Friday October 20

A dull, cloudy morning with a few light showers and a light westerly breeze.

Given that this is a Hawfinch-winter, and bearing in mind that the last one, 2005/2006, produced up to five through the winter including one visible from our garden, I clearly needed to go out looking for them.

So with my focus firmly on birds, the first beastie to appear was naturally a moth. In fact it was a moth I had never seen before, although with my limited moth list this is not a particular surprise.

Red-green Carpet

The moth in question fluttered past me as I entered the suburb of Winyates Green, and unexpectedly landed at the top of a fence. The light was terrible and the rain started to fall, but I managed to get an image of it, a Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata. Quite a common moth I believe, but one of the few still on the wing in late autumn.

The mild weather also allowed me to see a Hornet, but as the sun refused to shine, I soon reverted to the original plan of looking for birds. The woodland at Ipsley Alders contained a couple of tit/crest flocks, but all the crests were Goldcrests (as ever), and the one phylloscopus warbler I chanced upon turned out to be a Chiffchaff.

As I emerged from the woodland I found several flocks of Redwings heading south, the total of birds was at least 44, and with them came eight Chaffinches, and three Fieldfares. The latter are in bold type because they were a patch year-tick as I had failed to see any last winter.

So no Hawfinches, but I remain optimistic.