Bath Birdwatcher

  This report is not the usual day or half day birding trip but a whole week in Anglesey but as it was with my brother and our wives bird spotting was not the main reason for the visit, but we did see 56 species during the week. We stayed in a small town called Benllec on the northeast coast where we had a distant view of the sea. When we arrived the first thing, we noticed was we had House Martins nesting under the eaves and Collared Doves were on the wires these two were ever-present. House Sparrow, Starling and Swallow were also seen as we surveyed our surroundings. The following day we stayed fairly local and visited some of the local villages including Moelfre which houses a lifeboat station and as we traveled, sometimes on foot or by car the species numbers began to build up Black Headed Gull, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Fulmar, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, Gannet, Robin, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Great Black Back Gull, Raven, Wood Pigeon, Magpie and Dunnock were all seen. After lu...

  Moth trapping this year has been very poor with the cold wet and windy weather making it impossible to put the trap out, it’s been so windy on occasions that the trap could have been blown away. The first time I was able to successfully trap was the 22 nd of February when I caught an Early Grey and a Hebrew Character which was a new sighting for me. The next successful trap was the 4 th of March with another Hebrew Character. The 16 th of March was slightly better again with 4 moths, Hebrew Character, Common Plume, Clouded Drab and Oak Beauty. The last 2 also new captures. The 18 th of March just 2 moths an Oak Beauty and a Hebrew Character. Things started to look up during the warmer spell of weather towards the end of March with 11 moths of 4 species caught new for the year a Common Plume and a Beautiful Plume being a new capture. On the 24 th 4 moths including a March moth being another new species. The 29 th of March brought another 4 moths with a Silver Y being a yea...

                        Looking out of the kitchen window this morning the feeders were alive with House Sparrow and on the ground two Wrens, this is very uncommon as one is the norm. Also a single Dunnock being chased by a Robin. But there was also a large influx of Blackbirds some showing the black beak of foreign birds and also for the first time in over a week our Bertie the strange coloured blackbird. Ok so its a female but we named her Bertie before we were told it was female (see previous post). She stayed around for a while being chased or chasing other Blackbirds before she flew off and hasn't been seen since. Surely she must have been visiting other gardens during her weeks absence but i have not heard from anyone who has seen her. Keep your eyes open she might be visiting you.