An empty moth trap

I put my skinner moth trap out last Thursday evening and it didn't take long to empty the following morning as there were no moths at all! The temperature ranged from 9.7 - 5.8 degrees centigrade so there hadn't been frost and it wasn't that cold. I'll carry on trapping for another couple of weeks and then put the trap away for the winter.

Garden Update

Nearly all the pyracantha and whitebeam berries have now been eaten by wood pigeons and blackbirds. Last week's submission to the BTO Garden Birdwatch:
2 x Carrion Crow
2 x Blackbird
2 x Goldfinch
3 x Feral Pigeon
2 x Dunnock
6 x House Sparrow
2 x Great Spotted Woodpecker
1 x Robin
1 x Wood Pigeon
1 x Coal Tit
1 x Great Tit
1 x Long-tailed Tit
3 x Blue Tit
1 x Wren
1 x Sparrowhawk
1 x Greenfinch
1 x Magpie

is fairly typical of birds visiting the garden at the moment. It would be nice to see something different even a collared dove (where have they disappeared to?) or thrush. No signs of any butterflies - the last sighting was a small white on 21st September! Where are those red admirals that usually visit the michaelmas daisies at this time of the year?

Waxwings

Great news - the waxwings have returned - I know of 2 separate sightings in Warwickshire over the last couple of days. I shall be checking out every berry bearing bush from now on and will be visiting a nearby business park quite regularly which has loads of trees and shrubs with berries in the hope of finding my very own waxwings.

A few photos to finish with. I want to check I have solved the text and image problem I have been having. I haven't got any recent photos of the garden so I have picked these as a reminder of summer. They were actually taken by my son on the Fuji Finepix and I am very jealous as they are a darn sight better than the butterfly photos I took this year with my new olympus! They are uncropped as well!

Common Blue at Hidcote



Painted Lady at Baddesley Clinton



Meadow Brown



Gatekeeper