Gulls, gulls, gulls

I've been up north to Lancashire and Cumbria to help with some gull fieldwork. We're trying to work out what's happening to the declining populations of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Gull colony at Walney Island

Looking for nests

These ones are a bit young :o)

And so are these...

Walney Lighthouse

Ah! A gull that's the right size for ringing

Up in the hills

Feels odd to see 'seagulls' breeding on a moor top

Yes, we got rained on. A lot.

Gull #666...

photos taken with iPhone 4S

Mothage

Blotched Emerald

Bird's Wing

Rosy Footman

Privet Hawkmoth

Wednesday's moths

Meet the hawkmoths! Left to right: Pine, Elephant, Eyed and Poplar

True Lover's Knot

Green Silver-lines

Nice to catch a green moth

Peppered Moth

Shears

Full moth list follows, if you enjoy that kind of thing...

Monster from the deep

Spotted a Southern Hawker emerging from one of the ponds, and - very conveniently - its exuvia nearby. So now I've got a definite comparison with what I'm now confident are Emperor exuvia I collected a couple of summers ago.

Though the hawker looked well on the way to its maiden flight at lunchtime, it was still sitting there when I walked past after work...

Nice morning for my Breeding Bird Survey

A small dinosaur

Mouse in the bathroom...

Flowers before the rain

 

photos taken with iPhone 4S

Who lives in the roof?

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Suburban birds

I spent the Jubilee weekend and bank holidays at my parents' house while they were away enjoying themselves in France. Eventually it stopped raining and I did a bit of ringing...

Collared Dove

It's pretty difficult to catch Collared Doves in mist nets; being a bigger and faster-flying bird, they tend to bounce out easily or can wriggle their way to freedom. So I was lucky to get my hands on this male.

Male House Sparrow

Juvenile Starling

Adult male Starling

Goldfinch

Juvenile Dunnock

Moulting adult Blue Tit

Moths that burn, blush and... look like twigs

Getting out of bed not long after dawn is tiring. But I'm really enjoying going through the contents of the moth trap (I leave the bulb on overnight and get up early before the moths start flying away). I never quite know what's going to be in there...

My first-ever Chocolate-tip

The Herald

Eyed Hawkmoth

Burnished Brass

Maiden's Blush

Scorched Wing

Buff-tip

Treble Lines is making a bid for top spot, with 26 trapped overnight.

also

• Angle Shades
• Buff-tip
• Burnished Brass
• Chocolate-tip
• Cinnabar
• Common Carpet
• Common Swift, 6
• Cream-bordered Green Pea (no photo, sorry)
• Eyed Hawkmoth, 2
• Figure of 80
• Flame Shoulder
• Green Carpet
• Heart & Dart
• Herald
• Large Nutmeg
• Lesser Swallow Prominent
• Light Brocade, 11
• Light Emerald
• Maiden's Blush
• Oak Hook-tip
• Orange Footman, 6
• Pale Oak Beauty
• Pale Prominent
• Pale Tussock
• Pebble Hook-tip
• Poplar Hawkmoth, 7
• Scorched Wing
• Setaceous Hebrew Character
• Shuttle-shaped Dart
• Silver Y, 5
• Spectacle
• White Ermine
• Willow Beauty

The charge of the Light Brocade

Meet the Pale Tussock

Check out the amazing furry legs!

Lime and Poplar Hawkmoths

White Ermine

Brimstone Moth

Coxcomb Prominent

Pale Prominent

Pebble Prominent

The Lychnis

The Miller

Orange Footman

Pebble Hook-tip

Treble Lines

Rustic Shoulder-knot

Look... I know it's a shocking post title, but I could not resist.

No large numbers of anything (not even Light Brocades), but nice diversity.

• Brimstone
• Cinnabar, 4
• Common Carpet
• Coxcomb Prominent
• Flame Shoulder, 4
• Green Carpet
• Light Brocade, 3
• Lime Hawkmoth
• Lime-speck Pug
• Lychnis
• Miller
• Muslin Moth
• Orange Footman, 2
• Pale Prominent, 3
• Pale Tussock 
• Pebble Hook-tip, 2
• Pebble Prominent, 2
• Peppered Moth
• Poplar Hawkmoth, 4
• Red/Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet
• Shuttle-shaped Dart, 2
• Spectacle
• White Ermine, 2