An early start for me this morning as I wanted to see what I had lured into my moth trap overnight. There are several reasons for the early start; as the air warms up, so do the moths, and they have a tendency to fly away as soon as you remove the lid, secondly, our resident pied wagtails seem to have got the hang of the moth trap and patrol the vicinity anticipating some tasty treats, and thirdly, it takes me a while to identify them all. My favourites from last night's selection have to be the hawkmoths - including an eyed hawkmoth, who is fabulously camouflaged when its wings are closed, but, if disturbed, flashes its shocking-pink underwings complete with bright blue eye spots. Also no less than 6 elephant hawkmoths - these furry pink and green beauties are a great help if you're trying to convince people that moths aren't all small, drab and brown. Nevetheless, the 'little brown jobs' of the moth world did not go unrepresented!
It's great to get up close and personal with some of the creatures that you wouldn't otherwise see, but you don't always have to be out at night to see moths - some of them come out in the daytime too. Yesterday a hummingbird hawkmoth visited us in the centre and on our 'wildlife walkabout' this morning we saw several cinnabar moths (and loads of their caterpillars) and a silver Y moth, joining their cousins, the butterflies, out in the sunshine. Plenty of butterflies were busy nectaring or searching for a mate around the trail today with lots of meadow browns and ringlets, both small and large skippers, red admirals and large whites seen. We didn't just look at insects though (or the lovely wildlflowers they were perched on) we did see a few birds too...
We briefly heard a reel from the grasshopper warbler who has been tantalising birders with the occasional burst of song and sporadic sightings over the last week. We've also started to see a few passage waders over the last few days with black-tailed godiwt, greenshank, green sandpiper and wood sandpiper joining the little ringed plovers and lapwings who have been here all season. The best place to look out for the waders is Hanger view - you need the elevation there as they do have a tendency to hide in the ditches and behind the vegetation! Our best bird of the day was the hobby - we saw two hobbies hunting over the north brooks this morning, both gliding high above the skyline and dashing low just skimming the top of the grass. One of them flew directly towards us at the viewpoint before turning upwards giving the whole group a close up view of those rusty-red breeches - marvellous!
If you're more familiar with Pulborough Brooks during the daytime and would like to see it in a new light (ouch-sorry!) we've got a couple more 'night creatures' events coming up over the next month or so. (Our new events programme with all the details is now available in the visitor centre). If you can't make one of these events, its always worth coming and having a chat with me when you're next here - you never know I may just have some moths in pots 'chilling out' in the fridge. Don't worry this just keeps them calm so they can be identified, recorded and then released again - somehwere out of view of that crafty pied wagtail!