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. 

Monday June 2 - Upton Warren

 I fancied a day off today. Or to be more accurate, an hour or two outside the Circle. Yesterday I had noticed the words Sanderling appearing next to the words Upton Warren on Birdguides. I'd just got back from Morton Bagot, and I was tempted. But in the end the cricket won out, and I settled down to watch Joe Root almost singlehandedly win the match for England. 

This morning there was news it was still there. I hadn't seen a Sanderling for a year or two, and at least it wouldn't be a dot on the far shore at Upper Bittell. I decided it was time. Sanderling is a high arctic resident, and perhaps this bird was still heading that way. For the rest of the year it is almost strictly coastal, but happily for Midland birders a few drop onto the shores of suitably large reservoirs every spring. They are strangely scarcer in the autumn.

The bird was on the Flashes (I hadn't been there for a while either), so I ambled over, ascended the steps to the main hide and plopped myself down to scan for the bird. It turned out to be pretty close.

After a while it disappeared behind the small island it was on, so I spent a happy half hour scanning around at the plethora birds also visible. At least 36 Avocets, 12 Shelducks, and quite a few Little Ringed Plovers. Like Morton Bagot on steroids.

Actually, not much like the patch. Cetti's Warblers shouted at me all the way down the track, a drake Pochard was with Tufted Ducks on the gravel pit, and Gadwalls jostled with  Mallards on most of the pools. 

It was hard to drag myself away. When I got home I wondered how long it had been since I'd last seen a Sanderling. The answer shocked me. Twenty years. I'd had an unbroken run of years seeing them from 1978 to 2005, and then none. Well if you will visit Morton Bagot and nowhere else, what do you expect?

Sunday June 1 - Morton Bagot

 It's not been a great week. It culminated at Morton Bagot when Dave and I suffered the dispiriting experience of watching an egg-collector working his way through the old pool field with dog and whistle, attempting to find nests in the sedge. Our presence probably put him off and he and his female accomplice and spaniels soon sloped off empty handed. I have reported him, complete with photographic images and his likely car registration number to the RSPB crime unit. Their advice is not to share images on social media in case it prejudices any potential prosecution.

As far as birds are concerned, we saw all the expected residents, noting that the Shelduck family are still complete, and one Lapwing chick is almost full-grown. The only migrant activity was the arrival of a pair of Avocets at the nearest flash, while Little Ringed Plovers have increased to three.

Many passerines now have fledglings, and a small group of Long-tailed Tits caught my eye by perching on telephone wires. 

Insects were present in small numbers, and presented some photo opportunities.

The rest of the week was handicapped by my choice of venues.

On Tuesday it was an early morning visit to Alcester Heath, where I tried to convince myself there might be a chance of hearing a Quail. The habitat obliged, but there were none present. To be fair its not been a very good year for them nationally.

If that was bad, it had nothing on my Thursday visit to Headless Cross. I suppose some of the Swifts I saw were probably nesting locally, and the various patches of woodland which are thankfully a feature of Redditch produced a few birds including a singing Chiffchaff.

Finally, my Garden Moth Survey on Friday night produced a decent 45 moths of 25 species including nine new for the year, and one lifer (new for the garden). That was a micro called Bactra furfurana, or Marsh Lance if you prefer the recently invented English name.

I can't really take a great deal of credit for the discovery. I caught it in the half-light of dawn simply because it was resting on the glass of the trap and I thought it would fly off if I didn't. I later examined it and wasn't sure whether it was a moth or a caddis-fly. My phone app came up with the name, and I confirmed it by checking books and images on line. 

It's actually a pretty good moth, being described as local. It is associated with rushes and sedges so probably wandered from Ipsley Alders just up the road.

Sunday May 25 - Morton Bagot

 I set off this morning hopeful of extending the spring vibe a little further. During the week two Spotted Flycatchers were reported on Birdtrack as being at Morton Bagot. My suspicion was that the record might actually refer to Bannams Wood, so I headed up the track to the place where there had been a territorial pair last year.

The weather was not playing ball. A blustery westerly is not ideal. After about half an hour of searching I had to settle for two Garden Warblers singing at each other, and no Spot Flys.

Plan B was to walk down the road and cut across the HOEF plantations towards the place favoured by the ringers. A Red Kite headed for Bannams, and was briefly mobbed by a Peregrine. I couldn't tell whether the latter was an adult or an immature, and it eventually drifted off west.

I ended up at the flash field where I was pleasantly surprised to see that a small amount of shore had reappeared and was occupied by two adult Little Ringed Plovers. As I walked along the footpath towards the best viewing position I was dismayed to hear a digger and voices coming from the Kingfisher Pool. I had to sneak through the hedge just short of the pool to avoid any awkward conversations with the guys creating what I assume will become a fishing pool.

