Friday April 10 - Lockdown update (Birds and moths)

The warm sunny weather continued, and I was tempted to look out for birds every day from April 8 to 10, with a particular effort on the 10th.

April 8 was particularly noteworthy for a kettle of circling raptors extremely high to the west of the garden which reached 12 Buzzards and a Red Kite. There was also a trickle (seven) of Meadow Pipits through the morning, but arguably the most unexpected bird was a fly-over Lapwing. Shouldn't it have been defending a territory somewhere? Also new for the list were two House Martins which circled overhead and then drifted north. I'm sure its the first I have ever seen House Martin before the other hirundine species. Two Cormorants also flew over.

On April 9 my morning garden highlight was hearing the gentle cascade of a Willow Warbler's song coming from trees at the southern end of the close. I decided that as this could potentially be the only Willow Warbler I record this year (I hope not) I'd better try to see it. So I took a short stroll and soon located the bird singing in an oak tree. Photographing it proved challenging, but I eventually got a shot which at least shows its pale legs.

Willow Warbler

Whilst down that end of the Close I also heard a singing Goldcrest. That won't get onto my lockdown list as I have decided to only count birds I can see or hear from the garden. Mind you, if I'd found a Hoopoe I'd have been rewriting the rules in a hurry.

Back in the garden I didn't have to wait too long before my first Swallow flew north, and two more followed during the afternoon. Also seen heading north were a Meadow Pipit, and another House Martin. Both Blackcap and Chiffchaff were also singing. A Sparrowhawk was seen regularly, and was once harried by a Carrion Crow. It later perched on our fence, but I only became aware of this when opening a window, thus flushing it. The bird still found time to chase a female Blackbird before making a sharp exit.

Sparrowhawk and Carrion Crow

I've recently taken to standing outside the back door after dark in the hope of hearing something interesting going over. You may recall that I heard an Oystercatcher on the first occasion I'd done that. Since then nothing, until the evening on April 9 when a single Redwing called as it flew over. I felt some relief that I hadn't been completely wasting my time.

On April 10 I was outside by 05.50 and put in about eight hours of effort before calling it a day at 37 species. Almost all the birds recorded were ones I had already had since the lock down started; a Pheasant calling, a Green Woodpecker calling, seven more Meadow Pipits, another House Martin, two more Swallows, and a calling Song Thrush over. The Willow Warbler had gone, but at least three Chiffchaffs and two Blackcaps sang. Happily for me I finally got my reward for all this effort when I spotted a Kestrel circling some distance west of the garden. Strangely, I can only recall one previous sighting from the garden, which makes them as rare as Hobby as far as the garden raptor list is concerned.

So this is the updated list:

April 8
49. Lapwing
50. House Martin
April 9
51. Willow Warbler
52. Swallow
April 10
53. Kestrel

I also added a couple of butterflies:

April 8
3. Brimstone
4. Orange-tip

And this morning a new mammal popped out from behind the shed.

2. Wood Mouse

I'm glad it wasn't a rat.

Moths:

It was a fantastic night of moth-trapping. I ended up with 58 moths of 11 species. These included some surprises, including early examples of Yellow-barred Brindle, Oak-tree Pug, and my first Least Black Arches since 2018.

Lock-down additions were:

10. Satellite
11. Yellow-barred Brindle (nfy)
12. Oak-tree Pug (nfy)
13. Small Quaker
14. Least Black Arches (nfy)
15. Twin-spotted Quaker (nfy)

Satellite

Yellow-barred Brindle

Oak-tree Pug

Small Quaker

Least Black Arches

Twin-spotted Quaker

The full count of moths was 10 Brindled Pugs, 1 Satellite, 22 Common Quakers, 1 Yellow-barred Brindle, 1 Oak-tree Pug, 12 Small Quakers, 4 Hebrew Characters, 2 Common Plumes, 1 Least Black Arches, 2 Twin-spotted Quakers, and 2 Double-striped Pugs.

The Oak-tree Pug was in a rather peculiar resting position, but was noticeably smaller than the Brindled Pugs (I measured its forewing as 9 mms) which is below the range for Brindled and bang on for Oak-tree.

Here is a grouping of three moths, Common Quaker, Small Quaker, and Common Plume (which just got in the way).

From left: Small Quaker, Common Plume, Common Quaker

I also caught a couple of species of caddis-fly and photographed a menacing looking spider on the fence.

