Saturday 4 November 2017

Here we go again

I was hoping to not be looking at gulls until at least mid-November but things are getting increasingly more winter like and today Dave Campbell found Yellow-legged and Caspian Gull at the farmlands. Winter is a long haul so its never a rush to get there, although this winter is almost certainly our last gull winter at the farmlands (the incinerator should be working by Spring 2018) and landfill is due to stop at the end of this year. So like last year going to make the biggest effort possible to find a mega gull before the history books close on that era of the farmlands. 

However autumn is not over yet and there's still some new moths coming in and the winter thrushes are still on the move and should be for  two or three weeks more too. After that it's gull watching, looking for winter vagrants and hoping for a hard winter movement before the Quakers and March Moths start to appear in February heralding very early Spring. When you think winter lasts from mid-November to mid-February/March, that's four to five months- in long winters that's a few weeks off Spring, Summer and Autumn combined. A good time of year to get some foreign travel in and catch up with lab work too. 

 First-winter Caspian Gull 
 First-winter Caspian Gull 

A few recent moths from Beddington 
 Yellow-lined Quaker (a local scarcity) 
White-triangle Slender  Caloptilia stigmatella 
 Acleris notana/ferrugana? 
Yellow-backed Clothes Moth  Monopsis obviella/ (crocicapitella?) 
London Dowd Blastobasis lacticolella 

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