A rather blustery day at the Observatory with a strong south westerly, a very wet start (finally some rain!), turning dry and muggy in the afternoon. We got to 69 species for the census of the recording area today. We had a Spoonbill at Thornham. On my way home I had a single Cattle Egret with the cattle off the main entrance track. I sat and watched it for a few minutes and it’s the first time I’ve seen them actually picking insects directly off the cows faces!

Cattle Egret

At Redwell we had Avocet, Redshank, Shelduck and Lapwing with two chicks! Very briefly (for literally 10 seconds) a Little Stint dropped in before being spooked off by a Lapwing chasing a Jackdaw off.

The moth traps were much busier today with 1 Small Umber, 10 Cinnabar, 17 Flame Shoulder, 3 Treble Lines, 8 Mottled Rustic, 1 Banded Hedge Grey, 7 Vine’s Rustic, 3 Small Elephant Hawk, 5 White Ermine, 2 Lime Speck Pug, 2 Sharp Angled Peacock, 2 Eyed Hawk Moth, 1 Garden Mompha, 3 Common Wainscot, 4 Small Square Spot, 1 Dog’s Tooth, 1 Bordered White, 1 Fern, 1 Northern Drab, 1 Large Pale Masoner, 1 Straw Dot, 1 Bryotropha sp., 1 Heart and Dart, 1 Black Fronted Straw and 1 Meadow Grass Moth.

Not one, but two Eyed Hawk Moths today!

We also found the first Garden Tiger caterpillar of the year near the NOA carpark!

Garden Tiger Moth Caterpillar

Butterflies were much lower today in number with Wall Brown, Common Blue, Small Heath, Brown Argus and Peacock. No dragonflies or damselflies today.

No Norfolk bird news on Rare Bird Alert today, a very quiet day indeed!

Shannon Clifford – Assistant Warden