Sunday June 27 - Almost normal

 The only fly in this morning's ointment was that I was not quite able to leave the house at the normal time, whereas Dave would be unable to stay beyond late morning. The upshot was that I visited the patch alone. 

But yes, I'm back at Morton Bagot. What a relief. Late June on a cloudy breezy morning shouldn't feel this good. There was plenty of catching up to do. A few Ringlet butterflies ignored the grey skies, and were the forerunners of a decent crop of butterflies.

The main surprise was the appearance of two young buck Fallow Deers enticed down from the wooded hillside by the fresh green shoots on offer, courtesy of HOEF's forestry planting.

Fallow Deer

This species is the least common of the three deer varieties to occur here, and this was my best ever view.

The grass has put on a spurt since I my last visit, and in places is shoulder height. All the usual warblers are still present, but song is diminishing. However, the presence of recently fledged juveniles (I suspect), made one Lesser Whitethroat particularly bold and much more showy than they usually are. It "teck"-ed angrily at me allowing a couple of shots before I left it in peace.

Lesser Whitethroat

Reaching the first flash I was greeted by a marvellous sight. Mud. Well a decent edge anyway.

It's still June so expectations were low, but nevertheless they were amply met by the presence of three Green Sandpipers.

Green Sandpiper

If you want to photograph waders, don't come here. Every possible viewing spot is screened by vegetation, either tall grass or low hanging branches (or both). I always leave with the uneasy feeling that some undiscovered wader is lurking out of sight.

As well as the Green Sandpipers I counted 31 Mallard, a female Teal, and eight Lapwings.

As the temperature rose, the insects came out to play. Nothing unexpected, but plenty of camera fodder.

 Azure Damselfly,, Large Skipper and some ...er flies.

Common Blue Damselfly

A male Small Skipper

My first Small Skipper looked fresh out and was probably among the first in the county this season. On the other hand the Meadow Browns, and Marbled Whites had no doubt been on the wing for several days.

I thought I'd tuck the moth stuff away at the end of this post. I had the trap out on Friday night and caught 48 moths of 19 species. It gets no easier, and I blundered my way through several tricky identifications before getting to the right answers. The ones that needed the most internet/county recorder assistance were a worn Heart and Club, and this Pine Carpet.

Pine Carpet

My mistake was to ignore the fact that it looked like a Pine Carpet, and instead be swayed by the books implying they didn't emerge until the end of July and that a more likely candidate was the highly variable Grey Pine Carpet. Not variable enough it seems.

The full list was:

Coronet 1    Peppered Moth 2    Heart and Dart 14    Poplar Grey (nfy) 1    Uncertain 4    

Crambus pascuella 2    Pine Carpet (nfy) 1    Garden Grass-veneer 7    Common Footman 1

Dark Arches 2    Willow Beauty (nfy) 1    Riband Wave (nfy) 1    Buff Ermine 1

Marbled Minor ag 1    Small Magpie (nfy) 1    Celypha striana (nfy) 1    Heart and Club (nfy) 2

Large Yellow Underwing (nfy) 1    Garden Carpet 1

The moth season is afoot.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

 Things are not normal at present. Lyn is slowly improving her balance and confidence following unexpected back pain a few days before the Red-backed Shrike was found. In the meantime I have largely been housebound, doing all I can to facilitate her recovery.

So there have been no Morton Bagot visits aside from an hour last week sitting in a chair at Netherstead with Tony, watching his mist nets catch absolutely no birds.

However, the ringers have supplied me with one item for this blog. 

Back on January 3 2020, just before anyone had even heard of Covid19, they caught a first-winter male Blackbird at Netherstead. Scroll forward to March 14 2021, that same Blackbird was pulled out of a mist-net at Ithala, Raiso, Turku-Pori, FINLAND. Here is a map to show its journey.

So this bird probably spent the summer of 2020 in Finland or maybe further east, before wintering again somewhere in western Europe (maybe the UK) and then returning to Finland where it was caught in mid March 2021 en-route to it final destination. The exact details can never be known but the two points on the map above are certain. Think about this next winter when you are watching the local Blackbirds hopping around your garden, they may not have come from next door but one.

Speaking of birds from far away, our predicament has coincided with some pretty extraordinary local rarities. A Blyth's Reed Warbler (perhaps from Russia) has taken up residence by the river Tame in Staffordshire. I would love to go and see it, but its a two hour walk (there and back) from Middleton RSPB. So even if I saw it immediately I would have been out of the house for a whole morning, and at present that is not possible. 

