More lockdown stuff - Tuesday Apr 7

The plan today was dawn till dusk birding from the garden. Well that was never going to work.

I started enthusiastically enough, pausing in the bathroom to scoop up a micro-moth, and I was "in the field" by 06.15. The field in question was the back patio, and my technique was to stand around and hope for the best.

The first hour wasn't too bad. Having failed to add a single new bird over the last few days of half-hearted effort, I was pleased to hear a distant Pheasant go "kok". It did it once more for good measure. By 07.00 I was about to go in for breakfast when a Jay flew by, and eventually perched up in a distant tree.

Jay

The Jay's intervention delayed my retreat long enough to benefit from a fly past of a Cormorant. I managed a shot of it (of sorts).

Cormorant (yes I know!)

Although there wasn't a breath of wind, the blue sky made it tough to see stuff. Most of the visible migrants recorded subsequently were thus invisible migrants (heard only). Two Meadow Pipits, a Redwing, that's it. I eventually reached 34 species for the day, and the lockdown list progressed as follows:

47. Pheasant
48. Cormorant

The day warmed up, but the raptor migration failed to materialise. Six Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk represents the local breeding population.

So inevitably, with birds in short supply, my eye started to wander to insects. Butterflies were very disappointing. A Peacock was not new, but this was:

2. Small Tortoiseshell

The Small Tortoiseshell just dashed by, as they tend to.

The problem with insects is that a lot of them are extremely hard to identify to species level, but I can't help trying.

That moth from the bathroom was probably a Case-bearing Clothes Moth, I decided. But I wasn't sure. I tweeted it out and got a response suggesting it might not be a clothes moth and suggesting I tried @UKMothID (or something). I did that, and was told it was .... a Case-bearing Clothes Moth.

Case-bearing Clothes Moth

During the afternoon I found another moth. It was floating in the bird bath. I fished it out and discovered its little legs were still kicking about.

The rescue

Amazingly, when I more or less scraped it onto the table, it revived and I decided it was a Brindled Pug somewhat the worse for wear.

Brindled Pug

It flew off, and is presumably now out there trying to convince a prospective mate that it is worth a second look.

Moth list:

6. Case-bearing Clothes Moth
7. Brindled Pug

The trap is out, and I am hoping for more moths tonight. I'll ramble on about today's other insects on a later occasion.