A Sitta

Over the past few days there have been a few birds that are a little out of the ordinary. Not rare, just not that frequent. Last Sunday a male Bullfinch flew high south along the Nene and a Chiffchaff was in the garden, on Tuesday a Tree Sparrow flew over the house calling (and it took me a few minutes to register that call I hear so rarely these days) and this morning the first Fieldfares and Redpoll of the autumn flew over.

So I nipped up Greenhill this morning to see what was about and came across a couple of Nuthatches slightly out of place around the horse paddocks. Otherwise just some Woodpigeons on the move and a few more winter thrushes.

Nuthatch Sitta europaea

Canon Powershot SX50 HS

Black Rustic

Black Rustic is not an uncommon moth in the autumn but for some reason this is only the second record in 11 years of recording in my garden. Quite striking with its velvety black colouring and subtle golden markings.

Black Rustic Aporophyla nigra

There were also a couple of migrant moths in the trap as well (Silver Y and Diamond-back Moth) and some late ones not normally associated with autumn (Common Wainscot and Heart & Dart). Here's the full list from last night:
0464 Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella) 1
1048 Garden Rose Tortrix (Acleris variegana) 1
1764 Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata) 3
2089 Heart & Dart (Agrotis exclamationis) 1
2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 2
2109 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) 3
2126 Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum) 6
2199 Common Wainscot (Mythimna pallens) 1
2232 Black Rustic (Aporophyla nigra) 1
2240 Blair's Shoulder-knot (Lithophane leautieri) 4
2245 Green-brindled Crecent (Allophyes oxyacanthae) ab. capucina 1
2267 Beaded Chestnut (Agrochola lychnidis) 14
2270 Lunar Underwing (Omphaloscelis lunosa) 2
2272 Barred Sallow (Xanthia aurago) 2
2306 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa) 1
2441 Silver Y (Autographa gamma)

Canon Powershot SX50 HS