When its dark...

Howick Village Hall in the moonlight.

 On Friday night, for the garden moth scheme, I had two moth traps running in the garden.

What I failed to realise was that the skinner I had positioned out to the front in a more open, south facing, aspect to entice a Convolvulous Hawk-moth, was also perilously close to a heavily fruiting yew tree. These soft red fruits has attracted the attentions of hundreds of Common Wasps, that were, in turn, drawn to the light from the MV bulb.

When I came to check the traps in the morning I found not only a few moths in this one, but about 500 groggy wasps! As it was cool early on I managed to gingerly lift each egg tray out and rescue some of the moths. The trays were replaced and the trap left for the squatters to escape in due course.

Illegal occupants of trap 1.

Luckily the other trap around the other side was less like a bomb disposal, containing only a few wasps from the ripe brambles, so I managed to get a few nice autumn moths. Who would have thought there would be danger in moth trapping?

Black Rustic, looks like a vampire's curtains...

Pink barred Sallow.

Great camouflage from the Angle Shades.

New for the year, 4 Canary shouldered Thorns brightened things up a bit.

Summer returns.

The view south from Rumbling Kern.

And north from the same spot, the Bathing House and Seahouses Farm.

With John away for the weekend, I got up early and just went for a wander around the home patch. The seawatching seems to have come to an end for this weather system anyway. This morning the bright sun dazzled the seawatch off, so another short session this afternoon confirmed that birds were few and far between. That's not strictly true, there were still thousands of Gannets and Kittiwakes, but the more interesting species were in short supply. In 30 mins I had 4 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater and, suprisingly over a nice blue sea, a close in female Velvet Scoter.

Viz Mig showed there to be some light land movement going on with Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches and a Grey Wagtail all going south.

Around the garden, the local insect population was doing its very best to get us inside, as millions of black fly ( aphids), flying ants and wasps were a proper nuisance. A good tip to stop wasps being a hazard at this time of year is to  lay out a slice of jam and bread not too far from where you are sitting. This attracts the stripey critters away from your own food and keeps them occupied for the whole day.

Common Wasps. The lad in the bottom shot looks a bit fiesty...

Down at the village hall pond a few Common Darters were on territory with a pair in cop and egg laying. A good sign.

Common Darter male. Pointing abdomen skywards to keep cool.

Just to diversify a little more, we rescued a young female Hedgehog yesterday. After a night with us on a hot water bottle, to help it get over hypothermia, she was delivered in a bit better condition to the Hedgehog Rescue Centre at Longframlington this morning.

'Pumpkin' the Hedgehog.

   What with the wind swinging around east again this coming week, there might even be some birding to be had....