A Summer Evening Walk on the Downs

In the midst of the June doldrums I decided to spend an evening up on the downs as I particularly enjoy this habitat at this time of year. It was a beautiful evening and I thought that I would try my hand at some digiscoping of the downs residents but unfortunately I found myself shooting into the sun all the time and nothing came out that well. Despite not seeing anything particularly noteworthy, it's always pleasant to be up there at this time of year and I'm posting my rather poor photographic results anyway.

A rather blurry male Linnet
A whitethroat. This was directly into the sun though at close range. It's only after a lot of post processing that you can make anything out at all.
A distant corn bunting

I'm still diligently writing entries for Port Meadow Birding and in order to have something to write about at this time of year, I'm finding myself turning to butterflies and moths. I'm an absolute beginner with these insects but it's always nice to find something and then to go and look up what it is. I managed to find a new moth on the downs: the Snout, which turns out to be rather common but with so many species to look through to find the one that you've just seen it's always a great triumph actually to identify something!

The Snout moth - a rather out of focus shot in near darkness but at least showing it on its favoured foodstuff the nettle.

So no new ticks but it's always pleasant to get out there at this time of year. There are a couple of county ticks to report from a while back

Oxon County Year List 2009
163 turtle dove 19/05/2009 Otmoor
164 spotted flycatcher 20/05/2009 Christmas Common