Make Mine a Mocha

More overnight easterly winds promised more migrant moths, despite a rather cold night. The trap did not disappoint with a rush veneer and much rarer a Blair's mocha. Both species are pretty small and look as though they would be weak fliers, but they make long distance flights all the same. The Blair's mocha is below, not a spectacular species, although this one shows little signs of wear despite presumably having flown a long way.
Also in the trap was a scarce umber, the first of the season. In all species males tend to be more common at light than females, but in this case it is only ever males that come as the females are flightless.

The black tern that was first seen on Sunday was again present over Ibsley Water and the great white egret was also about again today. On Ivy Lake a mandarin drake was of interest partly because it was not one of the four that were around last week. At the end of the day a dunlin, a green sandpiper and a variety of gulls were on Ibsley Water. These gulls included at least 4 common gull, 4 yellow-legged gull and most interesting of all a second winter Caspian gull. I did get a poor, long-range picture of the last. It is just about possible to make out the rather small, round, white head, long bill and overall different shape of the bird.