Nursery-web Spider

Moths and stuff

After a relatively mild night I thought I would be pulling plenty of moths out of the trap this morning, so was disappointed to find just four five. Two were new for the year; (note to self: always check your trap carefully before posting your results).

8. Double-striped Pug
9. Common Plume

The full list was Double-striped Pug 1, Brindled Pug 2, Common Quaker 1 and Common Plume 1. The one saving grace was that, unlike the bedraggled individual fished out of the bird-bath yesterday, the pugs were at least in pristine condition.

Double-striped Pug

Brindled Pug

Common Plume

I also caught a caddis-fly and a large black beetle with red tips to its antennae. Unfortunately I put it to one side while I prioritised the moths, and it had gone by the time I returned with my camera.

This poor showing does at least give me the chance to discuss some other insects seen yesterday, the tricky ones.

Starting with bees, some are quite straight forward to identify. For example the very common Buff-tailed Bumblebee (as long as its a queen), Tree Bumblebee, Red Mason Bee, Hairy-footed Flower Bee, Early Bumblebee, and Tawny Mining Bee (as long as its a female).

Buff-tailed Bumblebee (queen)

Early Bumblebee (queen)

Red Mason Bee

Hairy-footed Flower Bee (female)

But then you get other bees: Solitary Bees, Cuckoo Bees, Leaf-mining Bees, worker bumble-bees. All of these require a level of expertise I do not possess. You can still photograph them and hope someone who knows what they are talking about tells you what they are. I give you exhibit A

Andrena Bee sp

It might be a male Tawny Mining Bee, or it might be something else entirely.

If you think bees are tough, that's nothing compared to flies (other than Dark-edged Bee-Fly), Beetles, Ichneumon Wasps, Bugs, the list goes on.

Here are a few I have photographed in the last few days, and have attempted to put a name to.

Dark-edged Bee-fly

Common Pollen Beetle

The above beetle next to my finger for scale

Ichneumon stramentor

Luckily there is the cavalry. It can come to your rescue (sometimes after six months, but often after a few hours). These are the experts who give their time to trawl the records of a website called www.brc.irecord and will confirm (or reidentify) the creature you have photographed.

Thanks to the expert regarding the Ichneumon, which is confirmed as Ichneumon stramentor.

So it was that a Box Bug which flew past us yesterday and landed in some foliage has been confirmed.

Box Bug

The exciting thing about this record is that the species was formerly mega-rare but has been increasing in numbers and distribution from the south-east. I get the impression that it may be a very recent colonist of Warwickshire.

This sort of thing is great. Being locked down, stuck in your garden, you can still make significant discoveries.

More lockdown stuff - Tuesday Apr 7

The plan today was dawn till dusk birding from the garden. Well that was never going to work.

I started enthusiastically enough, pausing in the bathroom to scoop up a micro-moth, and I was "in the field" by 06.15. The field in question was the back patio, and my technique was to stand around and hope for the best.

The first hour wasn't too bad. Having failed to add a single new bird over the last few days of half-hearted effort, I was pleased to hear a distant Pheasant go "kok". It did it once more for good measure. By 07.00 I was about to go in for breakfast when a Jay flew by, and eventually perched up in a distant tree.

Jay

The Jay's intervention delayed my retreat long enough to benefit from a fly past of a Cormorant. I managed a shot of it (of sorts).

Cormorant (yes I know!)

Although there wasn't a breath of wind, the blue sky made it tough to see stuff. Most of the visible migrants recorded subsequently were thus invisible migrants (heard only). Two Meadow Pipits, a Redwing, that's it. I eventually reached 34 species for the day, and the lockdown list progressed as follows:

47. Pheasant
48. Cormorant

The day warmed up, but the raptor migration failed to materialise. Six Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk represents the local breeding population.

So inevitably, with birds in short supply, my eye started to wander to insects. Butterflies were very disappointing. A Peacock was not new, but this was:

2. Small Tortoiseshell

The Small Tortoiseshell just dashed by, as they tend to.

The problem with insects is that a lot of them are extremely hard to identify to species level, but I can't help trying.

That moth from the bathroom was probably a Case-bearing Clothes Moth, I decided. But I wasn't sure. I tweeted it out and got a response suggesting it might not be a clothes moth and suggesting I tried @UKMothID (or something). I did that, and was told it was .... a Case-bearing Clothes Moth.

