June 1st
This morning the ‘Wildlife week’ dawn walk was well attended despite the drizzle. Once again it was great to see several youngsters present so keen to learn about Alderneys Wildlife. We saw a good variety of the more common Alderney resident breeding birds after taking in the dawn chorus from outside the bird Observatory. The group of 5 Whimbrel were again present on Longis Common, this group have been around for several weeks now and are likely first year non breeding birds. Of interest were several Common Terns that sporadically passed over Longis reserve coming from Longis Bay, each with a bill full of sand eels. The birds were clearly taking a short cut over land rather than returning to their breeding colony using the coastline.
Next (after a splendid breakfast roll prepared by AWT staff for the dawn walkers) was the moth trap emptying session. Four traps including the one from the Obs were taken to Essex Farm for examination by local expert David Wedd and Dr.George Mcgavin ,patron of the AWT, entomologist and BBC presenter. Another well attended session saw moths into three figures. These included no fewer than 14 Cream Spot Tiger moths and many new species for me. A bonus was a butterfly I have been looking for weeks ! Glandville fritillary.
Glandville Fritillery
Shark Moth
Dr.George Mcgavin (right) at the moth trapping session this morning.