Wednesday 7 September 2011

Seawatch- Starr Gate

8.20-11.20
A good day in all here are the totals
Arctic Skua  3

Fulmar  6
Little Tern 1
Arctic Tern  3
Sandwich Tern 4
Manx Sherwater 11
Kittiwake  5
Gannet 8
Common Scoter 150+

Seawatch-Starr Gate 06/09/11

I arrived at Starr gate at around 8.15am Frank Bird and Maurice Jones was already watching so I went and joined them, Frank had already had a few Fulmar and a Manx Shearwater. Around 5 minutes later frank shouted manxi and there just behind the surf was the first Manx shearwater of the day. Not long after he shouted Fulmar there's another first for the day and a fylde tick for myself. There was a steady passage of seabirds in the 3 hours watching.
Here are the full list of birds seen
5 Fulmar (I seen 3) South
18 Manx Shearwater South
10 Gannet North
4 Kittiwake South
4 Arctic Tern South
3 Sandwich Tern South
4 Pintail South

Thursday 1 September 2011

Bat and moth night- Marton mere 31/8/11

We set of from mine at around 8.30 we had just got onto yeadon way where we hit an old lady, ha ha moth that is. We arrived and jonny was already there and told us he had the barn owl. As soon as we set off we had a pipistrelle bat and a whole load of common rustic we arrived and they hadn't caught anything so me Aaron and jonny went for a walk and came back with heaps of stuff.
I found a sallow a lifer for me and Aaron we then went for a walk looking for bats around the mere as we reached the far end i found an angle shades then Aaron found another then we started checking the reedheads we found hundreds of sallow lesser broad borderd yellow underwing a smokey wainscott

leighton moss 28/8/11

we got there  and Steve Palmer was there with the moth trap unfortunately he had released all the moths, fortunately he had a treble bar and July highflyer still to release we also found a green carpet later in the day, Bird wise there was not alot best birds were Osprey, Marsh Harrier Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Raven, Little Egret, Greenshank were the best stuff.

Catch up- Bat and moth walk

24/8/11
We met up with the rangers and a few other members of the public for a bat and moth night at stanley park. We decided to head towards the bowling greens first and just as we arrived we had our first bat, a pipistrelle flying around our heads while the rest of the group were watching that me, Aaron and Jonny had a look round for moths, Jonny suddenly shouted ''Ash coming towards you a big one'' I turned round and ''THUD'' Straight into my nose it then flew behind me so I swung my net behind me with 10% skill and 90% luck I managed to get it, potting it we could see that it was an old lady. We then Continued round towards the rose gardens where Silver Y and crescent were caught. Down towards the lake the others had Brown long eared bat which I had missed because I went looking for the next species of bat. The daubenton's bat was rather easy to find all we had to do was scan our torches along the surface of the water and bingo got one infact there was arond five wizzing aroung no more then a foot of the surface of the water picking insects of the surface. On the boat house we found another three old ladys were on the wall then on top of the bridge we were bombed by another one.

 we then went through to woodland gardens where a few more pips were seen and heard then we got to the pill box and there was yet another old lady sat on a wall inside. After that we headed back to the park and walked along the main path where a noticed a few moths feeding on an oak tree copper underwing and the best moth of the night red underwing but not 1, not 2 but six on 1 tree. on the way bk we also found a hedgehog, we all then headed back to the vc happy.