Case-bearing Clothes Moth

During the afternoon I found another moth. It was floating in the bird bath. I fished it out and discovered its little legs were still kicking about.

The rescue

Amazingly, when I more or less scraped it onto the table, it revived and I decided it was a Brindled Pug somewhat the worse for wear.

Brindled Pug

It flew off, and is presumably now out there trying to convince a prospective mate that it is worth a second look.

Moth list:

6. Case-bearing Clothes Moth
7. Brindled Pug

The trap is out, and I am hoping for more moths tonight. I'll ramble on about today's other insects on a later occasion.

Lockdown Day 6 - more new birds

I have to say this lockdown listing is going far better than I expected, and its still all about birds.

I have structured my week so that I get one birding day/mothing evening every three days. Well that was the plan. Wednesday we can forget. Thursday, however, was amazing. And that's despite virtually no birding effort.

The first bird to make itself known was a Meadow Pipit which called from above my driveway as I prepared to face the challenge of self-isolating at Morrisons. Not so surprising. However, late in the afternoon I stepped into the garden for a breath of fresh air and looked up to see not one, not two, but three Peregrines circling high over the garden. Thirty seconds of panic followed as I dashed back in, grabbed my camera, and shot out of the front door. I quickly re-found them and managed a record shot or two.

Peregrine

I must admit that I have recorded Peregrine from the garden before, and it is likely that there is a pair, or maybe two, attempting to breed somewhere in the Redditch area. This species is one of the success stories of the last forty years.

Lets turn to the evening. A lot of birders have invested in a nifty bit of kit called Nocmig. As I understand it, this records sounds and supplies a graphic trace of any birds calling as they fly over at night. The results being reported have been amazing. For example recorders across the north of England and some in the Midlands recorded the sounds made by Common Scoters flying over the night of April 2/3. I, however, do not own a Nocmig recorder, and have no immediate plans to get one. So when I stepped outside at around 21.10 to look at the moon and the stars I was not expecting to hear the Oystercatcher which piped its call notes several times from over the houses to the east. This was a bonafide garden tick.

Oystercatchers, it must be said, have taken to Arrow Valley Lake in recent years. So I am guessing this was one of its birds.

Friday morning was to be my maximum effort birding day. I was later up than I intended, but was still in the garden for 07.00. The day was to bring me 32 species, and add five more to the lockdown list, one of which was a full garden tick.

The first new one was a Great Spotted Woodpecker. It bounced away to the south, but is a fairly regular species here. The next bird was much more unexpected, not so much for what it was, but  for what it was doing.  A Skylark appeared over the garden, quite low, in full song, within seconds of a Peregrine, flying across from the east. I do see and hear the odd Skylark in the autumn and winter, but never singing. My guess is that the presence of the Skylark and the Peregrine within seconds of one another was not a coincidence, and that the lark probably followed the Peregrine from farmland 800 metres away, and was mobbing it through song.

The third new bird for the year was rather less satisfying, even though it was a garden tick. I heard the call of a Linnet and managed to get on it as it hurried to the north confirming it was small and brown and therefore not a Greenfinch, which has a somewhat similar flight call. I would guess that this was a bird which was migrating back north, as the only local flock I know of is at Morton Bagot. In fact a singing Greenfinch  did pipe up later in the morning, but this is a bird I know to hold a territory in the Close.

Also definitely migrating was a flock of 30 Fieldfares which headed directly overhead in a north-easterly direction. The final new bird for the lockdown list was a singing Chiffchaff. I've been hearing these in the last few days at Morrisons, and at a visit to the pharmacy at Matchborough, so the distant song elicited the response "about time too" rather than the fist pump brought about by the earlier offerings. Other birds of note were nine more Meadow Pipits,  two Chaffinches, three Redwings all heading either north or east, and the local Blackcap still in full voice.

The moth trap went out, but temperatures plunged to three degrees overnight so my expectations of the contents this morning were not high.  Before I return to that however, there are more birds to discuss. My early start this morning, aimed at processing moths before the Robins beat me to it, produced vindication of my theory that Little Egrets may fly over regularly from Arrow Valley Lake before I usually get up. This time I was ready for it.

