Aurora borealis

Petrels

The proposed seawatch never happened, as we were covered in thick fog all weekend. JL and I went out onto the moors on Friday and managed to stumble across a pair of Red Grouse, and followed that minor triumph with a walk round the golf course to turn up Swift. But the highlight of the day was after nightfall...

First thing in the morning I'd found a dead Storm Petrel by the house, that had presumably flown into a window attracted by the light. With light south-easterlies, and a humid dense cloud cover I thought moth-trapping would be worth a go, so set up the trap in the evening.

At 11.30pm a Stormie flew round the edge of the pool of light cast by the MV bulb, and for the next half hour up to a dozen were flitting through the light. Pretty impressive stuff, and a great addition to the garden list. JL came up for most of it, so we sat outside drinking beer and watching Stormies flying around our heads.

The moth catch was very average, with only a couple of Silver Y's being even vaguely notable.

Posted by Stercorarius at August 2, 2004 02:15 PM