Patching, Bioblitzing, and mothing - Early July

 Today's visit to the patch, with Dave able to join me, was the culmination of a few days of nature watching. Cloudy, with the odd shower and rather muggy, it was too quiet. Our 42 species beat the Bioblitz total (actually I don't know the final score so it probably doesn't) but contained rather less quality. Six or seven Green Sandpipers hid behind rushes at the deep end of the nearest flash, while Teal numbers had risen to four.

It fell to a dragonfly and a moth to attempt a mini rescue, as our first Southern Hawker and Blood-vein of the year allowed themselves to be photographed.

Southern Hawker

Blood-vein

So what's a Bioblitz when its at home? Well on Friday evening and Saturday the Heart of England Forest (HOEF) had organised various "events", each one hosted by an HOEF volunteer or staff member. I chose to join the bird walk in the morning and a dragonfly hunt in the afternoon. I could have picked moths, bird-ringing, mammals, reptiles, or plants. Maybe next year.

The venues were Middle Spernall and Alne Wood.

The bird walk was led from Middle Spernall by Sam McVie and the ranger Aaron. A pleasant surprise for me was the presence of a pair of Yellowhammers on telephone wires above the car-park. As they have gone from Morton Bagot I had not expected them at Middle Spernall just a mile up the road.

The male Yellowhammer

Early July is a typical time for a Bioblitz because of all the flowering plants and insects on offer. It's not so good for birds, coming in the lull between spring and autumn. Nevertheless there was plenty of interest. A Grey Wagtail flew over, and Common Swift numbers built to between 20 and 30 by the end of the morning. There were just enough warblers still singing to keep the punters happy, and these included several Willow Warblers (a species not yet regular on territory at Morton Bagot), and a singing Grasshopper Warbler. The latter seemed likely to remain unseen and the majority of the party had moved off when I spotted a small brown bird fly across the grassland and perch in a distant hawthorn. Through binoculars it could have been anything, but the power of my P900 allowed me to confirm that it was indeed the Grasshopper Warbler.

Grasshopper Warbler

Oddly, this was not the best bird we saw. That was saved for the afternoon when volunteer Alan was leading a group of would-be dragonfly spotters around. We were back at the pool where the now silent Grasshopper Warbler had been singing, and the dragonfly list was being assembled a little too slowly. I drifted away from the main group and disturbed a Robin-like bird from a bush. It shivered its tail and I knew it would be a Redstart. As it took flight I got a clear view of its orange tail and bellowed "Redstart" at the top of my voice. Sam came running just in time to see the bird fly to the left out of sight, but apparently also across the pool in front of the dragonfly spotters.

Getting back on message, I saw most of the dragonflies which had braved the rather gloomy weather. Damselflies comprised the majority of the species seen, while the Emperor and Black-tailed Skimmer seen refused to settle or come close. Fortunately a few immature Ruddy Darters did allow close examination.

Ruddy Darter

As the bulk of the party had to depart to be in time to start a guided butterfly walk, Alan and I sloped off to see what else we could find. In the end there were no more dragonfly species, but I did come across a nice day-flying moth, namely a Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet. 

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet

Turning finally to moths, and going still further back in time, I put my garden moth trap out on Wednesday night. The result was a somewhat chaotic Thursday ultimately containing 73 moths of 30 species. Twelve of them were new for the year. This is the full list:

Green Pug 1      Elephant Hawk-moth 1    Brimstone Moth 1    Timothy Tortrix 1 (nfy)    

Crambus pascuella 17    Garden Grass-veneer 8    Common Footman 2    Lozotaenia forsterana 1 (nfy)    

Phycita roborella 1 (nfy)    Codling Moth 4    Red-barred Tortrix 1    Scoparia ambigualis 1 (nfy)

Celypha lacunana 1 (nfy)    Aleimma loefligiana 2 (nfy)    Carcina quercana 1 (nfy)    Marbled Orchard Tortrix 1    Riband Wave 1    Blotched Emerald 1 (nfy)    Buff-tip 2    Coronet 1    Uncertain 7    

Ingrailed Clay 1 (nfy)    Heart and Club 1    Vine's Rustic 1    Garden Carpet 1    Flame 1 (nfy)    

Heart and Dart 9    Large Yellow Underwing 1    Variegated Golden Tortrix 1 (nfy)     Pammene fasciana 1 (nfy).

Moth trapping is fun, but getting up at 04.00 to protect the moths from discovery by hungry garden birds takes its toll on your sleep patterns.