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