Pond Sprites

Key stages of building a pond are put in the liner, fill with water, let the kids have a play and a paddle, get the kids out, keep the kids out and then start filling with plants.

The pics shows two of these stages. Wildlife noted so far are one whirlygig beetle and a diving beetle which I haven't specifically identified as .. er .. it keeps diving.

Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope

News broke yesterday of a Grey Phalarope at Bough Beech Reservoir showing well from the road on the North Lake. Needless to say I dipped in after work and managed to see this grey and white sprite from the North.
Although, it was my 8th Grey Phalarope, it was my first at Bough Beech (127th species) and very welcome. I managed to get a few pics before the light faded. Also present were 4+ Little Egrets a Green Sandpiper, a few Common Terns and a number of Swallows were flying through.

Motorway Hobby

A Hobby flew over the M25 this morning between Junctions 8 & 9. Later a walk in Wimbledon Park was pretty uneventful with the high winds although I did flush a Snout moth from the bushes in the woods.

Bough Beech

Bough Beech last night produced a Buzzard, 4 Little Egrets, 4 Green Sandpiper, Common sandpiper, Grey Wagtail and 20+ House Martins.

Coal Tit

I finally managed to get a picture of a Coal Tit in the garden. One or two are ocassionally seen, usually announcing their presence with loud stridant calls but were difficult to photograph as they move off quickly through the tree canopies.

I'm keen to eventually get a picture of every species that visits the garden and some are harder than others e.g. the only Goldfinches I see are flyovers and so still have evaded my camera.

Picture to follow.

Recent New Moths

Copper Underwing

Pebble Hook-tip

Angle Shades

Wasps
Here some pics of some recent new moths caught and a picture of the problem I can have with wasps.

Moth Trap Attracts Fox

"Timmy" Fox

Amazing - at the weekend the cats alerted us to something large moving around the moth trap. We went upstairs and carefully looked out the window to see a young fox pouncing on moths around the trap. Not to be out done, in the morning we found our cats doing much the same thing. One of them was even sitting on the perspex lid to dab at the moths inside. What with the wasps, foxes and cats treating it as a feeding station it's a wonder there's anything left to indentify.