Little Egret

I also added three more species; a pair of Mallard flew around, a Jay squawked from somewhere to the south, and an even more distant Green Woodpecker yaffled to the east of the garden.

So the bird additions since my last post are:

April 2

36. Meadow Pipit
37. Peregrine
38. Oystercatcher

April 3

39. Great Spotted Woodpecker
40. Skylark
41. Linnet
42. Fieldfare
43. Chiffchaff

April 4

44. Mallard
45. Jay
46. Green Woodpecker

Meanwhile, back at the moth trap, my paltry total this morning was just three moths: Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, and Early Grey (new for year).

Early Grey

Actually, Early Grey is one of my favourite moths, having been the first to genuinely impress me when  I first started turning over egg boxes two year ago.

Moth additions:

5. Early Grey

With the weather set to warm up this weekend, there should be a chance that the next posting will contain a few butterflies and no doubt more moths.

Lockdown day 3 - 31 March 2020 - garden ticks

I was pretty certain that this post would be mostly about moths and not birds. How wrong I was.

The last three days have seen a north-easterly breeze and variable amounts of cloud discouraging me from venturing into the garden. So March 29 saw the following ticks:

26. Canada Goose
27. Raven

The latter was seen from my sofa. Not an especially unexpected sighting these days.

March 30

28. Long-tailed Tit
29. Rook

Long-tailed Tit

March 31

This was going to be a proper birdwatch; dawn to dusk, trying hard. My enthusiasm was to be richly rewarded. I had barely stepped onto the back doorstep at around 06.15 when I heard and saw a Blackcap singing from our apple tree. It had disappeared by the time I retrieved my camera and the light wouldn't have helped if I'd had it. Perhaps it was the bird I heard on Thursday.

For the next hour I stood and watched as a succession of birds appeared, often as fly-overs, and the day list gradually grew. Most were birds I had recorded on day one, although I did hear a Song Thrush. But this was just the hors d'oeuvres.

I recently dusted off my old house list, which after updating, stood at 74 species. Not bad, but we have been here for over 15 years. If I'd been forced to predict what new species I could add, the two seen this morning would have been on top of the list.

The first of these was a flock (yes a flock) of four Little Egrets which flew east, low over the houses. Just WOW. Mind you, the reason this species was on the radar was that I have seen one at nearby Ipsley Alders, and another flying up the river Arrow at Studley in the last few years. Even more pertinent are the tens of birds roosting at Arrow Valley Lake about a mile away as the egret flies. Draw a line from Arrow Valley Lake across the bottom of our garden eastwards and you pretty much get to Morton Bagot. To add weight to the theory that this could be a regular flight line, overlooked by me because a.) I don't spend much time birding in the garden and b.) certainly not at 06.30, a fifth Little Egret flew by about an hour later. I still didn't have my camera at the ready!

Slightly less exciting, but still surprising, were six Redwings which flew east. These are regular in the autumn (I hope I'm not still locked down by October) and also turn up in the garden when it snows. However, this mild winter has encouraged very few into Redditch, and it is months since I saw one here.

Moving to the front of the house, I was just in time to see a neighbour accidentally flush a Grey Heron from a back garden on the other side of his fence.

As the sun rose I took a chair out, and my camera, and plonked myself down just in case. An hour later I got my reward. A Red Kite was flying languidly from the east.

Red Kite

Like the egrets, this species was on the radar. Last year I saw one circling over our close as I drove home, but it had gone before I reached the drive so it didn't make it onto the list. This time it soared on.

The remainder of the day saw only a few minor additions bringing the day list to 33 species. However, the lockdown list advanced as follows:

30. Song Thrush
31. Little Egret
32. Grey Heron
33. Redwing
34. Red Kite
35. Herring Gull

It was just warm enough for the rosemary to attract a few bees, but not a single butterfly was seen.

Last night the moth trap went out and this morning I inspected its contents. In fact the best moth was sitting on the doorstep. A large (by micro standards) micro-moth called Diurnea fagella was not only new for the year, but was the first since April 2018 when I was taking my first tentative steps into the world of moth recording. The species also has an English name of Small March Moth, but I only know this from talking to John Sirrett, my moth guru.

Diurnea fagella

The remainder of the seven moths (four species) were species recorded previously this year. The lockdown list list continues thus:

2. March Moth
3. Diurnea fagella (Small March Moth)
4. Hebrew Character.

Here are the remainder.

