Morning Mossland Mooch

I had an hour to spare this morning between appointments and as I was in the vicinity of Rawcliffe Moss I decided to have a mooch round there for an hour. My first job was contacting the farmer, Phillip, to let him know that the gates were open on two of his fields and a number of lambs and ewes were out on the track. Then a young lady waited for me to park on the track because she thought I was her taxi! I would have got a surprise if she had got in my car. It's strange out on the moss!

Anyway after that unusual start to my mooch I had a Blackcap singing from Curlew Wood, my first on the moss this Spring. Walking down the track I saw a Stoat running along in the field next to the track and then it crossed over and ran along the track. When I got to the end of the track I flushed it from under the hedge and it was carrying a small rodent.

As a couple of days ago there were a number of Brown Hares in a variety of habitats and they were accompanied by seven Lapwings again in both arable and pastoral habitats. As I walked up the '97' hedge I flushed a pair of Grey Partridges and I had the first of four singing Corn Buntings in the top of a Birch tree.

Dodgy 'digi-binned' Corn Bunting

Tree Sparrows numbered nine and were mainly associated with the boxes. In the plantation I had five singing Willow Warblers and I thought a caught a snippet of Whitethroat song. I then realised the time and it was more of a quick march back to my car rather than a mooch and all I had on my way back was a single Buzzard.

Verdant Hawthorn on the edge of the
plantation

Back at home later I checked my moth trap and I bet you guess what I caught! Once again twenty moths of three species that were...I hardly need tell you now...; seven early Greys, eleven Hebrew Characters and two Common Quakers. I did catch a Pug sp., but I can't do Pugs (sorry GJ if you're reading this)! It's a bit like the Herring Gull complex, but with dozens of species!