Saturday July 5 - All about moths

Sorry moth-haters, the birding since Tuesday has been limited to one visit to Earlswood Lakes where, to be fair, the water level on Engine Pool is low enough to support waders. Unfortunately I saw none at all on Thursday, and nothing else better than a Whitethroat.

So that just leaves moths. I've now handed back the Clearwing pheromone lures, but before I did so I decided to try once more for Orange-tailed Clearwing. The result, as with last time was Yellow-legged Clearwing, one in the pot and one trying to get in. The one difference was that this time I devised a way of getting a nice photograph before it warmed up and flew off.

Yellow-legged Clearwing

A day later a much smaller moth flew into our bathroom during the day. A typical grain of rice-sized moth which looked vaguely novel to my naked eye, but put it under a lens and it transforms into something I'd never seen before. It was an Italian Bark Moth Metalampra italica, a species which was first recorded in Britain as recently as 2003. But things move fast in moth circles. They arrived in Warwickshire in 2017, and eight years later they are reasonably established.

Italian Bark Moth

That brings us to last night's moth-trapping session and 100 moths of 29 species. As is typical of this time of the year these included a good proportion which were new for the year, including a Shark which was my first for four years.

Shark

Nice though this was, another moth interested me much more.

One of the odd things about wildlife is how inappropriate many names are. In particular the term "Garden" implies ubiquity and dullness. But consider the two macro-moths and one bird prefaced by that word. The bird is Garden Warbler, a species I've never seen in my  garden and probably never will. They are not even all that common, although they are certainly dowdy.

The moths are Garden Tiger and Garden Dart. The problem here is time. When they were named it was fair enough, they were perfectly common in gardens fifty years ago. Since then their numbers have plummeted. Until this morning I'd never seen either, and had pretty much given up hope. Garden Tigers are spectacular looking, and I'd love to see one.

But it was the other one, Garden Dart, the extremely plain brown one, which I found this morning. Not that I knew what it was. I suspected it was something new, although I wouldn't have been surprised if it had just been a worn example of something familiar.

Garden Dart

It seemed too early in the year for Square-spot Rustic, a familiar species it vaguely reminded me of. I decided to try the Obsidentify app on it, and that suggested White-line Dart (70%) and Garden Dart (30%). I peered at on-line images trying to convince myself that the app could see something I couldn't, and eventually put some images on social media asking for assistance.

It turned out that the app was wrong (again), and it was indeed a Garden Dart. Now pretty scarce in Warwickshire and everywhere else, the kind of moth so dull-looking that it risks putting people off moths altogether, but maybe the only one I will ever see.

Hopefully I'll be better prepared if another does blunder into my trap one day.

Tuesday July 1 - Morton Bagot

 With the breeding season now winding down, I've decided to abandon my Circle wandering for the next four months to concentrate on watery habitats in the hope of some passage waders.

I was at Morton Bagot at 04:45 this morning, mainly to try to avoid the heatwave. I also had Water Rail on my mind, hoping for a second appearance and maybe some chicks. Well dream on, there was no sign of the Rail.

On the positive side the nearest flash looks decent again, and I counted eight Green Sandpipers, three Lapwings and an adult Little Ringed Plover. These are three of the four baseline waders here (the other being Snipe), anything else would be a win. At least Green Sandpiper numbers have doubled since Sunday.

There is much to be said for getting out early. The passerines in the hedgerows seemed to be in abundance and included a very brief Grasshopper Warbler, while the meadows were full of Knapweed in full bloom and many other flowering plants which I struggle to name. This morning I used my app to identify Lady's Bedstraw, though I've probably seen it here before.

I arrived home just after 07.05 and got a Whatsapp message that there were three Great White Egrets at Earlswood. John Oates had found them, so after checking Lyn was still fast asleep I jumped back in the car. Half way there I learned that they had flown off (and later turned up at Marsh Lane GP) so I returned home.

