The first young Sparrowhawk trapped this season needn't have given us its best death stare: by the look of the carnage on the ground close by it'd just cleared up the best part of a Wood Pigeon for breakfast! © Martin Cade:
We were surprised to find a fresh Four Spotted in one of the moth-traps this morning - over a week since the last one was caught. We've logged the highest ever annual total in the traps this year, including a remarkable 32 on one night alone (not so long ago annual totals didn't even reach that level), so it seems this iconic Portland macro-moth is thriving right now...
...The larval foodplant is Field Bindweed and it's tempting to put the increase in numbers down to the proliferation in bindweed in our Crown Estate Field where, quite by accident, it's now abundant beside the footpaths and net-lanes amongst the stewardship crops - in bygone times when this field was variously planted with commercial crops or heavily grazed bindweed would presumably have been less of a feature © Martin Cade:
Strong showings from several of the local speciality butterflies continue to be reported, with Chalkhill Blues and Graylings both very numerous in their usual haunts around the top and edges of the island © Roy Norris:
