Squacco Heron

Popped down to Par near St Austell in Cornwall yesterday to see the Squacco Heron that's busy stuffing its face on a small fishing pool. Another lifer for me, for which I happily (but I must admit slightly reluctantly) put off a visit to Martin Down to look for (amongst other stuff) rare plants. I wasn't expecting to be 'bowled over' by the bird, after all it was just  going to be a brownish Egret. How wrong was I?! It was very sexy indeed! I
hadn't realised just how colourful they can be. It was also very close, in trees on a small island not much more than 50ft away. It showed superbly, preening and clambering about in the branches, it also made a couple of brief visits to the ground. It was tricky getting any photos without branches in the way, but on the plus side the dappled lighting amongst the branches made for some artistic looking shots.

The bird was in the trees on the island to the left of the photo.

Squacco Heron

On Friday night we had three more new moths for the garden, namely White Ermine, Eyed Hawkmoth and Orange Footman. I didn't manage to get photos of the stunning Eyed Hawkmoth because due to the warm weather I had left the kitchen door wide open when I got it out to take the photo. Big mistake! Doh! Fortunately it made it into a nearby tree before any birds spotted it. I took snaps of the other two and also of a Green Carpet (because it was the first actually green one we've had) and a Buff Tip (because they're so cool).

White Ermine

Orange Footman

Green Carpet

Buff Tip

I saw this immature Scarce Chaser today at Lower Bruckland Ponds.