Tuesday February 1 - New month, new plan

 A sunny morning with a light, but freshening north-westerly and a distinctly milder temperature saw me heading to Spernal STW. Time to start targeting some species to boost the #LocalBigYear list. That's the plan anyway.

Parking among the dog-walkers at Haydon Wood car-park I headed north along the Arrow, passed the sewage works to St Mary's Church. My aim was to locate some Mandarins (present last year and already seen by Mike I a week ago) and hopefully add a few extra ticks.

One of those extras, a Chiffchaff, found it balmy enough to burst into song. It was somewhere inside the sewage treatment works complex, so I couldn't see it. 

I had more luck with a pair of Mandarins, flushing them inadvertently from the river, I later tracked them down a kilometre upstream where I got a shot and left them in peace.

Mandarins

There seems to be a small and growing population centred on the river Arrow and I was pretty confident of seeming them.

It is possible to view the small reservoir within the sewage works from beyond the river, but the views are very poor and distant. I counted at least 16 Teal and a similar number of Mallard along with a substantial flock of Black-headed Gulls.

The river is a magnet for wagtails, and I noticed nine Pied Wagtails, and five Grey Wagtails without much difficulty. 

This morning's haul was the very least I had hoped for, and it may be that another visit will gain a few extra species.

Yesterday a female Blackcap appeared right outside the living room window, and for once my camera was to hand.

Blackcap

So that's the living stuff accounted for, let's move on to the corpses.

I excavated the pellets found at Morton Bagot on Sunday and came up with four skulls. After some rather frustrating research I concluded they were three Field Voles, and a Common Shrew, may they rest in peace.

The e-mail from the moth recorder alluded to in my last post also related to specimens. In this case it was a number of moths which unfortunately expired during my year's moth-trapping efforts. The vast majority of captures are released to fly again, but these ones weren't. 

Confirmed as new for the garden, and in some cases the 10 km square, were:

Agonopterix heracliana

Stigmella atricapitella

Tawny Marbled Minor

Marbled Minor

Coleophora lutipennella - 1st for SP06

Round-winged Muslin (found dead)

Elachista canapennella

Yponomeuta malinellus (Apple Ermine) (found dead)

Grapholita janthinana - 1st for SP06

Poplar Kitten (found dead)

Aproaerema anthyllidella - 1st for SP06

Yponomeuta cagnagella (Spindle Ermine)

Acleris laterana

November Moth

I am uncomfortable with the taking of specimens for the advancement of science, but it is recommended by the County Recorder where the species cannot be identified from a photograph. One that I released before realising its significance was a potential first for the County.