April 21st. Easter Monday.

Migrants continued to appear, with more Whitethroats and Willow Warblers in evidence, a Wheatear and a Cuckoo in the forestry, at least 4 Tree Pipits and 6 Yellow Wagtails heading east overhead and 2 Marsh Harriers east out at sea. A near-miss came in the form of a Hoopoe which spent the day on lawns within 100m of the patch boundary.........

The only plants new in flower today were a Columbine by the coast path and a small stand of Thale Cress at the stat of the Holmhurst Track. Patch highlights today were undoubtedly the moths, with Yellow Barred Brindle, Shuttle-shaped Dart and Sulphur Tubic the best in my own trap and Chocolate Tip, Pebble Prominent, Chinese Character, Cinnabar, Water Carpet, Small Waved Umber, Grey Pine Carpet, Nutmeg, Powdered Quaker and Flame Shoulder amongst others in the NOA traps. A Hawthorn Shieldbug was on Alexanders down the Holmhurst track late afternoon - the fourth Shieldbug for the weekend and the sixth for the patch this year. A Bee-fly down the same track struck a very strange pose - presumably in an attempt to catch as many rays of  the dying sun as possible.

Yellow-barred Brindle, Hunstanton, 21st April 2014

Sulphur Tubic,  Hunstanton, 21st April 2014

Common Carder Bumblebee, Holme NWT, 21st April 2014

Small Waved Umber, Holme NOA, 21st April 2014

Water Carpet, Holme NOA, 21st April 2014

Hawthorn Shieldbug, Holmhurst Track, 21st April 2014

Dark-edged Bee-fly, Holmhurst Track, 21st April 2014

 Dark-edged Bee-fly, Holmhurst Track, 21st April 2014

Hoopoe, Thornham, 21st April 2014 (out of patch)