TINY TIGER

Who says moths are dull and brown, when you see such vivid colours as on this cream-spot tiger moth? This was the highlight of the moths found in the trap on the morning of Friday 4th. This is a largish moth with large creamy spots on the wings. It is quite scarce in Essex and only found mainly near the coast, often disturbed during the day where it might fly off from the grass where it hides up.

There can't be many moths that have such striking crimson underparts as this one has - and all this is without admiring the yellow hindwings with their tiger stripes! There should be several more sightings of these moths in the trap over the next month.

Other moths caught included the heart and dart, pale prominent, coxcomb prominent, yellow belle, flame shoulder, brimstones, hebrew character, shuttle-shaped dart and common quaker.

Almost missed the chance to capture the tiny little pink common storksbill flowers that have been adding a little colour to the areas of mown grass. The storksbills have passed their peak by about a fortnight and their once pretty little flowers have faded away, making it hard to even find the leaves.

Around the country park on Friday morning, the cuckoo and 2 nightingales were heard, as were several lesser whitethroats and common whitethroats.
Flying over the park were two sand martins, three house martins and one or two swallows. We still wait for the first swifts to be seen over the park, despite being back in West Mersea for over a week.

At the park pond the brood of week-old mallard ducklings has dropped in number to ten. Two pairs of tufted ducks snoozed under some willow branches while two male gadwall who had been quietly feeding, suddenly started a brawl and disturbing the tranquility.