New moth for the year

From nowhere, I trapped not 1 but 3 green brindled crescent this morning. A common and expected moth, but nevertheless, for 3 to appear is unusual on the 1st showing of the year. (Photos 1 and 2.)
Also a barred sallow (3), a blair's shoulder knot (4,) another mottled umber (5) and several large yellow underwings and setaceous hebrew characters
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Good variety of moths

Best mothing night for a long time. Late last night a mottled umber (photo 1) was taken along with a red green carpet and a black rustic (2.) Also a micro moth belonging to the plume family (3) which will require dissection to id. Could be an exceptionally late brown plume or the rarer dowdy or twin spot plume.
This morning several regulars along with another black rustic, the 1st Blair's shoulder knot of the year (4) and a late rosy rustic (5.) All in all; a good selection for the middle of October.
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Low moth numbers

Only a handful of insects after another near freezing night. No frost so far but must have been close: dahlia's are still upright.
A mallow (photo 1) was a pleasing find, only 2nd garden record but the rest were the regulars: setaceous hebrew character, lunar underwing and beaded chesnut (photo 2).
8 moths in all.
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Hadham Hall lagoon: Owl pellet hunt

Out this morning to try and find some barn owl pellets. Mission successful after a wade through mud. Plenty for a session with year 4 at the local vilage school on Thursday. They're studying bones and pellet dissection is always a great way to develop vocabulary and enthusiasm.
Bird wise all very quiet. 2 little grebes (photo 1) on the lagoon along with solitary tufted duck. A grey heron turned up everywhere (2 and 3) Several yellowhammers called and a party of black headed gulls came down to a recently harrowed field, putting up 2 red legged partridge. Overhead, corvids, wood pigeons and a single green woodpecker. A silver maple looked superb in the sunlight (photo 4 does not do it justice)
Still awaiting 100th bird sp for the parish and next month will be 5 years since I began recording in the parish. Surely a gadwall, wigeon, great crested grebe or shoveler is not too much to ask for on the lagoon?
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Moths 08.10.12

Cold night so poor haul of 1 black rustic (photo 1), 1 beaded chestnut (2) a setaceous hebrew character, a lunar underwing and an extremely worn tort. Suspect garden rose tortrix.
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Robin Hood's Bay

A weekend at Robin Hood's Bay, lovely weather. A quick trip to Bempton Cliffs early on Saturday morning gave views of tree sparrow (photo 1) 100+ gannets, fulmar and a few kittiwakes. Skylarks called over the fields but time was short. Red grouse (year lister) flew over the road as I returned towards Fylingdale.
During breakfast on the clifftop I continually grabbed my binoculars. Eider, great crested grebe, shag, pintail, great skua (year lister), kittiwake, gannet, etc before we set off. This was a 9 mile wander along the clifftops to Whitby. Fields were full of meadow pipits and oystercatchers were heard and seen 200 feet below. Also, purple sandpiper (year lister) were watched on the black rocks below. As this was a none bird watching break I didn't have time to check all the tempting vegetation along the top and after 3 hours we were enjoying a pint in Whitby.
Sunday and a quick check on Robin Hood's bay beach. 100+ turnstones were rounded up for a group photo (2,3 and 4) whilst, strangely, 2 canada geese called from the surf (5.) Never seen these geese on the sea and they didn't appear to be overkeen! A robin sang (6) whilst I checked through the scrub, coming across good numbers of house sparrows and dunnock, with a few linnets. However, a constantly moving warbler attracted my attention. Wing flapping and a quick view of wingbars gave me the impression of a yellow browed warbler. It disappeared into a buckthorn and, by now, the yellow supercillium had been seen, confirming the I'd. No dark sides on the crown were noted, ruling out Pallas's and no yellow rump was seen in flight ( another Pallas's diagnostic feature). Other diagnostic observations were made to rule out greenish warbler (2 wingbars very evident) darker primaries ruled out two barred greenish and a good green hue ruled out Hume's leaf warbler. Lazily, as a none birding trip, I hadn't packed a Collins so all done on memory. However, a confident identification. Note to the county recorder was immediately dispatched and I continued to try for a confirmation photo. So quick and agile I took 50+ photos of a bush, occasionally a blurred bird. Time was against me again and after half an hour I moved on. A great bird but as a single observer record and no photo it will not be accepted. Not a problem as I know what I saw.
Other photos:
7; the village
8. The Dock and Bay Hotel at dawn
9. Another view from the south.
10 distant view of The Abbey at Whitby from the Cleveland Way.
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New moth for 2012

