A week back at work after our holiday with a few things of interest at
home.
The Saturday before we came back from Glen Affric I received a Bluesky message
from Mark Eaton to say that there were two Common Cranes in the field behind
our house that would be visible from the kitchen window if we weren't 300
miles away in Scotland! Its always the case isn't it. The field in question
has been recently tilled and seeded and looked great for Dotterel but Crane
wasn't on my radar. Unfortunately a message around 8.30pm said they had flown
off south. It looked like a good garden and patch tick was left wanting.
So, a long drive back on Sunday saw us reversing up the drive at 4pm. Due to
the actual driving my phone had not been looked at all day, so a quick glance
showed a message from our neighbour saying there are Cranes in the field, at
10am! So, a scrabble for the bins and a scan of the field and there they were,
two, huge graceful dinosaurs striding through and over pigeons and rooks
looking right at home.
Get on the lists!
Common Cranes, from our house.
They graced us with their daily presence for the following 6 days, being
joined by a third Crane on the Tuesday morning! Now I have a self found Crane on
the patch list. On one morning I even heard them bugling as I did the moth trap
count!
And then there were three...
The original two were obviously a pair, maybe 2 yr old birds as there was some
grey in the neck and not as much red on the crown. The new bird was a last
years young with a lot of grey in the neck and no red in the crown.
They were last seen on Friday 22nd am, then going over Skateraw at
1.30pm...
Those were clearly the biggest highlights of the week but as the weather got
warmer the Moth Trap was not about to be outdone.
On Thursday 21st I lifted the moth trap out to count it. As I removed the
cone, no pugs or carpets flew to freedom. Very unusual I thought under the
conditions. So after counting a couple of egg trays, I saw, lying in the base
drain, a large Poplar Hawk-moth forewing. At the same time a sliver of
something in an egg tray set the alarm bells ringing. Oh no, birds had been
in, and that sliver, surely not...
I hurriedly did the remaining living moths that all seemed very subdued,and
moved the egg trays. Then my nightmare suspicions came true. In with the other
dismembered lepidoptera in the bottom were the four wings of a Lime
Hawk-moth!
This must seem a bit of an anti climax to the southern contingent reading
this, but that dead moth was only the 2nd for VC68 and the first since 1902!
Its a species that has slowly been making inroads into Northumberland and was
to expected here one day, but after a decade of blank springs this is not the
way to find a first.
So, end knocked in, that night, two traps were deployed in desperation.
Sometimes the luck of the moth Gods shines down on us. A last check before bed
around 11.30pm and there in the front garden Skinner, a lovely living Lime
Hawk-moth. Superb. The second VC68 record in living memory.
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