Night callers

Out on the Estate at Somerleyton last night I set up on the track by Wicker Well, a small shallow broad. There was a curious bird call beginning at dusk and going on until 11pm coming from the thick cover that almost completely surrounds the shallow water. Also heard from over a mile away upstream, a booming Bittern which is across the Waveney from arrival until around 10pm. These distractions made good a pretty slow moth night. The expected cloud cover never came so was cooler than I was expecting. 19 species totalled with 12 Frosted Green making that the second most common species by only a small margin to Common Quaker on the night. Orthosias were still in good number for the year with many in fresh condition. S. steinkellerniana showed again for the third successive estate moth night. Two new species for the year Grey shoulder-knot and Chocolate-tip, which was in the actinic with the only Twin-spotted Quaker, Powdered Quaker and 5 of the Frosted Green . As for the mysterious bird…. comments to birders were taking me down the crake route. The call for  spotted crake was similar but that species call was too slow compared to the WickerWell bird, which I discovered on only one website which listed 5 distinct call types for…. Water Rail. What I heard was the males nocturnal breeding call. Brian and I had heard this May last year at the bottom of Herringfleet Hills and wondered what it was. If interested check out the call at; www.wildsong.co.uk/rails.html. Other more familiar night callers were Tawny Owls, Fox and Muntjac. A Silver Water Beetle arrived at the trap I was based near, the second this season already, as saw one with Brian at Aldeby.

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