One final footnote; yesterday I had another go with some of John's Clearwing lures in the garden. Currant Clearwing appears to be absent, but I was successful in attracting a Lunar Hornet Moth and even managed to photograph it out of the pot before it flew off.

A very impressive wasp-mimic.

Sunday June 29 - Morton Bagot (mostly)

 Let's start with today. I joined Dave for our weekly bash around Morton Bagot. A distantly calling Cuckoo was a good start, its highly likely he'll be off to Africa in the next few days.

It was a cloudy, humid morning ideal for photographing insects, but before I get onto them there's the small matter of a decent bird on the nearest flash. Before I show my lamentable attempt to photograph it I'll get my excuse in early. The bird is fully in shot in the following, but I challenge you to find it.

Give up? Ok here is a massively zoomed in image taken shortly afterwards.

There you go, a Water Rail. Just to give a little context, the species is surprisingly scarce here, and I've never seen one in mid summer. As we last heard one on April 13, it's tempting to speculate it may have bred. Obviously the shot is out of focus due to the bird being the size of thrush and miles away from where we were stood.

Also present today were the family of Shelducks, all eight juveniles now flying. The flash had been reflooded since my last visit but we still located four Green Sandpipers.

I mentioned insects earlier. We found a good selection of butterflies, moths, and dragonflies, but nothing exceptional for the site. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

Brown Argus

Six-spot Burnet

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

At the end of my last post I mentioned I would be putting out the moth trap on Friday night, and I thought there would be lots. 

The result was 115 moths of 32 species, a lot fewer than the previous weekend, but still a decent haul. They were mostly moths I'd seen previously this year, but five were new for the year, and one was new for the garden.

I have to admit that the new one was a micro and I only managed one shot of it before it flew off, so I wasn't 100% sure until @MothIdentificationUK confirmed it for me. The species was Lettuce Tortrix Eucosma conterminana. They are quite local in distribution as well as being tricky to identify. However, a rival on-line moth expert, Ben Sale, believes it to be a similar species Common Knapweed Tortrix Eucosma hohenwartiana (which I have previously had confirmed by gen det in the garden) so I suppose the identification is unsafe.

Eucosma sp

A similar species spotted was Hoary Tortrix Eucosma cana, only the second for the garden.

Eucosma cana

The other ones new for the year were the macros Double Square Spot and Single-dotted Wave, the latter being the first for three years, and the pyralids Oak Knot-horn Phycita roborella and Beautiful Oak Knot-horn Acrobasis repandana.

Single-dotted Wave

I have to say it was a difficult morning because a lot of moths flew off before I could look at them, and the remainder were being harassed by a couple of hungry Wasps, which I eventually dealt with.

Friday June 27

I seem to be on a mid-summer roll. A visit to the northern Arrow Valley on Thursday was centred on Arrow Golf Course. The wannabe highlight was a possible calling Curlew, which after half an hour of thought became a probable, but later after much soul-searching was disregarded on the grounds that I didn't see it and I suppose it could have been another bird mimicking the call. The sound had come from north of the golf course in the direction of Beoley, but a wander over there produced nothing to encourage me further.

The course, with its mature woodlands and pools, was stuffed with common birds including breeding Coot and Mute Swan. My best find was a Red-eyed Damselfly typically resting on a lily pad.

During the afternoon I tried the pheromone lure in the garden, this time targeting Red-belted Clearwing for the second time. This time I was successful although my attempts to photograph it were just as cack-handed as with the Yellow-legged Clearwing.

Finally, this morning I took our friend Richard to Morgrove Coppice in the hope of adding Spotted Flycatcher to the year list. Well there was no sign of them, the trail having gone cold since a month ago, but I did get a year-tick when a Common Crossbill called in flight and was glimpsed for a millisecond before it disappeared behind the towering pines.

We retraced our steps in the hope of a second appearance but were not successful.

The weather is warming up again and the moth-trap will be deployed tonight. There should be lots of them.

