Moths, Dingy Skippers and Warblers

The first moth trapping of the year at the Brickworks took place on Sunday 8th May. After a very slow start to the year, Ben and the team had a surprisingly successful night, with Ben adding 3 brand new species to his life list (that's no mean feat!). For the full report and some super photos, please do visit Ben’s blog, here.

Other news from the site, the first Dingy Skipper of the year zipped past me on Friday 6th. Orange-tips are out in good numbers now, along with one or two Speckled Woods and Small and Large Whites.

There are really good numbers (perhaps into double figures for each) of singing Blackcap and Chiffchaff. The number of Common Whitethroats steadily increased all last week, as more birds settled in to their territories. Again, we could well be into double figures now. So far, just the one Willow Warbler, a mixed singer and likely the same bird that was on site last year.

Dingy Skipper 6/5/2016

News from the end of April

Six Lesser Redpolls spent a week on site, feeding on buds in the blossoming Blackthorn. They mostly kept themselves tucked away, out of sight, but I got lucky one morning, when a beautiful rosy chested male came out into the open.

[The video is best viewed in HD: press play then click on the cog, bottom right, and select 760p^HD quality]


At least one pair of Muntjac are regularly around the site. I managed to grab a record shot of the female before she darted into the scrub on 21/4/2016.