Moth are one interest that you can carry out throughout the year. Although the numbers fall off in winter there are also specialities which we have recently trapped such as Pale November Moth and Winter Moth. 


There are always birds to be found so to test our fitness, we headed up and up on Thursday into Munro territory, After a bit of a struggle we found a pleasing 12 Ptarmigan. Their plumage is heading towards the winter plumage with the grey Autumn plumage still partly present. Like this male in the picture they were calling quite a lot, in fact the calling helped locate the feeding party of seven and the loafing party of five.

There have been a few highlights on the migration front over the past week or so.
 At the end of October there were Woodcock and Sparrowhawk flying in off the sea along the East coast, and even a Dusky Warbler found. The numbers of geese have been climbing, although there has been little good weather to photograph them at dawn or dusk. The Whooper Swans have started arriving, and just a couple of days ago a Firecrest took up residence in a coastal garden (see opposite). 
Amazingly there are still Red Admirals flying around.
Will we be getting Waxwings this year?