Closer to home, and almost as rare, a Melodious Warbler was found on the Lickey Hills on Saturday. At the time of its discovery, it too was out of range. There was no news next day and I assumed it had gone. But yesterday it reappeared. Lyn had made progress, and I had a two hour slot. I went for it.

The first hour was spent getting there and wandering around in roughly the area I imagined it to be. I had given up and was heading back when I met a couple of purposefully striding birders. One was Clive Lee, and he knew where it had been seen. It turned out I had been about 200 yards from where I should have been, and the bird was still there and singing strongly.

I quickly saw it really well, got the camera pointed, zoomed in and...it dropped out of sight. Sorry, you'll have to put up with a short recording of its song with the camera in video-mode.

Rather gallingly I eventually relocated the bird on a birch further into the foliage. I could see it clearly, but the camera couldn't cope with foreground leaves and all I got was a blurred image (which I won't be sharing).

I am hopeful that things will be back to normal (our normal) by the weekend.

Monday June 14 - still mothing

I probably missed a trick by not putting the trap out on a very warm Sunday night, settling instead for a still fairly balmy (nine degrees C), Monday evening.

The result was a modest 27 moths of 15 species, but it did include a garden tick in the rather spectacular Small Elephant Hawk-moth. Almost too gaudy.

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

The full list was:

Coleophora ag 1    Bryotropha terrella 2 (nfy)   White-shouldered House Moth 1 (nfy)    

Ruddy Streak 1    Crambus pascuella 1 (nfy)    Light Brown Apple Moth 1       

Codling Moth 1    Small Elephant Hawk-moth 1 (nfg)    Clouded Silver 1 (nfy)    Puss Moth 1 (nfy)

Buff-tip 1    Marbled Minor ag 1    Heart and Dart 12    Treble Lines 1    Double Square-spot 1 (nfy)

Sunday June 13 - housebound

 Since Red-backed Shrike day I've been housebound. Lyn's back is stubbornly refusing to heal and I'm needed at home. But I'm counting my blessings. For a start I actually saw the Shrike, which is more than the birders who sacrificed their afternoons to try to do likewise could say. I'm very sorry it could not be found again.

Also, I have moths to fall back on. I put the trap out on Friday night for the GMS, and caught 43 moths of 17 species in the end. There was nothing new for the garden this time, but new for the year were Buff-tip, Marbled Minor ag, Clothes-moth ag (even they are welcome), Alder Moth, Water Veneer, and Spotted Shoot Moth.

There's also the football, and while I was watching Belgium v Russia yesterday evening I recorded a new bird for the garden. It helped that the species in question is very loud. Half way through the second half I could hear a parrot. My neighbour keeps Cockatiels, but it wasn't their shrill whistles. It was a lot more arresting and caused me to abandon the game and go into the back garden, where as I suspected a Ring-necked Parakeet was squawking. It wasn't particularly close, and after running around gathering binoculars and camera I found it sitting in the top of a tree about four gardens away. 

I did try to photograph it, but it wasn't going to co-operate. After my initial sighter in which I photographed the tree and hoped the bird was in view, the zooming in moment found me staring at a Parakeet-less branch. Taunting quips coming from the direction of Matchborough, told me which way the bird had gone.

Oh well, here it is anyway.

Roughly mid-shot, head hidden by a branch.

Hopefully it will return and I'll get a second chance.

Meanwhile, Dave was birding at Morton Bagot today. He scored with a Barn Owl; ever present, but seldom seen, and counted five Lesser Whitethroats and a singing Reed Warbler. The first Large Skipper  butterflies are on the wing.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I may be able to get out by next weekend.

Wednesday June 9 - Red-backed Shrike

 Mike Lane found a Red-backed Shrike in a weedy field behind the old pool at 08.30 this morning.

Lyn has hurt her back so I am having trouble getting to see it. A brief search at 10.15 was fruitless.

OK, I've calmed down now. After returning home to help Lyn with some vital transfers (don't ask), I was able to get back to the patch by 11.20. Dave had beaten me there, and we started rechecking the hedgerows around the weedy field. We split up, Dave heading across the field and me following the Morton Brook. At about 11.45 I noticed a brown bird of about the right size and shape flying across the field and disappearing behind bushes on the top of the ridge. I wasn't certain it was anything, but was optimistic enough to walk into the field whilst trying to text Dave who was out of sight.

At this point I got a call from Dave. He had also seen the bird fly across the field and was now watching it. As I walked towards him I followed his line of sight and spotted the bird. It was quite distant and there was a heat haze...hence dodgy record shots.

