Last night at Hardcastle Crags ,I caught an Orange Footman Eilema sorocula .
20 years ago when I first started recording moths locally there was only 1 species recorded the Common Footman , since then Muslin Footman , Red-necked Footman , Buff Footman , Dingy Footman , and Scarce Footman are all recorded in good numbers.
Had a walk round St Aiden's today and Lin Dyke , its another world on the other side of Leeds ,
Superb Slavonian Grebe in summer plumage and Black -necked Grebes at St Aidan's , at least 12 singing Cetti's Warblers and a Booming Bittern which showed only briefly. Lin dyke had 6 Cattle Egrets , 2 Little Egrets , 1 Great White Egret and 5 Cetti's Warbler...With the Red-necked Grebe at Leeshaw , great Crested and Little locally , its been a good year for grebes.....
The other night at Bridestones I saw a distant flock of duck aprox 130 + , they looked dark but they were distant , they did that typical duck moving over the sea movement where the ones at the back move to the front and then go out in straight lines and then crunch up in a tight flock ... If I would have been on a sea watch I would have called out Scoter flock. I knew that Common Scoter had moved in late March but was not sure if this was just a one night thing and have never looked into it tbh,..
You generally find a small flock somewhere during the year on one of the upland reservoirs.
After looking through the internet its pretty common for them to move in late March , April and May. I feel pretty confident they were Common Scoter and my first as a vis - mig bird...better to be cautious .
Lots of SEO's about....as well
