What a warm night can do.

My checking the moths this morning was accompanied by this Mavis, or Song Thrush. This colloquial name appears in Chaucer and was used by other Middle English poets. It comes from the French word mauvis and may be of Celtic origin. The thrush has started using a rather poorly looking Silver Birch to sing from, and I've seen the same spot used by Dunnock, Robin and Blackbird to deliver their songs, so it must be a prime location.

After the very much warmer night mothing last night was the best for a while. Altogether I caught 188 Macro moths of 45 species and 60 micros of 16 species (and the there were the ones that got away!

The Lychnis is one of my favourites. The intricate pattern is a superb and apart from the colours fading as the moths get older it is a very constant design, with not a lot of variation between individuals.

I haven't caught a Clouded Brindle for a couple of years so I was pleased to catch this one. It's in a group of several similar species and I took a while to identify it.

A quick reprise of the baby scene. I couldn't neglect to show how much prettier(?) a Moorhen chick is compared with a Coot chick.

When I pooped into the Rest Harrow Scrape hide, after my physio, I was impressed with the discipline these young Canada geese showed. All in line and no lagging behind. Only thing is, shouldn't dad be at the back and not three from the end.