Sunday August 22 - The bar is raised a notch

In my birding calendar there are certain dates which spur me to extra effort, and higher expectations. For me, the three weeks after August 20 are when early autumn migration reaches a peak. The bar is raised and hope is high.

This morning Dave joined me as usual, and we started looking. Thunderstorms overnight may have forced migrants down, but the heavy rain will have raised the flash levels. There was plenty of bush-bashing (not literally) to do on the way, and a single Willow Warbler was subtly different from the numerous Chiffchaffs diving for cover.

Willow Warbler

We had met Mike Lane on his way to try to film Goldfinches from his photographic hide. Our own path took us to the old pool where Dave spotted two Hobbies streaking away from us towards the flash field.

The flash field revealed higher water levels as we had feared, but we still counted five Green Sandpipers, five Snipe, one Lapwing, 17 Teal, and 33 Mallard. It's still underperforming.

Apart from Whitethroats we were not finding many migrant passerines, so it was something of a relief to discover two Whinchats in the weedy strip where the Red-backed Shrike had been.

One of the Whinchats

As usual, they were difficult to approach. Walking back across the field Dave tripped over a hole in the ground. Peering into it we discovered the remains of a wasps nest. 

Wasp nest

We were a bit slow on the uptake, and it took a suggestion from Mike Lane before we realised that the nest had almost certainly been dug out by a Badger. I think you can see claw marks on the wall of the chasm.

Another feature of the morning was a constant stream of large gulls heading towards Redditch. We counted at least 51 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a Herring Gull. The most likely explanation I can think of is that they were birds which had been loafing on a ploughed field somewhere. 

So not a bad visit, but the bar is now set higher, and I'm even harder to please.

I nearly forgot about the moths, a bit like last night when I was too captivated by the 100 Cricket Final on the television to remember to open the trap to allow them to escape. Lyn reminded me, but by then a thunderstorm was raging and I would guess they were not best pleased to have been kept waiting. Actually the trap is so leaky that most had already found a way out.

This all relates to Friday night when I had caught about 120 moths of 32 or so species. They were largely familiar ones, but did include a tiny Caloptilia semifascia which was new for the garden. This species of leaf-miner is sometimes given the name Maple leaf-borer, showing that it is another scarce maple chewing moth taking advantage of the Field Maples near the house.

Caloptilia semifascia

The full list was:

Yponomeuta ag 3,    Bird-cherry Ermine 8,    Caloptilia semifascia 1 (nfg),    Brown House Moth 1,    Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix 3,    Light Brown Apple Moth 2,    Eudemis profundana 1,    Brimstone Moth 3,    Cydia splendana 2,    Phycita roborella 3,    Agriphila tristella 2,    Agriphila geniculea 16,    Pyrausta aurata 1,    Mother of Pearl 4,   Orange Swift 2 (nfy),    Riband Wave 1,    Yellow Shell 1,    Lime-speck Pug 1,    Willow Beauty 2,    September Thorn 2,    Dusky Thorn 2,    Straw Dot 2 (nfy),    Copper Underwing 6,    Vine's Rustic 2,    Common Rustic ag 2,    Flounced Rustic 12,    Flame Shoulder 2,    Shuttle-shaped Dart 2,    Large Yellow Underwing 35,    Lesser Yellow Underwing 2 (nfy),    Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 10,    Square-spot Rustic 3

I also had to give up on several too worn to identify.