Sunday August 15 - Waders and a rare moth

 A cloudy morning started slightly alarmingly when I discovered a grub living in a cocoon in my welly sock. I'm afraid it had to go. 

Dave and I set off to look for migrants, finding only the usual warblers (although these included a couple of Willow Warblers) and an impressive flock of 19 Long-tailed Tits before we met Paul walking from the direction of the flash field. He told us he had seen three Spotted Flycatchers in a hedge somewhere towards Bannams Wood, and that there were some waders on the nearest flash. Encouraging.

We hurried to the flash and could indeed see waders. Initially about four Green Sandpipers, but on reaching the main watchpoint I spotted something different. We made a tentative identification (I had left my tripod in the car), before moving to a position where we could confirm the presence of the first Greenshank of the year.

Greenshank

It remained at the far edge of the flash before deciding to head to the furthest flash where it could render itself invisible. At least 12 Lapwings, 12 Teal, and a few Mallard were also present along with a Kingfisher which made a brief appearance.

We failed to locate any flycatchers on the way back, but at least a Southern Hawker was posing on a fence post.

Southern Hawker

Anyway, as promised in the title of this post, I have also seen a rare moth. On Friday night the air temperature dropped no lower than 14 degrees, and as a result there were a lot of moths waiting for me in and around my garden trap on Saturday morning.

The exciting one was sitting quietly, cryptically, on one of our concrete fence posts. Spotting it was the hard part, identifying it fairly straightforward. I had a pretty good idea it was a Tree-lichen Beauty before checking my field guide. Unlike many moths, it is very distinctive.

Tree-lichen Beauty hiding in plain sight

The books say that this is a southern species, once recorded only as a migrant to southern counties. But in the last few years they started breeding in the south-east and spreading north. The first for Warwickshire was in 2017, and there were another seven in the county in 2019. I don't have any more recent information. Although our garden is in Redditch (Worcestershire), moth recording is based around the vice-county system, which puts us in Warwickshire. I am not aware of any Worcestershire records for this species, but it seems likely they will be arriving there soon.

Among the 40 or so other species I recorded were several which were new for the year, and one extremely small dark one which may (or may not) be Aproaerema althyllidella new for the garden if correct. It is currently awaiting examination by an expert.

The full list (excluding the above) was:

Yponomeuta ag 3,    Blastobasis adustella 2,    Mompha propinquella 1 (nfy),    Ruddy Streak 1,    Brown House-moth 1,    Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix 2,    Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix 1 (nfy),    Acleris forsskaleana 1,    Eudemis profundana 1 (nfy),    Codling Moth 1,    Cydia splendana 7,    Bud Moth 1,    Light Brown Apple Moth 1,    Phycita roborella 2,    Euzophera pinguis 2,    Agriphila tristella  1,    Agriphila geniculea 2,    Pyrausta aurata 1,    Mother-of-Pearl 1,    Oak Hook-tip 1 (nfy),    Kitten sp 1 (nfy),    Double-striped Pug 1,    Lime-speck Pug 1 (nfy),    Brimstone Moth 3,    Yellow Shell 1,    Willow Beauty 1,    Dusky Thorn 4,    Knot Grass 1,    Tree-lichen Beauty 1 (nfg),    Common Rustic ag 5,    Pale Mottled Willow 1,    Vine's Rustic 3,    Copper Underwing ag 6 (nfy),    Cloaked Minor 1,    Flounced Rustic 6 (nfy),    Dun-bar 1,    Shuttle-shaped Dart 1,    Large Yellow Underwing 19,    Flame Shoulder 2,    Square-spot Rustic 1 (nfy).

Sadly a couple of the above were found dead in the trap, the very worn partly eaten Kitten sp, and just the wings of the Oak Hook-tip. Several Common Wasps were found in the trap as usual, and I am guessing they are responsible.

The remainder were successfully liberated on Saturday night.