A red green carpet was found in the trap last Friday, just before leaving for a weekend break in Robin Hood's Bay. An irregular autumnal visotor to the trap, it was good to find one in mint condition. Also in the trap, a garden carpet (worn) and a common marbled carpet (equally worn.) Photo of the red green carpet attached.
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All quiet on the moth front

Not too much happening on the moth front. Recently, a late willow beauty (photo 1,) plenty of lunar underwings and setaceous hebrew characters and several lesser yellow underwings. Of more interest, 3 barred sallows this morning (2) and the 1st beaded chestnuts of the autumn. 2 photos, the second showing a beaded chestnut on the right with a lunar underwing.
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Parish wander

A glorious morning, warm with clear skies meant a morning walk. Stopped off at the wonderful Farmers' Market in the village for a coffee before a walk around the north of the parish. Common buzzard (photos 1 and 2) were about along with a distant red kite (3.) On the small pond were 2 coots, a greylag and a little grebe whilst the sky was full of swallows and 100's of house martins. 2 chiffchaffs called and a lesser black backed gull moved overhead (4.) Good numbers of red admiral (5) and comma (6) along with a few large whites and a single small tortoiseshell.
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Updated Bird year list

Recent visits to Norfolk and Portland Bill have added several species to my year list. Up until July 2012, the list was;

Red throated diver, little grebe, great crested grebe, gannet, cormorant, bittern, grey heron, little egret, great egret, mute swan, greylag goose, canada goose, barnacle goose, brent goose, shelduck, mallard, gadwall, pintail, shoveler, wigeon, teal, pochard, tufted duck, long tailed duck, goldeneye, smew, marsh harrier, common buzzard, sparrow hawk, kestrel, merlin, red legged partridge, grey partridge, pheasant, moorhen, coot, oystercatcher, golden plover, lapwing, turnstone, dunlin, redshank, curlew, snipe, black headed gull, herring gull, caspian gull, common gull, lbbg, gbbg, kittiwake, guillemot, razorbill, stock dove, wood pigeon, collared dove, tawny owl, little owl, barn owl, green woodpecker, gsw, skylark, meadow pipit, pied wagtail, grey wagtail, wren, dunnock, robin, stonechat, mistle thrush, redwing, songthrush, fieldfare, blackbird, goldcrest, great tit, blue tit, long tailed tit, bearded reedling, nuthatch, treecreeper, magpie, jay, jackdaw, rook, carrion crow, starling, house sparrow, tree sparrow, chaffinch, linnet, goldfinch, greenfinch, bullfinch, reed bunting, yellowhammer, bewicks swan, whooper swan, red kite, pink footed goose, ringed plover, grey plover, black tailed godwit, bar tailed godwit, snow bunting, cettis warbler, siskin, lesser redpoll, kingfisher, coal tit, water rail, green sandpiper, knot, peregrine, ring necked parakeet, mandarin,red kite, chiffchaff, ruff, sandwich tern, med gull, red breasted merganser, reed warbler, water pipit, white wagtail, sand martin, raven, blackcap, garden warbler, goldcrest, willow warbler, swallow,wheatear, house martin, whitethroat, cuckoo, sedge warbler, swift, common tern, lesser whitethroat, little ringed plover, common sandpiper, nightingale, nightjar,  hobby, yellow wagtail, stone curlew, spotted flycatcher.

To this I have since added:

grey wagtail (Little Hadham) little stint (Dungeness) garganey (Dungeness) greenshank (Dungeness) little tern (Dungeness) black tern (Dungeness) redstart (Amwell) crossbill (Broxbourne Woods) spoonbill (Titchwell)eider (Titchwell) arctic skua (Titchwell) manx shearwater (Titchwell) common scoter (Titchwell) spotted redshank (Titchwell) curlew sandpiper (Cley) Pectoral sandpiper (Cley) whimbrel (Cley) arctic skua (Sheringham) fulmar (Portland Bill) balearic shearwater (Portland Bill) shag (Portland Bill) rock pipit (Portland Bill) short billed dowitcher (Lodmoor and my 3rd lifer of the decade) tree pipit (Portland) wood warbler (Culverwell) firecrest (The Grove, Portland)

This makes my running total 173 for the year. Trips to Flamborough Head and several Norfolk visits to come may well see 200 broken this year, but no where near my 226 from many years ago and no twitching!!

Archive photo from Autumn 2008 showing a leucistic jackdaw that arrived on the chapel roof at the bottom of the garden. Seen for about 3 months after, but not again. Jackdaws were tolerant of its presence, but magpies and jays attacked it incessantly.