My lift to work was ten minutes later this morning so I stepped into Denburn Wood to wait. There was much less song compared to last week – perhaps the colder weather and also some of the blackcaps moving on. I spotted a pied flycatcher on the edge of the Kirkyard and the wood – probably a migrant brought down by the bad weather of Wednesday. It was probably a young male – mostly brown still but with black wings. Some males don’t start breeding until their second year, but why they migrate to Europe rather than stay in Africa if they are not going to breed is strange. They may wander looking for good breeding sites for the following year.
This evening I found a dead hummingbird hawk moth in my front porch. It was mummified and so still in good condition. There were a few hovering around my back garden last summer – they migrate up as far as Scotland in warm years – and this one must have tried to overwinter here.
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