Tuesday April 14 - Lockdown struggles

I knew this day would come, the signs were there last week. Yes I've hit the wall. The birding ticks have dried up.

After a slightly promising start on Saturday while I was counting my bumper crop of moths, recording a Peregrine and a Great Spotted Woodpecker, it all went pear-shaped. The warm weather slipped away, to be replaced by a brisk north-easterly and I retired indoors to a couple of days of old films and box-sets.

On Tuesday morning I emerged just after dawn for my official bird-watching day, and sat around all morning for a total of 30 species, none of them new. The best of the rest were a couple of early morning Redwings heading north-east, and a Herring Gull (only my second since lock-down).

Goldfinch

After Sunday the breeze dropped and the days were a bit warmer. Nevertheless it took until Tuesday to finally add a new butterfly to the lock-down list: a Large White.

April 14

5. Large White

As for moths, not much better I'm afraid. On the night of 14/15 April I caught just four moths as the temperature dropped to two degrees. They were a very worn Brindled Pug, a worn Chestnut, a Small Quaker, and a Common Quaker.

Chestnut

April 14

16. Chestnut

On Monday Lyn and I were sitting out as the day warmed a bit, and were rewarded with a second appearance of the Wood House Mouse from behind the shed. I say Wood Mouse, I'm a bit concerned about its greyness. It could be a House Mouse. More research required. There was some difference of opinion among experts, but the mammal recorder has said it was a House Mouse.

House Mouse

I have of course been dabbling in other things I know nothing about.

Among last weeks catch of moths were two Caddis-flies. I have previously learnt that the big orange ones cannot be safely identified from photographs, but I did have a go at the smaller, patterned one. This has been confirmed as Brachycentrus subnubilis.

I don't know anything about the species, except that I got an irecord alert saying it was out of the expected range for the species, followed by a confirmation from an expert that it was one. They seem to be found in Leicestershire, so I suspect they are just under-recorded and not rare.

Eventually I started photographing solitary bees, despite telling myself not to bother. The following are, I think, Gooden's Nomad Bee, Chocolate Mining Bee, and Bronze Furrow Bee. PS thanks to Des J for urging caution on the identification of the Nomad Bee in particular.

Gooden's Nomad Bee

Chocolate Mining Bee

Bronze Furrow Bee

Unfortunately the zoom on my P900 does not seem to be as good as that of my old Canon Powershot,  so I may need to have a rethink. I have asked for help from experts, but the photos may not be sufficient to confirm the identifications.

However, and I am updating this ten days later, Matt Smith from BWARS has confirmed that all three identifications are correct.

Speaking of rethinks, if the next couple of days fail to produce any new birds, I may need to incorporate some lock-down strolling up the road to keep myself in the game.