Ruby Tiger

I had a new species of moth for my garden in the moth trap this morning, in the form of a beautiful Ruby Tiger. From the picture below it is easy to see how it got its name. The further south the redder they are, and the further north the browner/drabber they are. They can be found in flight by day, but they also fly from dusk and into the night.

Also in the moth trap were six Hebrew Characters, two Early Greys, two Common Quakers, a Light Brown Apple Moth and a Common Plume.

I took my daily well-being walk on the farm fields at the southern end of the Obs recording area, and it was most certainly dreich! In fact, pre-dawn I was a bit excited about the dreich conditions, as I hoped that they might have dropped in a migrant or two, but no.

I only had a quick look on the sea, because it was so dreich that you couldn't really see anything. So, I was actually amazed that I managed to record four Eiders!

Vis was virtually non-existent with just 15 Meadow Pipits, twelve Linnets, an Alba Wagtail and more interesting, two Tree Pipits.

I didn't have any grounded migrants apart from a single Willow Warbler!

Ah well, I'll just have to keep looking skywards in the garden in the hope of a decent raptor over!