Spring visitors

On Monday morning there were 2 new moth species for this year in the trap - first up, a Clouded Drab

Next, an Early Grey - wonder what sort of tea it brews?

On the subject of tea, this morning (Tuesday) when I did brew the early morning tea, looked idly out of the window while't kettle boiled, and saw these two garden visitors in the path outside. Through the glass the pics weren't that good

 After a few moments they hopped through the gate, and while't tea brewed I was able to make this photo through the open window without flushing them - pity about the wire and stuff

Hey hoe, Hey hoe, it was off to Aycliffe via Deal, then I had a couple hours to wait, so I went down to Samphire Hoe, hey ho, bearing Chocolate cake in the (successful) hope of earning a cuppa from Phil Smith. He, Derek Smith (no relation, but good company) and yours truly then set off for a wander round. The light and colour in these proper blue Violets caught my eye - none of this Heartsease stuff

  
Then there was this strange lurker we found, what was he doing?

Hooray, he was taking better pics than me of the first Wheatearof the spring for us, second for the Hoe - see his blog for a superb pic - http://mrphil-kearsneybirder.blogspot.com/

He also adopted this strange posture to photograph another first this spring, a Linnet - the fence been here all winter to keep the sheep in

 
And we also found this lovely female Black Redstart on the sea wall, shivering her tail beautifully - in this pic it was keeping a wary eye on some overflying Crows

And, seeing as we started the day with a game bird (no old jokes please), there was this beautifully coloured Pheasant to admire in the sun

What none of us could get a photo of was a flight of 5 birds out to sea and heading East, our best guess is that they were female Eider

Thanks for the tea and walk round, Phil and Derek, superb morning

More Moths - and Butterflies

I set up my moth trap on Friday evening, to be rewarded in the morning with this superb Oak Beauty - what a stunner, and at 3 cm long, an impressive moth.

Also new in the trap were these two delicate and subtle Common Quakers

Later in the superb fine day was a very dark Common Buzzard,  and a glistening white Little Egret over the garden - at the time I was planting early spuds so no camera to hand. Then, in the early afternoon, a Comma and a Red Admiral , and a buff-tailed Bumble Bee to enjoy