A really wet start at the Observatory today, but we didn’t get any thunder in the end luckily.

We had a Cuckoo along the Broad Water in the afternoon, and I also had one yesterday in the dunes. Many Cuckoo are on the move now and in fact most have already departed (the BTO Cuckoo migration map with the tracking info on the tagged Cuckoos is really cool to watch their movements south – https://www.bto.org/get-involved/volunteer/projects/cuckoo-tracking#map ).

We had a great count of 8 Common Sandpiper on the car park pools, all feeding together on the islands. There were also 25 Black-tailed Godwit, 105 Redshank, 24 Avocet and 1 Dunlin. One of the Shelduck families was on the island too, with the little ducklings all huddled up in a ball together sheltering from the rain and cooler conditions.

Another good moth trap today with 52 species and not surprising as the conditions were pretty good overnight. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Moth Day that was due to be today because of the weather forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms. However, we caught 15 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 3 Turnip, 8 Scarce Footman, 1 Schoenobius gigantella, 1 Oak Marble, 19 Least Yellow Underwing, 9 Rusty Tiger, 2 Smoky Wainscot, 7 Drinker, 6 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 1 Poplar Hawk, 1 Ermine agg., 3 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 4 Common Wainscot, 2 Ear sp., 7 Garden Grass Moth, 23 Uncertain/Rustic, 1 Eucosoma sp, 2 Setaceous Hebrew Character, 1 Dingy Footman, 3 Dusky Sallow, 1 Hemlock Moth, 2 Mother of Pearl, 2 Flame Shoulder, 18 Large Yellow Underwing, 1 Reed Veneer, 1 Twinspot Wainscot, 2 Rosy Minor, 1 Buff Ermine, 1 Pearl Grass Moth, 1 Black-fronted Straw, 14 Common Rustic agg, 4 Archer Dart, 2 Reed Dagger, 1 Coronet, 1 Large Pale Masoner, 2 Lime speck Pug, 1 Tawny Wave, 2 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 3 Mouse Moth, 1 Marbled Minor agg, 2 Brown-line Bright-eye, 1 Scalloped Oak, 2 Straw Dot, 1 Bulrush Veneer, 1 Yellowtail, 1 Mottled Rustic, 1 Silky Wainscot, 1 Browntail, 2 Least Carpet and 1 Diamondback.

My highlight was a Tawny Wave (pink moths are some of my favourites…) which are nationally scarce and also reasonably scarce in Norfolk (more common in the Breckland area).

Tawny Wave

Shannon Clifford – Assistant Warden

NORFOLK BIRD NEWS FROM RARE BIRD ALERT

Norfolk Roseate Tern ad on Wednesday Weybourne flew west past Weybourne Camp in morning c52.9495,1.1293