#indoorstoomuch

NEW to the garden; initially thought Poplar Kitten as the trap is directly below a Poplar however there are Willows and Sallows very close

A nice and welcomed visitor to the Synergetic trap over the weekend was a Toadflax Brocade. Once a rare moth restricted to Dunge it is now rapidly expanding, its now in Essex and i get a few records a year at the moment however you only have to go a little further north in the County and there not to be found yet but other parts of the country are slowly being colonized. Only two years ago, the first for Wales was trapped by Mel Oxford.

I'm still getting used to the camera and finding it very enjoyable and frustrating at the same time. I'm keeping it in manual mode at all times, just so i can learn more about the exposure triangle. It does help, I've learnt more since having this one than any other time with a point and shot or my bridge camera. A Wheatear from the bay from last weekend. I suppose it's personal preference but it was mentioned to me to look at a vertical crop rather than my original horizontal. Both added below Some varied crops: They are all getting too grainy, pulled back and changed the view

The two traps were out last night, we seem to have hit that lul period between the Quakers and the Prominents, however so new for the year moths were pulled in by both light sets. The MV caught 14 moths covering 8 species; NFY here were Oak-tree Pug (2) and Seraphim (1). The Actinic caught 9 moths covering 7 species; NFY here was a single Shuttle-shaped Dart. Seraphim

I got to the office on Monday and after telling a couple of guys i had been to Vange on Sunday they answered " Vange, wtf'ing hell did you go there for ". The answer was Two Black-winged stilts and Adder that went for my foot as i nearly trod on it and a very polite attempted mugging . With beautiful weather i headed off to Bowers Marsh - nothing there. So i went to Vange. With a handful of Gypo's at the site racing motor bikes, generally beering it up it made for an altogether peaceful birding experience. I had Heath with me and as we wandered down towards the Stilts we heard a hiss , looking down an Adder struck out for my right foot; it was close but didn't connect. I don't think it would have made it through my leather boots any how. It slithered off into the longer grass leaving Heath aghast that he had just seen his first wild snake and that it had just gone for us. Cracking experience, although i suppose could have been different if...