Yesterday local news broke that a trio of Night Herons had been located
at Watermead CP North. By the time I'd picked that up though it was too late
to bother, especially with the restricted arrangements for getting into the
area where they were (which has always bemused me - it was better when the
area was openly accessible without hides). So I hoped (and expected) that
they'd stick and that I'd get a chance today. Quite early this morning though
they all flew south ....
Luckily for me, and many others, not very far as they
were relocated <1km south on Grebe Pool at Watermead CP Birstall. Here they were safely
tucked up in a spot that was both freely accessible to view but far away from
pathways so they'd not be disturbed.
This morning they moved from roughly where the cyan dot is south to the red
dot.
Great scope views, sort of. One was higher up in a tree and just about in full
view save for an errant branch. The other two were much more hidden pretty
much down at the waterside. All are full adults as far as I could see,
certainly two of them with long white head plumes. They were a
touch too far away for my camera for anything but a record shot.
There has been a bit of an influx into the UK lately, and it seems likely that seeing these could well become more regular.
The only garden trap excitement since the Dotted Chestnut was this
Mullein from last night, quite neatly on the same date that one turned up
last year .....
One of the things that has kept me busy in the last few weeks was writing a
bit of a VC55 Moth Review for 2022, which has been circulated locally and is
now available on Naturespot:
I'm hoping that with the review published, and as we head into May, there
should be time to get out and about a bit more than I have done in the last
year.
No time or inclination to link a themed track, so here's some
anti-establishment ranting to a fairly sparse backing and a nicely relevant
Cold War Steve video collaboration ....
No idea where the time goes these days. I've been: busy at work; busy
reconciling the 2022 VC55 moth dataset and starting to write a review of it;
watching LCFC disintegrate into a completely shite and relegation-worthy team;
listening on repeat to new albums from Depeche Mode and Orbital, and
recently starting to get my head around the idea of being a 'Grandad' in October
....
The rubbish wet/windy weather through most of March has not been very helpful to
getting out for anything, though a slightly better first week in April gave me
chance to waft a lure around and add a few more Pammene giganteana dots to the
VC map.
The garden trap went out last night for a few hours, I pulled it in
early ahead of more rain. Just as well really, as loitering at the bottom of
the dry trap was the first garden tick for 2023 (and it probably would have
drowned I'd left the trap out). So just over 11 years since I last saw one, and a very welcome addition to the
garden, is this Dotted Chestnut. I couldn't decide which pic to post so have a
few.
I mentioned listening to new albums, one being Optical Delusion from Orbital. I
went to Nottingham on Friday night to watch their live set, absolutely loved it
and it's about 10 years since I last saw them live. This one is probably my favourite track,
not least because it mentions 'Sandeels disappearing, Puffins lost at sea'.
A much more sombre offering, but one I've thoroughly enjoyed, is Memento Mori from Depeche Mode. Several great tracks, though I doubt this release will generate a new generation of fans. Sadly, as it stands their current World tour only has one UK date - which falls in the same June weekend that I'm away at the Isle of Wight festival. Hopefully more dates to be added either late this year or early in 2024 (if previous tours are anything to go by).
