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.
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| 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.
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| Mr Swallow |
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| Mrs Swallow |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Pammene trauniana/regiana |
The last one was Teleiodes luculella which looked pretty distinctive and is not especially rare.
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| 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.
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| Sycamore |
The full list was:
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