Two species added to the yearlist this week with treecreeper (175) on Wednesday and pectoral sandpiper (176) this evening.
The strangest sighting of the week was 14 common cranes west yesterday morning. While I was walking back to the office I noticed 14 large birds flying away from me I thought they may be cranes or storks but didn't have bins with me. later in the morning, 2 visitors came in and said they had seen the flock and they were cranes. Amazingly they were never seen again!

Thanks to a sharp eyed reader (thanks James) I need to correct one of my moths from the other day. The gallium carpet is actually a sharp angled carpet.

Muggy, cloudy and still - perfect moth trapping weather. Put my heath trap on last night for the first time in a while and had a decent catch. Minimum count of 89 moths of 34 species. Highlight for me was my first marbled clover but galium carpet and olive were things I don't see very often. Most of the numbers were made up of dark arches (14) and uncertain (11).

top, marbled clover, middle, galluim carpet

bottom, olive

Found this image of the buff breasted sand on the camera, no better than the other one but it give you an idea.

Hobby over the garden this morning.

Doing the Snettisham WeBS count is not always my favourite pastime. It is not easy to ID waders at 1km range in the heat haze when half the time you can only tell if they are a big or small wader!!
Despite a soaking from a sharp shower, this months count on Saturday wasn't too bad. The saltmarsh had a couple of green sands and a greenshank and there were just over 4000 knot on the mud. A change on the day before as we had only had one knot on my guided walk!
The challenge is to be able to count the saltmarsh and then get to the hides for high tide. Sounds simple until you factor the hour walk to the start point before you start. Anyway, got back to the hides and there were already lots of dunlin and oycs present. As I counted the dunlin I picked up a slightly larger bird with them. Thankfully it was near the end of the flock and I could check it quickly. Pale yellowish legs, heavily streaked breast sharply ending on the lower breast, it was an adult pectoral sandpiper. I managed to get Dave and his guided walk onto to it before the flock flushed and it was lost. A good find at the end of a long morning.

Whimbrel over the garden this evening and a cracking white admiral butterfly at our ringing site on Sundau morning for the 2nd week running.

Had a quick look at the fresh marsh this evening at it is still hooching with waders. 15 common sands were new in from yesterday. The buff breasted sand was in a bit closer so had a go at digi-scoping it. Unfortunatly the light was poor and it was a bit too windy but I managed to manipulate one to get a reasonable shot.

Here are some photos from my holiday


male large blue butterfly at Collard Hill, no Glastonbury, Somerset - the best I could do with the breezy conditions and their very flighty nature.


funnel-web spider sp


Somerset (in black) on their way to victory over Glamorgan at the County Ground, Taunton.

Common lutestring moth

Common spotted orchids - normal and white forms

common century

Back to work today but didn't manage to catch up with the pec sand. Was going to look this evening but the welcome rain put pay to that. A crossbill (174) calling was a welcome addition.

We moved our weekly ringing session to Sunday and it was an inspired choice as it produced the highest total of birds handled for the site. By the end of the morning we had processed 134 birds of which 87 were new. The species of note were 20 blue tit (seem to have had a good year), 10 blackcap, 4 chiffchaff, 2 treecreeper and single whitethroat and nuthatch. A long-lived woodpigeon was re-trapped that was originally ringed in April 2005. A crossbill was also around the site again but didn't come down from the treetops.

Into the last couple of days on my hols so making the most of the weather with getting in more ringing visits.
Kevin and I spent Thursday trying to get some swallows but had limited success. Most of the birds had finished breeding and were reluctant to retun to the barns. We did manage to get 3 adults and 5 young from a nest. Yesterday we had a successful visit to our tree sparrow site with 17 juveniles caught at the feeders and 1 young rung in the nest. Two adult whitethroats were a bonus.

Dropped into Sculthorpe Moor briefly this afternoon and had a marsh tit and 4 white admiral butterfies.

The new pond in the garden is already starting to pull things in and its only been in a week. The birds have now found it and are happy to drink and bathe and I have seen 2 common darter dragonflies and a common blue damselfly in the last couple of days.