Here comes the cold and wind and darkness.

The season is drawing in. Since my return from south it's become very noticeable, the air cooling quickly when the Sun disappears, the breeze picking up unexpectedly and of course the dark. On the plus side there's some bird migration going on with Chaffinch and Brambling being regular visitors under the feeders, a Goldcrest and the hope of something interesting from the east.

Brambling.

Goldcrest.

Last night's large thrush movement passed us by and there were relatively few Redwings here today, just 15 counted.

I've been seeing more interesting crows, with a couple of hybrids, one of which was partially leucistic, and today there was a Carrion Crow at Loch of Bosquoy.

Pale, hybrid crow.

Note the black feathers in both the upper and lower tail coverts and the larger dark centres to the feathers of the mantle and back. In the field this bird looked a shade darker from the accompanying Hoodies, lacking that lovely pinky-grey of a true Hoodie.

Semi-leucistic hybrid crow with Rooks.

This odd bird was briefly in the rookery and not seen again, which indicates, perhaps, that my crow counts are lower than the actual numbers. Again it has quite a dark mantle and back.

Crow, likely a hybrid Carrion/Hoodie.

The lack of a rare migrant bird, despite an extended visit today to Loch of Bosquoy and regular mooching around the garden, was completely made up for by a great bit of mothing.

Three traps out, four moths only but they were all quality with two Red-green Carpets (and another tonight), a Red-Sword-grass and NFS and NFM I think, Rusty-dot Pearl.

Red-green Carpet.

Red Sword-grass, one of my favourite moth species.

Rusty-dot Pearl, Udea ferrugalis.

R-dP is a rare thing in Scotland in recent years, it appears there have been just four or five since 2016. https://www.eastscotland-butterflies.org.uk/sm_Crambidae.html

I caught a few other bits and bats as well, not moths, which may prove to be of interest, I'd better get the microscope fired up tomorrow (after the house painting session which is my main job at the moment).

My Ancylosis oblitella from back in September has been accepted by the county recorder, I'm pretty sure it is new for Scotland as well.