If you've had a Friday to forget or just want to enjoy a bit of something that's simply lovely, here's a half a minute of a mellow, chilled Snipe out on the marsh last night. Doesn't do much but it doesn't half too. Snipe rock👌
Cool soundtrack too 😎

A mass of butterflies yesterday in the Brecks with Mick, including our first Green-veined Whites & Red Admirals (late to the party). The absolute star turn was Brimstone. We saw so many yesterday & this one, close by on a dandelion, was simply spectacular 💛

Special shout out to the Yellowhammers at Lynford yesterday. Underrated...
Classy birds.

A cracker of a day in the Brecks y'day with tour leader Mick Saunt 🇵🇸. A chilled day in excellent company w/delish veggie pasty for breakfast, yummy lunch too (Tunnocks always a highlight 😋). And birds & butterflies too! Goshawk, Stone Curlew, Tree Pipit, Woodlark + Tree Sparrow👌

Best of the rest from this morning ~ Common Carpet, Acleris logiana, Agnopterix arenella & the eternally intriguing Bee Moth : all four were new for the year today👌
#cleymothobs

Couldn't get enough of this perfect Pale Prominent this morning ~ throwing the classic full-on Potoo shapes too 😎
#cleymothobs
#mothsmatter

Mullein
Cley Moth Obs
April 13 2024

No doubting the Moths du Jour @ CMO HQ this morning, Mullein & Pale Prominent. Both new species for the year here (two of six this morning, in a total of 25/20). Amazing moths, sublime looking creatures both...
#cleymothobs

Also seen as we walked down OWL ~ a stunning Esperia sulpherella (Sulphur Bark Moth). I've seen a couple on the heath recently but this one was outrageously co-operative...
A micro moth of hedgerow & lanes, I'm not sure Lynnette & I have seen one this well👌
#cleymothobs

Managed an hour out around the block before the train into the northwest. Very happy we wandered ~ an incredible 34 Holly Blues just along Old Womans Lane (w/more on Anterton Hill) before the sun went in. Our largest single count of these beautiful Blues here ~ azuretastic 🩵

Fair amount of excited looks at CMO this week when we found only our 2nd new-for- garden species of 2024 ~ Agnopterix ocellana (Red-eyed Buff). A scarce moth in TG04 & we also found the 1st Cley square Adela cuprella (Sallow Longhorn) behind Daukes' this week too!
#cleymothobs

Purple Haze 💜
CMO absolutely rockin' the best Streamer ever seen, anywhere.
With the look of a cloak belonging to regal 60s hippie royalty, awash in violet & mauve crushed velvet, blended with precise fractals of coal black, dove grey, chalky white & pastel olive.
#cleymothobs

Common Lizard
Cley NWT
April 10 2024

A *very* cheeky Common Lizard on the Cley boardwalk today...
👅😂

The very best bit about being on NWT Cley Marshes today was seeing more Common Lizards at any one time than I've seen here (or at Walsey) before ~ at least five different individuals on the edge of the boardwalk, warming themselves on the wood. Absolutely loved watching these👌

Up on Salthouse Heath, on the edge of a gorse clump, Esperia sulpherella (now known as Sulphur Bark Moth...). Saw one here last week but it was a bit too close to an adder to take a photo! All clear today...

Very pleasant 14k steps out back this morning before heading to Salthouse & then to the marsh. Great to have the 1st local Lesser Whitethroat of 2024, plus a very brief singing Firecrest &, more year firsts for me, fly-through House Martin & a couple of singing Willow Warblers.

After days rummaging through the flock of islandicas (over 320 now), it was mission accomplished. Two nominate limosas (L3) on a windswept Pat's Pool tonight. Icelandic birds looked stunning in a rusty riot of colour, the Dowitcher looked long billed w/challenging birds abound.