Monday September 25 - A county first (moth)

 I have to admit that my enthusiasm for moth-trapping has been waning lately. Several promising nights have been ignored and three weeks have passed since I last counted a batch of the same old moths. 

But after an enjoyable day's birding at Morton Bagot logging Swallows (82) and House Martins (22) heading south, the warmth of the afternoon encouraged me to give it another go. I'm glad I did.

Among the catch of 31 moths were an expected selection of new ones for the year: Snout, Lunar Underwing (14), Black Rustic (2), and Brown-spot Pinion (only my second), and a couple of moths which looked different. One was a bit like a Pale Mottled Willow, but not really. Intrigued, I tried Obsidentify on it and it came up with an uncertain identification of Clancy's Rustic. I checked the books and discovered that a) it did look like one, and b) there has never been a Warwickshire or Worcestershire record.

In better light this morning (Tuesday) an internet search still suggested it was Clancy's Rustic, so I ran it past the ever reliable @MOTHIDUK who confirmed the identification.

Clancy's Rustic

This species is supposed to be a south coast specialist, although there have been a few turning up as far north as Norfolk since 2018. I suspect that more will be found in the Midlands before long.

In the meantime the moth has been twitched by a few birders/moth-ers as it rests in a pot prior to release. One of these, Steve W on being shown my other good moth, a Deep-brown Dart, told me that recent genetic studies have discovered that all the British ones are actually a race of Northern Deep-brown Dart (the Deep-brown Dart being a European species). It's a tick for me whatever it is.

Northern Deep-brown Dart (the species formerly known as Deep-brown Dart)

Less controversial were the birds at Morton Bagot. Tony has continued to catch brand new Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, and was particularly pleased to catch a Skylark. Meanwhile my best bird was a Yellowhammer, my first there since the first day of the year. Unfortunately the only shot I got was heavily silhouetted, so instead I'll share one of 12 Chiffchaffs, and my only Whinchat which was accompanied by a bumper six Stonechats.

Chiffchaff

Whinchat

My last blog post was banging on about invisible migration. This time the emphasis has switched to the visible kind. As well as the Swallows and House Martins mentioned earlier I recorded 16 Meadow Pipits, 11 Siskins, and 11 Lesser Redpolls heading south.

I'm sure if I'd spent the morning standing in one place as you are supposed to when vizmigging I would have seen a lot more.

The only damper on the day was the work going on at the Kingfisher Pool. The edge has been scraped back almost to the hedge so I might have to revert to the original way of looking at the nearest flash as access is getting tricky. Time will tell.