Glossy Ibis at Lower Moor

At the start of 2020 I promised myself I would spend a bit more time birding away from Morton Bagot, and the plan was going well until...well you know.

Emerging from full lockdown I resumed my patch visits despite having missed all of April and half of May. Today I fancied a change. A Glossy Ibis has been resident at Lower Moor between Evesham and Pershore for several weeks, and I had given up hoping it would give Morton Bagot a look.

The directions were good, and pointed me to a flash at the end of Bridge Street in Lower Moor. I parked in the village and walked down to the small fishermen's carpark overlooking a rather splendid flash of similar size to the nearest flash at Morton Bagot.

The views were excellent, and it took me no time at all to confirm that the Ibis was not present. Instead I located a Green Sandpiper with 24 Lapwings and 21 Black-headed Gulls. After about fifteen minutes a Little Egret landed on the river, but out of sight, a couple of hundred yards to the west.

I was not worried. It was clear that the Glossy Ibis was periodically absent, it was just a matter of waiting. A car pulled up, and out jumped a familiar figure. I hadn't seen Rob Prudden for over a decade, and to my surprise he seemed to recognise me (I have been in disguise since all my hair fell out in 2005). It was great to chat to him at length about the site and how it has evolved since I was last here.

We were interrupted by the Glossy Ibis which flew in from behind us, and started feeding. Cue VT.

Lower Moor's flash is situated on the Avon flood meadows just north of the river. When I used to visit in the 1990s it barely existed, and most of the birding interest was centred on a small gravel pit and a sewage works at the edge of the village. The big improvement came courtesy of a huge injection of cash from the council  tip who had a large environmental grant to bestow, and quick thinking local birders like Rob set up a trust called The Vale Landscape Heritage Trust to receive the donation and manage the land for the good of wildlife and to benefit the community.

I may have got some of the details slightly wrong, but its a win win for wildlife in this part of the world.

The story of the finding of the Glossy Ibis is a not unfamiliar one. The farmer spotted it and identified it as a black Curlew. He rang Rob who was keen to see such a curious bird. He of course realised what it actually was as soon as he saw it.

I mentioned the Egret, and Rob was more interested than I had expected. It turns out that they are less regular here than they are at Morton Bagot, and there are two Great White Egrets present not too far away at Kemerton. After a while the Egret put in another brief appearance before flying off west. It was just a Little Egret. Further interest was added by a fly-by Cuckoo, and an equally brief Kingfisher.

I decided to spend the rest of the morning exploring the banks of the river Arrow between Broom and Wixford. In recent years a number of new dragonfly species have colonised the Avon, and I wondered whether the faster flowing Arrow might be worth checking.

It turned out that the riverside meadows were smothered in damselflies, particularly Banded Demoiselles but I saw not one dragonfly. It was still nice to see a couple of White-legged Damselflies, and several Red-eyed Damselflies (a species I have not seen at Morton Bagot).

Banded Demoiselle

White-legged Damselfly

Red-eyed Damselfly

Not quite stealing the show were two singing Yellowhammers. Its sad that this familiar species now features as noteworthy as these were the first I had heard singing this year.

Yellowhammer

It flew off before I could engage the brain and get some footage of it in full song. There are still plenty of places in the UK which are great for wildlife thank goodness. They're just harder to find than they should be.

Moths and bubbles

The weather forecast suggests heavy showers after today, so last night the trap went out in order that I could be looking at dry moths this morning and releasing them on a dry evening tonight. It was reasonably warm and my catch of 60 moths included one new for the garden, and plenty new for the year.

This post is later than usual because for the first time since lockdown we were able to get my mum over to form our bubble. She also got to have some cracking moths shoved under her nose; Elephant Hawk-moth, and Buff-tip. Lucky old mum!

So down to business. The moth which was a garden tick was a Flame. This was one I have been expecting to turn up one day. It folds itself away in the trap like a piece of stick which has been snapped off a branch, no doubt a completely deliberate ruse to fool the hungry Robins and young House Sparrows currently bossing the garden.

Flame

The egg-boxes also revealed another moth I have never trapped, but technically it wasn't new for the garden. Although I only acquired the trap in 2018, I had been trying to identify moths which enter the bathroom for years, and Fan-foot was on that list.

Fan-foot

Not the most spectacular moth, but a nice fresh individual. The same could not be said of some of the other species new for the year. A Treble Brown Spot looked on its last legs, but revived enough to fly off.

Treble Brown Spot

Rather more problematic were two pugs. The smaller one was the most worn, while the other was rather undistinguished even for a pug. @UKMothID was tweeted their pictures, and came back with an answer. They were a very faded Green Pug and a Grey Pug. The latter was new for the year, and only the second I have seen.

