Eyes Skyward

It felt like it should be a raptor afternoon as I wandered across Rawcliffe Moss in the late afternoon sunshine. I kept my eyes skywards just in case and I did have five raptors, but they were all Buzzards. I'm not complaining because Buzzards are fantastic birds and I did get stonking views of a couple of birds as I called them in.

Tree Sparrows were quite numerous and I had thirteen in total noisily moving along the hedge to the north of Curlew Wood. Mentioning Curlew Wood leads me on nicely to the 'Curlew chorus' I had this afternoon. I could hear a number of Curlews calling and at first couldn't see them, but then they appeared flying over the L Wood and there were 69 in the flock.

As usual there were quite a few Brown Hares around and I got a few snaps of an individual near the plantation. In the plantation itself there were five singing Willow Warblers but very little else.



There were a number of Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on the wing and I had three Roe Deer to the northwest of the plantation. Heading back south past the plantation I had a Stoat working its way through the trees. That's the second Stoat in two days.

Mossland soil

Back at home I emptied the moth trap and it was more of the same with four Hebrew Characters, four Early Greys, Common Quaker and a Common Plume below.