Slow News

Squamata-listing is underway (/nearly finished!), with Chris Gregory's metal slow worm sheet coming up trumps already:

At least 5 grass snake were also seen on the same day (2 April).

Late News

An email in my inbox this morning from colleague Donal McCarthy with news of a Swallow at The Lodge last Friday means both teams are now on 106 for the year.

Redstart!

A male found on the Firs Trail at The Lodge by who other than Andy S!

Edit - the Common Redstart was actually found by a visitor, and Gary Thornton took the fantastic image above - SCB

At last...

A pair of Grey Partridge flushed from the 'borage field' this morning was a long overdue and anticipated year tick. With Mark Brandon's Willow Warbler on Saturday, The Lodge list moves on to 104. And in the challenge within a challenge (Moran v Oakley-Martin) my personal Lodge year list goes to 92.

Spring - it's already too difficult!

Spring's fantastic, but it does mean that the top shelf of my fridge starts to fill up with glass pots containing a variety of invertebrates, and the number of "to be identified" photos starts to get out of control. Perhaps I should just work in the winter, and take the summer off?

Anyway, I made a rare weekend visit to the Nunnery Lakes today with my youngest son Duncan, to employ his sharp nine-year-old eyes in the service of the BTO TEAL assault. Good move, as he added at least two species, the first Alder Fly Sialis lutaria of the year and, more excitingly, my first sighting of a Water Scorpion (Nepidae sp.) This latter was an impressive beast in the shallows of the "Bob Clarke" lake (note to self - must find out who Bob Clarke was, one of these days). I've still to find out how many species of Water Scorpions there are, and whether my photos are sufficient to identify to species.

Otherwise, no new birds (although the Little Egret was still around) but we did add Sticky Mouse-ear Cerastium glomeratum, Thale-cress Arabidopsis thaliana, Shepherd's Cress Teesdalia nudicaulis, Silverweed Potentilla anserina, a bright red weevil that might be Apion miniatum (or similar) and the ugly looking beetle Oiceoptoma thoracicum. A crab spider, a large ant and a water snail also require some work!

Great fun anyway, even if it's hard work!

Andy

Edit - unless anyone can say otherwise, this appears to be Nepa cinerea, with no confusion species. Result!

Grip-backs!

Just as I arrived home and settled down for some quality time with the moth trap, a frankly embarrassing text from Neil appeared, informing me that I'd managed to drive past a Wheatear earlier on. D'oh! In order to accrue some Brownie points with my wife, I bundled my daughter into the buggy and set off on foot back to the Lakes. By the time I got there, Neil had rustled up a female Wheatear to go with this dapper - if somewhat distant - male:

A timely grip-back, exactly the same date as a pair appeared last year, and a species that one or two senior Nuns thought we might struggle for. It was all happening this morning; not long after Neil and I had headed off in different directions we both heard a Green Sandpiper - for me this was double happiness (like the ironically-named Chinese cigarettes): 100 for my own Lakes year list and 106 for the total :-)

By the time I finally got back home to watch Leeds thump Forest 4-1 (that'll be triple happiness, then!), I'd clocked up 65 species, with other main highlights being the Little Egret that has been kicking around since earlier in the week, plus plenty of singing Chiffchaffs and a few Blackcaps. Oh and a Red Chestnut in the afore-mentioned moth trap.

Edit: Turns out Ian Henderson beat us to the male Wheatear... there's a pattern developing here! At least we were first to Green Sand ;)

Happy couples

A quick drive down the Nunnery Lakes track this morning (on my way back from following up a report of a Great Bustard for the third time this week... still not lucky though!) produced a couple of decent sightings. A pair of Shovelers on D Lake were my first of the year on the reserve; not exactly cooperative but I managed the archetypal record shot of the male:

A pair of Grey Partridges, my first on (rather than from) the reserve, were equally uncooperative, though I did manage a couple of 'action shots' through the windscreen, to help The Lodgers work out what this species looks like ;)

Having texted Neil about the Shoveler (he's new to this Lakes listing lark, you see), I thought I'd go home for a nice, relaxing breakfast...