Common Quaker

Hebrew Character

March Moth

It's a shame about the dull grey light this morning.

My next post will be on Saturday.

Lockdown - Sat 28/03/2020

This is the first of what is intended to be a twice weekly post relating to the species of birds, butterflies, and moths (other creatures may also feature) in our garden at Winyates East on the east side of Redditch. The subject of these posts will continue to focus on our garden as long as government advice remains that there should be no travel except for essential purposes.

Although our garden is in Worcestershire according to modern political boundaries (and therefore for bird records), it is in VC38 which counts as Warwickshire for the recording of all other groups (eg insects).

I'll begin with some images taken from our windows, and in our garden, to illustrate how ordinary and suburban the environment is.

The front aspect looking north

The front garden

As you can see the front garden is very small, and cultivated for flowers and shrubs. 

A view from a back window looking south

Our back garden is a reflection of the fact Lyn and I have different visions of how it should look. The pretty bit is near the house. Lyn is unfortunately unable to garden, but is very willing to direct me. The extent to which I comply can be a bone of contention.

Lyn's bit.

On the opposite side of the garden is a dilapidated shed and a "wild area" which shows what can be achieved by total neglect.

My bit

The garden is dominated by a mature apple tree which produces a variety of apple called Blenheim Orange, and an awful lot of tiny moths at the right season.

Many birders in the UK started keeping lockdown lists of birds from last weekend. My start was delayed until Friday by my reluctance to embrace the concept of not going out, and I have paid for that tardiness as the sunny weather of the past week has given way to largely grey skies and a chilly north-easterly wind. This is not great for insect recording.

So down to business. A combined total of yesterday's and today's birds is as follows:

1. Buzzard - yesterday
2. Greenfinch - heard singing yesterday

Neither of these species was recorded today. Today's list continues therefore as:

3. Blackcap - heard singing
4. Lesser Black-backed Gull
5. House Sparrow
6. Collared Dove
7. Carrion Crow
8. Nuthatch
9. Wren
10. Blackbird
11. Starling
12. Goldfinch
13. Magpie
14. Blue Tit
15. Robin
16. Woodpigeon
17. Greylag Goose - heard calling as they flew over
18. Great Tit
19. Jackdaw - a party of 25 flying over was more than usual
20. Dunnock
21. Feral Pigeon
22. Sparrowhawk
23. Stock Dove - two flying over
24. Coal Tit
25. Chaffinch

Dunnock

The birds featured above are generally the species which occur regularly in or over the garden, the scarcest probably being the Blackcap and the Stock Doves. I will not be producing a full list for each half week, but will only add additions to the tally.

I suspect that invertebrates will feature much more heavily in future. It just so happened that I only recorded one species of butterfly yesterday (and none today) as the weather turned colder. So the butterfly list is:

1. Peacock

You're likely to get sick of looking at moth photos over the next few weeks, but last night the trap produced only two moths of a single species which I had already caught this year, pre-lockdown, so I didn't bother to photograph them.

The lockdown moth list is thus:

1. Common Quaker

Other groups occur, but I'm not going to go into any detail about flies, bees, spiders, worms, slugs etc because I don't really know enough about them.

I did record one mammal:

1. Grey Squirrel

Bloody things.

So that's your lot for now. Until the moth trap starts producing, future posts should be more concise.

Keep safe.

Mixed messages

I really enjoyed birding at Morton Bagot yesterday.

Today, it seems I was in the wrong. The advice on the news this morning (if it was out there yesterday I must have missed it) is that no one is allowed to leave their homes for non-essential journeys. Birding counts as non-essential.

The reason I went birding was that on Tuesday I had seen a Government spokesman saying it was OK to go to the countryside and walk around. I didn't hear anything about time restrictions. I checked the Heart of England Forest website (most of the land at Morton Bagot is owned by HOEF) and it said their land was open to visitors.

The irony is that I'm absolutely certain that by visiting Morton Bagot I was putting no one in danger, and that I am at far more risk going on my weekly shop, or visiting the newsagent than wandering around Morton Bagot on my own.

But above all, I feel guilty for enjoying myself in the field when (almost) everyone else is sticking to their gardens and making the best of it.

So that's what I'll be doing in future. I'll be Morton Bagot Birder in name only for the foreseeable future.

The garden list starts today.