Once under the trees overlooking the nearest flash I was faced with nine pairs of Greylag Geese with at least eight broods of different sized goslings, and also the pair of Shelducks with their eight duckling family still intact. One or two Lapwings were also present, but I couldn't see any chicks.

On the walk back I heard two singing Lesser Whitethroats, and fluked a view of a different one which was probably heading for a nest within a dense bramble clump.

So there we are, all birds, no insects. Except I saw a Painted Lady as I walked across the old pool field. Oh drat.

My second this year. There may have been a good immigration this year, so more should follow.

Saturday May 23 - Moths

 At the start of this year I promised myself I would keep the moth stuff low-key. In the background. I'm supposed to be a birder for goodness sake. But sometimes there is no other option.

On Friday my square-bashing took me to half a square just to the south of Aston Cantlow. The habitat was intensive arable farmland and my route was restricted to one short footpath along a hedge. Across the crop field lay an enticing strip of woodland with off-putting "Private Keep Out" signs and regular peripheral Pheasant feeders. I was never going to see many birds here, and my 21 species list contained nothing more exciting than Whitethroat, Skylark and Yellowhammer. 

The highlight was a tiny moth which fluttered from the hedge and landed at the top of a cereal stem. It was clearly a longhorn moth, and I concluded the species was Adela croesella, only the second I have seen.

Lesser-banded Longhorn Adella croesella

That night was the scheduled date for the latest Garden Moth Survey. Recent weeks have seen me miss the preferred Friday night date by the odd day, so I was determined to oblige.

The trap went out and the early signs were good. It was quite warm and humid with not much breeze. I even caught a moth on the fence which turned out to be new for the garden. The Large Tabby is technically a micro, but is a pretty hefty one. It's also supposed to be local and declining, and isn't particularly attracted to light. On the other hand it's very at home in dilapidated buildings, and I think I need look no further than our shed for its source.

Large Tabby

I must admit it's not much of a looker.

I awoke at 02:00 to the sound of pouring rain, and lay in bed feeling rather guilty. The moths would be having a rough time of it. After fifteen minutes I hatched a plan, quickly dressed and nipped downstairs to find Lyn's umbrella. As it was still fairly calm I reckoned it would provide some shelter, albeit a little too late. The rain pepped up once I was back in bed, but my conscience was clearer.

I awake again at 04:45. The rain had stopped and it was starting to get light. Time to find out what was there. 

Five hours later I had established that there were 93 identifiable moths of 33 species present. Most were actually in the trap, and only five or six heavily worn individuals had to be ignored. There were no obvious fatalities, so the umbrella had largely worked. Only a few of the egg boxes were slightly damp.

There were some cracking moths to see. In total, 19 species were new for the year, and two of these, including the aforementioned Large Tabby, were new for the garden. The other was a Broken-barred Carpet, supposedly quite a common species, which I found clinging to the brickwork at the side of the utility room.

Broken-barred Carpet

The full list of the newbies can be found on the 2025 moth list page, but I can show you some of the best ones.

Alder Kitten (first since 2020)

Probably a Shaded Oak Stilt Caloptilia robustella (first since 2020)

Freyer's Pug (fifth record, last in 2023)

Miller (last seen in 2022)

Ingrailed Clay (one or two most years, but not in 2024)

The reason the tiny micro, Caloptilia robustella, is not listed as certain is that an on-line expert pointed out that a very similar species can no longer be discounted without reference to its genitalia. Luckily for this moth I had been unaware of that, and had seen it fly off. I can't say I'm sorry about that.

Hopefully there will be some birds to talk about next time.

Wednesday May 21

 I've spent the last few days bagging one kilometre squares within my circular patch. When I started watching birds in this enlarged area in the autumn 2021 I calculated there were over 300 square kilometres to visit, ideally in both summer and winter. I now have just 25 which have received no visit at all, but a lot more than that which have not seen my presence in summer. Unfortunately I've saved the worst till last. Perhaps I should have done tetrads (2km squares) instead.

On Tuesday I went to a square containing Nuthurst Farm and Junction 16 (Henley) on the M40. This was actually my second visit here this year. In winter I had found a flock of Yellowhammers, so I was hopeful I might see one today. Instead my mini-highlights (very mini) were a singing Linnet and a pair of Red-legged Partridges. It was reasonably sunny so there were one or two butterflies on the wing, the best being a Common Blue.

This morning I was up early and drove the short distance to Ullenhall. At 06.00 the weather was cloudy and the birds, well they were what you'd expect. The best was a prominently perched Yellowhammer. It wasn't actually singing, but at this time of the year it was obviously on territory. Perhaps it didn't have another male Yellowhammer within earshot to encourage it to sing.

That should have been all for now, but Whatsapp intervened.