Tuesday June 24

This isn't usual, posting something mid-week. Well the fact is I've had an excellent day, and not just because England won the test match.

It began with little expectation. I hauled myself off to Cladswell, a Worcestershire village in the south-west of my Circle. The habitat didn't look anything special, just fields and hedgerows. It was also a cloudy start and a bit blustery. I picked a likely looking circuit and half way round was faced with two alternative routes back to the car.

The first would be to turn north and walk through more sheep fields.

 I didn't fancy it.

The option I took was the southern route, through crop fields. Maybe I'd hear a Quail. Well I flushed a couple of Red-legged Partridges but no Quail.

I made the right choice, although ironically the good stuff turned up when I was once again walking around fields of sheep. Perhaps unsurprisingly there was a Red Kite patrolling the area looking for carcasses.

The real stroke of luck occurred when I reached the last field before turning north back to the village. A passerine flicked up into a straggly hedge, and I quickly realised it was a juvenile Redstart, my first of the year.

Seeing it was one thing, photographing it quite another. I slowly pursued it along the footpath getting brief glimpses every now and then. Eventually I resorted to shots of the hedge where I thought it probably was, and hoping for the best. Redstarts are usually like this. Anyway, my best effort is depicted below.

What I do like is finding something unexpected in a place no sane birder would visit. I'm obviously somewhat nuts. I also added a singing Lesser Whitethroat before I got much further.

Back home during the afternoon I decided to give the pheromone lure another go. Having failed on Lunar Hornet Moth and Red-belted Clearwing over the weekend I deployed a lure for Orange-tailed Clearwing. About an hour later, convinced I was doing something wrong I checked the trap again and found it was occupied.

Surprisingly the lure had attracted a Yellow-legged Clearwing and not the one targeted. I should now be showing you a superb shot of a thoroughly relaxed moth, but incompetence intervened. After removing it from the fridge, the moth looked dozy enough in the trap. Fortunately I took a photo of it inside the trap before moving outside and discovering I couldn't open the pot. After a bit of a struggle I managed it, but by then the moth was warming up and within seconds it was off in a blur. No wonder you never see them in a natural setting.

I should also say they are harder to identify than I thought. I went through several species before realising that the fact it had yellow legs was probably significant.

I'll try again a few more times before I hand the trap back to its owner.

 

Sunday June 22 - weekly round up

The fact that I'm making this post a weekly round up should tell you that I haven't seen many interesting birds this week. I have been out and about, mainly early in the morning, trying my best. It's just not the right time of year for birding. But it's pretty much bang on ideal for insects, especially moths, and particularly when it's hot. And boy has it been hot.

However before I bore you senseless with moths let's get the birds out of the way. On Tuesday I went to Henley-in-Arden and found the small colony of Swifts which I knew nested there, somewhere. On Thursday it was the turn of Great Alne where my highlight was a non-calling Cuckoo. 

Today I joined Dave for a bash around Morton Bagot. The mixed singing Willow Warbler was still as confused as ever, the Avocets had gone despite the fact that the water is dropping again. The only waders were three Lapwings, a Little Ringed Plover and a Green Sandpiper, and I saw only one adult Shelduck. I'd heard from John Chidwick that the Shelduck family had still been present yesterday so perhaps they were out of view today. On the other hand a Shelduck had been seen at Earlswood yesterday (where they are rare), so it's tempting to think it may have been one of our birds. It was rather windy today so not many small birds were visible, although I almost forgot that we heard the first singing Reed Warbler here this year. It was singing from the hedge by the Morton Brook, so presumably a failed breeder looking for a new reed bed. It was left to the likes of Cormorant, Red Kite and Little Egret to pad out the day list.

The strangest sighting was an insect. It came as I searched came as I searched an oak tree for a Purple Hairstreak which Dave had spotted. I found a pair of coupling Large Skippers, a species which is usually only ever seen in the grass. I'll have to research whether they are often seen in trees.

