin had well defined brood patches.

Sunrise at the Obs, with the Tamarisk in full flower!

After admitting defeat, we walked to Thornham and had 16 Whimbrel in the rough field on the right before the pools. We had one female Ring Ouzel in the dunes West of the NWT Visitor Centre. A Cuckoo flew right over my head and landed in the Poplar tree in the staff car park, it was nice to see one so well! A few Common Tern have been flying over the Obs calling loudly. We also had our first juvenile Stonechat of the year, very cute!

Juvenile Stonechat

The moth traps picked up slightly today with 2 Northern Drab, 1 Brindled Beauty, 8 Cinnabar, 1 Small Waved Umber, 2 Treble Lines, 1 Black-headed Conch, 1 Muslin, and the first Spectacle and Vine’s Rustic of the year.

One of my favourite moths, the Spectacle!

We also had quite a mini swarm of Green Longhorn moths in the dunes. These moths fly by day in the sun and can congregate in little groups. They have beautiful metallic, bronzy forewings.

Green Longhorn

It was a good day for Brown Argus around the reserve, and we also had Small Copper, Green Hairstreak (one on the Buddleia behind the viewing deck), Common Blue, Wall Brown, Peacock, Large White, Orange Tip and Red Admiral. We had 3 Large Red Damselflies around the Buddleia next to the Obs.

Brown Argus

Shannon Clifford – Assistant Warden

NORFOLK BIRD NEWS FROM RARE BIRD ALERT

MEGA Norfolk BOOTED EAGLE juv pale morph Martham at 10am c52.703,1.6319

Norfolk Woodchat Shrike male Burnham Overy Dunes still 10am 100yds west of west end of Holkham Pines in hawthorns just south of fence c52.9730,0.7789

Norfolk RED-FOOTED FALCON fem Hickling Broad NWT still from mound c52.7393,1.5981. Park at c52.7422,1.5949

Norfolk 7.Wood Sands Holkham Freshmarsh on scrape from Joe Jordan Hide at 9.18am 52.9697,0.7916: Viewed from 52.97,0.7913

Norfolk Temminck’s Stint Titchwell RSPB still on freshmarsh on island at 7.15am c52.9672,0.6048. Park at c52.9629,0.6064

Norfolk Woodchat Shrike male Burnham Overy Dunes still 100yds west of west end of Holkham Pines in hawthorns just south of fence at 7.30am c52.9730,0.7789