My patch ends just short of Upper Bittell Reservoir, a large body of water which has a shoreline every autumn. You might think I'd have been deeply frustrated that I can't count it in my patch, but actually I'm not. Back in 2021 when I first devised the idea of a circular patch centred on my home I was somewhat dismayed to find that the dam at Upper Bittell should fall in it. I reasoned that this could mean my birding would be unbalanced. I'd be constantly drawn to the comparative honeypot of Upper Bittell at the expense of everywhere else. So I shifted the centre a couple of hundred metres to the south-west and Upper Bittell was excluded.

This year, however, I've relaxed my rules a tiny bit more. There are one or two sites within twenty kilometres of the house which get birds which I have little chance of ever seeing within the circle. Earlier this year I twitched Upton Warren to see a Ring-necked Duck. Today I was tempted by a Grey Plover at Upper Bittell. In the last ten years I've seen precisely two Grey Plovers, and both were in dowdy winter plumage (Blithfield Res, Staffs and Keyhaven Marshes, Hants). Technically I might one day see a Grey Plover at Morton Bagot or Earlswood, but I'm beginning to lose faith.

One big downside of Upper Bittell is that if you're not prepared to pay around £50 per year for a permit (and I am that stingy) you are stuck with viewing the far shore from the dam. If you are lucky the bird (most likely a wader) will be standing on the Point which is still miles away, but not so bad as the north shore.

The Grey Plover was unfortunately on the north shore. It took several sweeps of the scope before I saw it at all, but when I did spot it I was pleased to see it was in full summer plumage. Out came the camera, and I did my best.

Distance is another reason I don't generally go to Upper Bittell. Also present were a couple of Ringed/Little Ringed Plover types which were too far away for me to identify as I didn't have time to wait for them to fly. I have since learnt that they were Ringed Plovers, another bird I've not seen within the circle this year. But I get one most years.

I'm not sure I'll be twitching the next Little Stint to appear at Upper Bittell.

Sunday May 18 - Morton Bagot (mostly)

 This morning dawned dry again, and another sunny day was in prospect. As I headed to meet Dave at Morton Bagot I recalled that I had heard from John C that the farmer had flooded the nearest flash and that a pair of Shelducks was present with a family of ducklings. I must admit to being a bit relieved that he had done that, because the alternative would have been a dry scrape with no waterbirds at all.

We counted eight ducklings. They are all in the above shot, the eighth being hard to see as it is mostly hidden between its parents.

These were not the only proud parents on view. We discovered there were at least two Lapwing chicks at the edge of the flash, although they were very hard to see. A single Little Ringed Plover was being chased about by the adult Lapwings before the herd of cattle intervened and everything calmed down.

Before we reached the flash the most surprising discovery was a group of five Lesser Whitethroats engaged in some kind of neighbourhood dispute. This is typically the time in spring when they sing less and certainly these birds were mainly "tacking" at each other, although one managed a brief burst of song. Normally its hard enough to see one of these birds, but finding five in one place is exceptional where no juveniles are involved. It's far too early for these to have been a family party.

Also entertaining us were two calling male Cuckoos although they were frustratingly difficult to see. Inevitably we started looking at insects, seeing our first Common Blue butterfly of the year. Dave saw a Large Skipper but I was busy trying to photograph my first Large Red Damselfly this year so I missed it.

Large Red Damselfly

Later on we saw a few "new for the year" moths (Burnet Companion, and the micros Common Marble, and  Garden Grass-moth) and also a newly flying Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly.

Burnet Companion

Speaking of moths, I put the trap out in my garden on Friday night and found 35 moths of 18 species the following morning. They were pretty much the expected varieties you see at this time of the year, but included one of my favourite moths, a single Buff-tip. This amazing species beautifully mimics a broken twig. I normally catch a few each year, although I missed out in 2024.

Buff-tip

I suppose the prize for the scarcest moth in my trap went to a micro with a very long name and amazingly lengthy antennae. It was Nematopogon swammerdamella although it has recently been assigned the English name Large Longhorn. It's only large compared to similar looking brown longhorn moths. It was only the second for the garden, and four years after the first.

Large Longhorn

Looking even further back at the week, my wandering took me up Weatheroak Hill just north of the M42 on Thursday. It was the coolest and greyest day of the week, and the habitat consisted mainly of a dairy farm with lots of Friesian cows. I still managed a couple of decent birds in the form of a singing Lesser Whitethroat and a fly-over Little Egret.

The views were reasonable too.

I've recently taken to leafing through my old notebooks and it saddens me to see notes for flocks of Tree Sparrows, regular Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Little Owls and even a few Willow Tits. All largely gone now. On the other hand if I'd seen that Little Egret flying over in 1998 instead of 2025 I'd have been punching the air in joy.

Times change.