My moth stories begin with a failure. John Oates kindly lent me some pheromone lures and showed me several species of Clearwing Moths before he released them into his garden. On Friday I dangled my first lure, for Lunar Hornet Moth, and caught nothing. I guess that means there are none within sniffing distance of the garden. I'll be trying for other species in the next few weeks.

That night, the warmest of the year, my light trap was deployed. I awoke at 04:00 on Saturday morning and found hundreds of Ermine Moths, mostly Bird-cherry Ermine plastering the window frames of the utility room. Five hours later I had counted 475 moths, the half that weren't Ermine Moths comprised 55 species, 22 of them new for the year. Before I get to the six species which were new for the garden (five of them lifers) I will throw in a token bird. A juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker landed in a tree above the garden.

A nice distraction.

The first nfg (new for garden) was visible as a tantalising shape against the inside wall of the trap, blurred behind the perspex lid. Once I'd carefully opened the trap it stayed put and turned out to be a Brown Scallop, a fairly local species which had previously been the highlight of one of Heart of England Forest's bioblitzes a couple of years ago. Now one had found its way to my suburban garden.

Brown Scallop

A little while later I spotted another new moth, this time on one of the perspex lids of the trap. I could tell that it was a large micro of the Mother of Pearl family. The quickest option was to deploy obsidentify which unequivocally stated it was European Corn-borer, a scarce migrant in Warwickshire.

European Corn-borer

Further research suggests this could be only the sixth or seventh county record.

I started going through the egg-boxes and was startled when a Four-spotted Footman crawled into view. This time I recognised it from seeing images on line. It was a male, so was unspotted.

Four-spotted Footman

This unmistakable moth was probably the ninth for Warwickshire. Another migrant, although they do appear to be breeding now in southern England.

Another egg-box gave me my last new macro moth. It was a Pinion-streaked Snout, a macro in name only as it was as small as many of the micros which had been attracted in droves.

Pinion-streaked Snout (centre), the one on the left is a Dun-bar

I have to admit that warm nights at this time of year are somewhat daunting because of the sheer number and variety of micros which need capturing and identifying. Some of them are so similar to other species that the official advice is to arrange for an expert to examine them under a microscope.

An alternative is to try and photograph them and hope your posted on-line photograph will lead to an identification. I had three moths in this category. One I instantly recognised as Regal or Maple Piercer Pammene regiana or trauniana. The reason I recognised it was that four years ago I had caught what I decided was Maple Piercer (and was backed up by an on-line expert) only to find out later that this was the scarcer of the two, and only a specimen would be acceptable to the recorder. This time I was pretty certain it was the commoner Regal Piercer, so I recorded it as such.

Pammene regiana

The other moth had me completely stumped. It was an Epinotia, one of many near identical species. I guessed it would probably require genitalia examination, but in the course of trying to photograph it I allowed it to escape. All that was left was to suggest my best guess, to @UKMothIdentification, which was Common Spruce Tortrix Epinotia tedella. This gave me a tentative thumbs up "it does have the feel of tedella". I will be submitting it as such, but suspect it will not be fully accepted.

Epinotia tedella (probably)

Finally I came up with Epinotia abbreviana for another diddy one, but it wasn't particularly well marked and so I have decided to get it checked by gen det. I'll find out if I was right next January.

The whole morning was semi-organised chaos, and the full list of new moths for the year are on the 2025 Garden year-list page.

Birds are a lot easier, but in June and July the draw of moths becomes irresistible. I hesitate to say I'm drawn like a moth to the flame.

Sunday June 15 - Morton Bagot

 There was one important detail about last week's visit which I deliberately missed out. A schedule 1 species was sitting on eggs at the nearest flash. As it is illegal to knowingly interfere with the nest of such a rare bird I took steps to ask Natural England, under whose stewardship I believe the field is managed, to liaise with the farmer in the hope he would delay his flooding of the scrape/flash for long enough to allow the eggs to hatch. This would be the first time Avocet had bred in Warwickshire.