Red-backed Shrike

Shortly after I took the above shot I looked up and it had gone. Dave was scoping in the opposite direction, but when I joined him he too had lost it. I then relocated it for one final time on the hedge bordering the old pool, but it soon disappeared again.

I had to get home, so was only able to give the first arriving twitchers vague directions. It looks like it could be tricky to pin down.

Mike has sent me a tidied up photo of the bird from this morning. He had been trying to photograph Kestrels (I'm guessing) from a photographic hide when the Red-backed Shrike appeared instead.

Female Red-backed Shrike - per Mike Lane

Sometimes dreams come true.

Monday June 7 - moth confusion

 It's now Tuesday June 8 and I just finished sorting out last night's moths. In case you're wondering, I have deliberately titled this post for Monday because that's when the trap went out, so that's the date the moths are recorded as being present. I haven't lost it completely. 

Or perhaps I have, because I made a right mess of trying to get fellow moth-ers to verify some of my more confusing moths. In particular a rather unexciting moth resting on the door of the downstairs loo. (I should explain that I haul the trap into the utility room before dawn and then return to bed for a couple of hours. By the time I return several have always escaped and are awaiting recapture). Anyway, the moth shown looked rather like a moth called, appropriately enough, the Uncertain. But it was a bit early in the year for them to be flying about, only a couple of weeks, but enough. Exhibit A below, taken on the toilet door.

Exhibit A

When I started going through the trap I found a couple of Vine's Rustics, they are similar to Uncertains, but are paler and greyer. It is also right in the middle of their normal flight period. On rephotographing the "Uncertain" in better light I noticed it looked paler, more Vine's Rustic-like. I give you Exhibit B.

Exhibit B

I had a plan. I would Tweet the two images of the Uncertain/Vine's Rustic to @UkMothidentification for his opinion, making it clear they were two images of the same moth. What could possibly go wrong?

The answer is that I Tweeted images of two different moths and stated they were the same moth. The interloper was one of the definite Vine's Rustics, Exhibit C.

Exhibit C

I don't know what the experts thought on viewing the two images (Exhibits A and C), but the answer I got back was Vine's Rustic. 

I actually only caught 20 moths, but the last of those (discovered several hours later) was new for the garden. The Cypress Tip Moth Argyresthia cupressella is tiny, but to my relief is identifiable from photographs.

Cypress Tip Moth

This moth is actually adventive. This means it is a foreign species co-opted onto the British list after escaping from imported plants and then spreading in the wild. It's real home is North America.

The full list was:

Cypress Tip Moth 1 (nfg),   Coleophora ag 2 (nfy),    Light Brown Apple Moth 3,     Codling Moth 2 (nfy),  Common Pug 1,    Ochreous Pug 1,    Common Marbled Carpet 1,    Orange Footman 2 (nfy),

Vine's Rustic 3,     Treble Lines 1    Heart and Dart 3.

Friday night looks like being warm, which will mean lots of moths. How will I cope?

Sunday June 6

 I joined Dave for our usual Sunday morning stroll. Early June can produce the odd rarity, but overwhelmingly its like today, quiet. The weather was warm but largely cloudy, and as midday approached the rain started. Not ideal.

So let's get the birds out of the way first. Apart from poor views of one of the very few Lesser Whitethroats which have turned up this year, the highlight was a party of five angry Shelducks at the nearest flash.

This is probably the largest count of adult Shelducks to be seen here, and bodes well for the chances of at least one breeding attempt. I'm not really sure why Shelducks like Morton Bagot, but they certainly do. Another thing worth mentioning was that the Netherstead House Martin population has been boosted by some late arrivals, and now comprises at least eight birds.

Finally, the absence of Cuckoo from my patch list this year looked likely to be fixed when Dave called over to say that he'd heard a call. I hadn't heard it so we stopped to listen. No further sound was heard, and Dave started to doubt himself. The sound had been very distant and in the absence of anything further he erred on the side of caution. I understand that there has been a calling bird at Morgrove Coppice, so it seems highly likely that we've just been unlucky.

We did at least see a few insects before the rain started. 

Azure Damselfly

Large Red Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Nettle-tap Moth

All of the above are Morton Bagot regulars, and I imagine that one final moth in the grass was too. But I'd never seen a Hook-streak Grass-veneer Crambus lathoniellus before, so it qualifies as the morning's highlight.

Crambus lathoniellus

Morton Bagot suits grass moths, and as the summer enfolds we'll see plenty. But this species is the first to appear, and has evaded my notice until now.