Grey Pug

I didn't have the heart to send him an image of an even worse looking moth, which may be a Scoparia ambigualis, but will have to remain unidentified.

Crambid sp

The final year-tick was in pristine condition, but I'll soon be sick of them. The first two Large Yellow Underwings of the season.

Large Yellow Underwing

There was also a tiny micro which was probably a Coleophora species, but there was no chance of an identification without the assistance of the County recorder and his microscope. (02/10/2020 update: it was confirmed a C laricella. So just a year tick.)

The full list was:

Coleophora laricella 1 
Brown House Moth 2
Ruddy Streak 2 (very worn)
Light Brown Apple Moth 1
Codling Moth 2
Cnephasia ag 1
Aleimma loeflingiana 1
Unidentified crambid 1
Crambus pascuella 2
Garden Grass-veneer 2
Water-veneer 3
Figure of Eighty 1
Elephant Hawk-moth 1
Treble Brown Spot 1 (nfy)
Common Marbled Carpet 1
Green Pug 1
Grey Pug 1 (nfy)
Buff-tip 1
Straw Dot 1
Fan-foot 1 (nfy)
Spectacle 1
Coronet 1
Uncertain 3
Marbled Minor ag 1
Heart and Dart 23
Flame 1 (nfg)
Large Yellow Underwing 2

The list has gradually grown through the evening as previously unsuspected micros have left the trap.

Sunday June 14 - waders starting to return

A mostly cloudy morning with sunny intervals and a light south-easterly.

For once it was a relief to get away from Netherstead as one of the residents was making an awful racket in his garden (possibly hedge-trimming). Once we reached the beehives, things quietened down and we were able to hear a Grasshopper Warbler in the chat field. Our efforts to see it again went unrewarded.

One or two new butterflies have emerged, including Marbled White and Ringlet, but we were again struck by how many Small Tortoiseshells were on the wing. Somewhere between 10 and 20 is more than we have seen here for years.

The flash field was to provide the main ornithological interest. A Little Owl glared at me from the foot of its tree before disappearing into the foliage. The flashes themselves were slow to reveal what was present, but we eventually counted five Teal, two Little Ringed Plovers, two returning Green Sandpipers, and a post-breeding Redshank. Its starting to feel like the place is getting back to its old self.

Little Ringed Plover

Green Sandpiper

Redshank

Teal

The remainder of the visit was fairly steady, as you might expect in the middle of June. We did however see a Comma, a species I have struggled to see anywhere this year, and also a couple of juvenile Mistle Thrushes. There is probably only one breeding pair of these on the patch, so it was good to see that they had been successful.

Comma

Juv Mistle Thrush and Goldfinch

Midsummer is the time when I can't help looking at the flowering heads of Umbellifers and Meadow Sweet because they are always jam-packed with insects I can't identify. Today one contained a longhorn beetle I recognised (but couldn't remember the name of) which was too spectacular to leave out of the blog.

Rutpela maculata

My eye was drawn to the big one, Rutpela maculata so I didn't even notice the smaller longhorn beetle next to it. A brief bit of research has led me to the conclusion that the photograph is not clear enough to be certain of its species.

One other thing to mention is a singing Reed Warbler, one of four on site, singing from scrub at the edge of Stapenhill Wood. Any thoughts of Marsh or Blyth's Reed Warbler were quelled by the fact it sounded like a completely typical Reed Warbler, but one singing in the wrong habitat.

Its nice to feel that birding is back to normal. I hope its not a passing illusion.

Shopping, Starlings, and Moths

It hasn't escaped my notice that there has been a huge influx of Rose-coloured Starlings in the UK since the end of May, and at least three have appeared in the West Midlands (two in Staffs and one in Worcs). The latter was seen in a flock of 1000 Starlings at Grimley near Worcester on Thursday evening. I was very tempted to go last night. However, I'm still uncomfortable about the health risk posed by crowds of twitchers, and I was wondering about parking.

So plan B was to go shopping in Alcester taking a circuitous route around Studley and Redditch in the hope of bumping into a Starling flock. This proved unsuccessful, surprisingly enough, and I even struggled to spot more than a handful of Starlings. Oh well, the Rosy failed to reappear at Grimley anyway.

The moth trap went out in spite of heavy rain before it got dark, and drizzle later. It was at least a mild night and I was reasonably hopeful, particularly when a I caught the garden's second Blue-bordered Carpet during the evening. A stunning moth.

