Two dodgy characters around this last week, the first a very striking moth caught on Thursday night which had me scratching my head as it didn’t initially appear to match any moths in the book. It eventually dawned on me that it was in fact the common, widespread species that is the Hebrew character. This specimen lacks the typical forewing mark in the shape of the Hebrew letter Nun, hence the species name.
Normal(ish) Hebrew character on left and dodgy character on right
In other news, summer migrants continue to arrive with pied flycatcher, redstart, tree pipit and blackcap now present in good numbers. The first cuckoo was heard on the moorland edge on the 19th April while conducting the first black grouse survey of the year along with a wintering great grey shrike along the edge of the Dyfnant Forest. Unfortunately for us the black grouse are best surveyed around an hour before dawn which has meant we have been starting at 3.30am this week, however it is strangely enjoyable walking around the moors in the darkness watching the sun come up!
View during early morning black grouse survey by Gavin Chambers
The first wood warblers and common sandpipers have returned, both on the 20th April, and we have still been seeing some unusual/scarce birds passing through the reserve. There were a couple of osprey sightings on the 11th, about 2 hours apart (could have been the same bird). A couple of greylag geese on the 12th was a nice surprise and my first on the reserve, a little egret spent the day near the boathouse on the 18th and an oystercatcher spent the day on the dam on the 20th. A great grey shrike is still lingering along the Bala road at Fedw-ddu, last seen on the 24th.
The second dodgy character was spotted by some eagle eyed visitors and our membership officer, Andrew, from the Coed y Capel hide. Andrew rushed up to the office to let us know about this strange coloured finch that in general looked like a siskin but was more golden in colour. So I rushed back down with him and there it was, a rather orange/gold coloured siskin feeding among more typical looking birds. It seems likely to be a genetic pigment issue which has caused the orange colour to develop, with a lack of pigment in birds and other animals being quite a frequent occurrence though always fascinating to observe.
Siskin by visitor Mark Mansell
Why not pop into the hide and see if you can pick him out of the crowd!
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