That was then.

I received no useful feedback from Natural England, although they did forward my email to their Enquiries email address, so I just had to hope the message got through.

Perhaps it didn't (or was never acted on) because this morning my worst fears were confirmed.

This is now

There has been a thunderstorm in the week, but in my experience of the site that is unlikely to be the reason the water level has risen.

The only good news is that the Avocets are still present, indeed there are now two pairs, so perhaps they will re-lay if the water level goes down again. I should also say that the pair of Shelduck with eight young were probably delighted by the turn of events.

A Green Sandpiper also remains, but can only be seen when it takes flight. The Little Ringed Plovers on the other hand seem to have gone. One other decent bird turned up, a non-calling Cuckoo, maybe a female, which flew over us at the place from which we view the flash.

We saw a good range of the insects we've come to expect here. These included only my first Small Tortoiseshell of the year, the micro-moth Satin Grass-moth Crambus perlella (my first here), a few Marbled White butterflies, and a Comma.

Satin Grass-moth

Comma

It's a sad state of affairs how scarce the once abundant Small Tortoiseshell has become during my lifetime.

Friday June 13 - weekly round up

 Another week of random exploring and garden moth-trapping has produced one lifer (a moth), and one year-tick (a twitched bird).

So in chronological order, the lifer was found as I reluctantly tidied the garden on Monday afternoon. Most of the lawn was mowed now that No-mo May is over, but it was while I was chopping at a few saplings under the apple tree that I came across a tiny moth, which I potted for a better look.

It turned out to be Argyresthia curvella, or at least that's what I decided before forwarding a photo to the recorder. Also known as Brindled Apple-tip Moth it looked very close to the illustration in my book and was under the apple tree, so I made the call. There is a fly in the ointment. Obsidentify preferred Argyresthia retinella, a smaller species which feeds on birch. Either would be a garden tick, so I'll wait for the recorder to pronounce on it.

Brindled Apple Tip Moth

The weekly wandering resumed on Tuesday with an uninspiring visit to Hopwood. There is actually quite a nice wild area right next to Hopwood Services which I had walked around during the winter. I was therefore able to add a few expected summer migrants on my visit.

On Thursday I went to a section of the Blythe Valley near Illshaw Heath. I got very confused about where I was because a new estate and road system has appeared since my map was published. So I had to navigate using a What Three Words app. To my surprise it wasn't a bad area. The new residents have the benefit of some nice shrubby areas and even a few small pools around which to walk their dogs.

The area shown above hosted singing Willow Warbler and Garden Warbler, while nearby a Reed Warbler sang from reeds in the middle of some dense willow carr.

Shortly after I got home my phone pinged with news of a Redshank at Earlswood Lakes. I dashed over there to tick it off. This species used to occur regularly at Morton Bagot and bred at Haselor only a few years ago, but recently it's been a case of passage birds at Earlswood.

Redshank

As I proudly added it to my Patchwork Challenge year list I realised to my horror that I hadn't sent them any data since the end of February. I'm too embarrassed to reveal exactly how this happened, but it was down to naivety on my part about how the system works. Anyway, they've got it now and my fellow competitors are in for a bit of a shock when the new league positions are updated next month. I doubt whether any of them will be reading this, but in case they are, I apologise.

Finally, I put my moth trap out last night and caught 54 moths of 28 species. Fourteen of these were new for the year, but most were ones I see every year. The best of the bunch in rarity value and looks was a Blue-bordered Carpet, which was my first since 2021.

Blue-bordered Carpet

Sunday June 8 - Morton Bagot

 This morning Dave and I were joined by Mike Holley as we strolled around Morton Bagot trying to find birds but inevitably getting distracted by insects.