Speaking of moths, I put the garden trap out on Friday and attracted 13 moths of 13 species. There was no repeat of the drama of the possible first for Warwickshire caught and released on Tuesday night before the Warwickshire recorder could assess it, but there were a few that were new for the year.

The full list was:

Mompha subbistrigella 1 (nfy), Ruddy Streak 1, Light Brown Apple Moth 1, Ochreous Pug 1, Tawny-barred Angle 1 (nfy), Common Marbled Carpet 1, Peppered Moth 1, Figure of Eighty 1, Light Emerald 1 (nfy), Spectacle 1 (nfy), Knot Grass 1, Treble Lines 1 (nfy), Pale Mottled Willow 1.

Tuesday June 1 - What if ?

There was an itch I had to scratch this morning. What if the Song Thrush which Dave and I heard on Sunday giving a couple of bars of Nightingale-like song was actually drowning out a real Nightingale which gave up the ghost upon realising it was practically midday, and it shouldn't have been singing anyway?

What if the bird Dave half glimpsed flying from a dead tree near where I saw a Mandarin a couple of years ago, was actually a Mandarin (notwithstanding that Dave had said it was too small to have been one of those)?

So I was in the field earlier than usual, hoping for the best. It was warm and sunny with a very light easterly, and it was worth it.

Not for any of the what ifs, but for a Hobby, my first this year, which flew past me as I headed from the church to the flash field. A few minutes later I spotted it again, now circling high in the sky. Cue dreadful record shot.

The hunter - a distant Hobby

So there was no possible Mandarin, no wished for Nightingale, and no Black Stork. Didn't I mention the Black Stork? On Sunday we were trying to keep the optimism levels high, running through the list of very rare birds that had been found in the West Midlands at the very end of May. I'm sure I postulated Black Stork as a possibility. The very next day one was reported over Coombe in Warwickshire, and half an hour later over Walsgrave heading south.

What if it suddenly appeared over Bannam's Wood? The mere thought that I could be sharing the county with a Black Stork was exciting. This sense of hope that the impossible might actually happen is why many birders get up in the morning, and it certainly drives me on.

The flash field was little changed; 20 Mallard, a female Teal, two Lapwings, and three Shelducks.

Back at the car I settled for further realistic sightings, a pair of Swallows are back on territory at Church Farm (at last), and the first fledged juvenile Goldfinch was accompanying its parents on wires. Surprisingly early in a year when everything is late.

Mr Swallow

Mrs Swallow

The proud parents watching over junior

As for insect, the trap goes out tonight. Expect moths.

I finished with 29 moths of 18 species; three were new for the garden (all micros), and one the first since 2018.

The new ones included the tiniest leaf-miner Stigmella ag. To get the species I'm afraid I'll have to have it examined by an expert under a microscope. I decided to call it Stigmella atricapitella, but that's a massive punt and it could be something else.

Stigmella atricapitella (possibly)

The other two new micros were very attractive little moths, although one of them Pammene trauniana has a more widespread lookalike which led me to worry I might also have to retain it as a specimen. Thankfully the image got the support of UKMothID and others so I let it go.

However, despite this endorsement it seems clear I should have kept the specimen for microscopic examination, so unless the Warks Moth Recorder says I can have it, I'm going to relegate it to Pammene trauniana/regiana. Nigel has been in touch and agrees it cannot be considered confirmed to species level, which is a pity because trauniana would have been a county first.

Pammene trauniana/regiana

The last one was Teleiodes luculella which looked pretty distinctive and is not especially rare.

Teleiodes luculella

Regarding the macros, the Sycamore was my first since my first season of moth-trapping in 2018, while three May Highflyers all looked quite different from one another and caused me no end of trouble. I was assisted by @UKMothID who talked me out of identifying any of them as the very similar Ruddy Highflyer.

Sycamore

The full list was:

Stigmella ag (atricapitella?) 1 (nfg)    Brown House Moth 1 (nfy)   Ruddy Streak 2    

 Teleiodes luculella 1 (nfg)    Pammene trauniana/regiana 1 (nfg)    Figure of Eighty 1 (nfy)    

May Highflyer 3 (nfy)    Common Marbled Carpet 2 (nfy)    Brindled/Oak-tree Pug 1

Muslin Moth 1    Sycamore 1 (nfy)    Knot-grass 1    Coronet 2 (nfy)    Pale Mottled Willow 2 (nfy)

Vine's Rustic 1    Rustic Shoulder-knot 1 (nfy)    Heart and Dart 3    Shuttle-shaped Dart 3

Flame Shoulder 1