DOUBLE-HEADER

Recent sunshine has brought more adders out from hibernation at the country park with five individuals seen on Tuesday 9th. These two pictured above, were snuggled up basking head-to-head in the morning sun. There was a report on Saturday that six adders were seen at the park.

Lapwings have been doing their erratic tumbling display flights with lots of loud calling over the park's grazing fields. Around ten birds / five pairs seem to be present on the fields.

 The house sparrow has been a rarity at the country park in recent years but there is great excitement as a pair have taken up residence at the park bungalow over the last month. The cheery chirping of the male sparrow, seen pictured, can now be heard across the car park for the first time in about 20 years!

 This jay in Firs Chase had me very confused first thing on Tuesday morning with its amazingly accurate mimicking call of a Mediterranean gull. Having stepped out of the house I scanned the sky trying to see the Mediterranean gull passing over. After a short while, the repeated calls were tracked down to this jay perched high up in a tree! The jay has obviously picked up this distinctive " yeaow" call from hearing Mediterranean gulls flying over the nearby Hard and Coast Road area.

On Sunday 8th a common buzzard drifted high westwards over the car park, a flight suggesting a bird on passage rather than a local bird. Earlier in the morning a siskin flew north-east over the car park calling as it headed towards the pond.
The Cetti's warbler and the pochard were both noted at the park pond on Sunday by Steve Entwistle.

It has been a bit quiet on the mothing front at the park recently because the night-time temperatures have been low. However the trap was put out at the weekend on both Saturday and Sunday nights, just reaching double figure catches on both nights.

This pale pinion pictured above has only been recorded less than a handful of times before here, usually just one individual each early spring. It seems to have become more widespread in recent years in the county.

The hebrew character pictured above is a common moth in the spring, although just a couple in the trap each morning.

The early grey is a familiar and common moth in the early spring here although usually in small numbers.

A handful of March moths pictured above, along with several common quakers were the most numerous moths in the trap.