The birds were pretty much the usual fare, with the first returning Green Sandpiper the most notable arrival. The breeding season remains in full swing with plenty of newly fledged Whitethroats catching the eye along with Lesser Whitethroat carrying food and all eight duckling Shelducks still present with both parents. Also in the flash field were the usual Lapwings, Avocets, and Little Ringed Plovers.

As for insects, there was nothing new except possibly for a hoverfly Chrysotoxum bicinctum which to be honest I may have identified before. They are evidently quite common and, unusually for a hoverfly, easy to separate from other species.

Two-banded Wasp Hoverfly C bicinctum

 The fact that I'm not sure whether I've seen one before demonstrates the value of list making.

Definitely new for the year were the moths Latticed Heath, and Yellow-banded Longhorn, the damselfly White-legged Damselfly, and the dragonfly Ruddy Darter.

Latticed Heath

Yellow-banded Longhorn Nemophora degeerella

White-legged Damselfly

Finally there was good news regarding the supposed eggers. I came across them again as I was driving home so stopped to ask them what they were doing. They satisfied me that they had just been dog-training, and so I explained that the area they had been accessing was not appropriate as it was a wildlife area. 

Oh, and I put the garden moth trap out overnight and caught 45 moths of 16 species. Only four were new for the year; Elephant Hawk-moth, Buff Ermine, Green Oak Tortrix and Bee Moth.

Elephant Hawk-moth

Friday June 6 - Tutnall

 The exploring resumed this morning with a visit to a sliver of a square kilometre at Tutnall. This is a hamlet close to Bromsgrove, but still within the Circle. It was rather showery and my expectations were limited. This was just as well.

Now that its June birding is all about confirming where birds have bred, and here I saw a couple of recently fledged Ravens, and also Linnets. A male stood still long enough for me to get a shot.

You never know quite what you are going to come across, and I was amused by the sight of two goats nibbling on a hedge in a way that only goats can.

Meanwhile our garden has been more interesting than usual. Having allowed it to grow even wilder, I was pleased to find a pair of Blackbirds nesting in one of the shrubs. I've given them plenty of space, and this week two fledglings emerged to reward their parents' diligence and my determined chasing of the many cats which regularly visit.

The forecast is pretty grim for the early part of the weekend so my GMS moth-trapping will be delayed to Sunday night.

Wednesday June 4 - The mysterious goings-on (update)

 I've heard back from Matt Bruce at the RSPB Wildlife Crime Unit. He is of the opinion that the guy we filmed at Morton Bagot is probably not an egg-collector caught in the act of searching for nests. I've also heard from Sam MacVie of HOEF who comments that he may have been training a dog, but that in any case he should not have been doing it on their land and particularly not in that field.

As there appeared to be no prospect of taking the matter any further, I was going to post some video of the incident, but computer says no. Here are some stills instead. The chap was frequently peering into the sedge before joining his partner with the other dog. I also wonder why he had a little knapsack slung over his shoulder.

Earlier today I explored Sheltwood Farm near Bank's Green west of Redditch. Many of the fields were devoted to cattle, and as I'm a bit nervous of the beasts I didn't stay long. Other fields were planted with cereal crops, but I didn't hear any Quail or very much at all.

At the place where I'd parked my car I could hear a sylvia warbler tacking agitatedly at my presence. It obviously had recently fledged young nearby, but I couldn't decide what species was involved. I decided to reinstate my Merlin app to see if it knew.

Unfortunately by the time I'd got the app loaded the calling had stopped, so I was none the wiser. (Probably a Blackcap, but Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler not eliminated).

I walked down the road to a small copse where I was greeted by another agitated warbler, this time going "hooweet" and often "hweet". I knew what I thought it was, but Merlin disagreed. "Willow Warbler" it said. I thought I'd better see the bird, and soon clapped eyes on what looked to me like a Chiffchaff. I checked Merlin. It was now suggesting Redstart and also Curlew! The Chiffchaff started to sing. Merlin and I finally agreed.

On balance, out of the two of us, Merlin had had a much more fruitful morning.