Monday 07/10/13

I took the day off work as I had to take the dog to the vets before he chewed one of his legs off. He had developed a skin complaint on one of his back legs and it wasn’t improving on its own or with any of our remedies. I also needed to sort out a few other things that can only be done and chased up in the 9 to 5, Monday to Friday world.

On the plus side the moth trap finally turned up a decent migrant moth in the form of a Vestal. It was only the fourth I have ever caught in the garden but my joy was short lived when my attempt to photograph it failed miserably. I have photographed them before but as I won’t use old photographs in my blog you will have to click here if you want to know what they look like.

This evening I wandered up to Longshaw to see how many Linnets were roosting in the willows. There is a roost there every autumn and that is what first drew me to the site but numbers vary year to year depending on the crops planted in the area. As things turned out there weren’t many Linnets in the roost but I still caught a few bird including 4 Linnets.

Linnet (Carduelis cannabina)

The one and only Chiffchaff caught was interesting in that the end of its tail had broken off. I have mentioned fault barring in previous posts and that this can lead to feathers breaking along the line of weakness and here was potentially a good example. The impact on the bird will vary with the location of the break but will never be good even in a minor example like this one. The broken feathers will not be replaced until the next moult which could be 6 or 12 months away depending on the species involved. 

Chiffchaff tail 07/10/13.

The weather is likely to take a turn for the worse towards the end of the week so I am not sure when I will post again. It could be good for Little Auks if the northerlies are strong enough on the coast and probably some winter thrushes by the end of the week too.