Blue-bordered Carpet

This morning, things got off to a disappointing start. An interesting Carpet Moth sp was resting on the side of the trap. I peered blearily at it before deciding I didn't know what it was and would need to get a photograph. I turned around briefly to see where my camera was, and on returning my gaze to the trap, the moth was gone. Bugger!

Fortunately it was uphill all the way after that. Although I only found 28 moths in total, two were to prove new for the garden, and another four new for the year.

The first new one was a rather horribly worn noctuid. I couldn't figure out what it was, so measured and photographed it, eventually narrowing it down to two species. I decided to Tweet some shots to UKMothID and was delighted to have my suspicion confirmed. It was a Small Square-spot.

Small Square-spot

This is not supposed to be a rare moth, but it does appear to be declining rapidly, which may explain why I have not seen one before.

The second garden-tick came at the end of the session, when I made a final check of the fence. On it was a recognisably different Pug. I was pretty certain it was Foxglove Pug, and some quick research duly ruled out the other possibilities.

Foxglove Pug

This too is not a rare moth, but its appearance in the garden may be linked to us planting some Foxgloves last year.

The new ones for the year were: White Satin Moth, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Plum Tortrix, and the grass moth Crambus pascuella.

White Satin shown from underneath as the top is just white.

Setaceous Hebrew Character 

Plum Tortrix

Crambus pascuella

The full list was:

Plum Tortrix 1 (nfy)
Garden Grass-veneer 2
Crambus pascuella 1 (nfy)
Blue-bordered Carpet 1 (nfy)
Peppered Moth 2
Foxglove Pug 1 (nfg)
Buff Ermine 1
White Satin Moth (nfy)
Vine's Rustic 1
Heart and Dart 14
Setaceous Hebrew Character 1 (nfy)
Small Square-spot 1 (nfg)
Flame Shoulder 1

PS: At around midday I nipped into the garden to discourage two cats from rolling in our Cat-mint, and on looking up spotted a Red Kite drifting over, very high up. I had time to grab the camera and get some shots.

Red Kite

There may be a bird occupying territory in this end of Redditch because John Belsey filmed one over his garden a week ago.

Wednesday 10 June 2020

The middle of June, cloudy and dull. Hardly worth going birding? Think again. This was my best morning at the patch since lockdown restrictions eased.

The first half an hour was pretty decent. A Grey Wagtail could be heard calling from the dragonfly ponds, but my stealthy approach wasn't stealthy enough as it got up and flew off. My first here since January. A Great Spotted Woodpecker tapping for food in the copse by Netherstead seemed to be ringed, and presented an opportunity to try the video option on my camera.

Well that went quite well. I couldn't see it well enough to read the ring, but I would guess it was a bird ringed here, maybe just last Sunday.

I started walking along the track towards the beehives when I was stopped in my tracks by a singing Garden Warbler. Now this should be an opportunity to record the song as there was clearly no chance of seeing it in the woodland under-storey. I soon found that there was a problem. The bird sang for relatively brief periods with long gaps in between. It would sing, I would record, it would stop. After three attempts had given me fantastic sounds of Chiffchaff, Wren, Robin etc, I finally managed an extract in which the bird turned up. It can be heard briefly at the start, with another short burst about sixteen seconds in. Unfortunately it's not as close as most of the other birds are. Disclaimer over, here it is.

Moving swiftly on, I headed for the flash field where the piece de resistance was waiting for me. A Greenshank was wading around in the rapidly evaporating water.

Greenshank

This was the first passage wader here since the end of March when a Green Sandpiper turned up just before lockdown. Whether it is a late Spring migrant or an early Autumn returner I have no idea. With my new found over-confidence I tried videoing it too.

I don't think I'll be applying for a job on Springwatch.

Also present on the flash was a Little Ringed Plover, not that I could see it. I just heard it calling as I walked along the footpath. The Greenshank was briefly chased by a territorial Lapwing but was still present when I moved on.

Back at the dragonfly ponds two Reed Warblers were singing, but the birds visible in the reeds were a family of Whitethroats.

Juvenile Whitethroat

Now that's what I call a good visit.

Garden moths - 9/6/20

With temperature restored to a more typical 10 degrees overnight the trap was reasonably busy this morning. 41 moths of 15 species recorded.

There was nothing new for the garden but several new for the year. Pride of place goes to a micro because a) its pretty, and b) I didn't catch one last year. An Aleimma loeflingiana was resting on the perspex cover of the trap, before allowing a photo in the lid of my smallest pot.

Aleimma loeflingiana

One or two of the micros had me scratching my head this morning. One that is awaiting verification is a Phycita roberella. Like all pyrallids this species can vary a bit in appearance, but I'm reasonably sure its right. Confirmed later by UKMothID.

Phycita roborella

Assuming the other tricky micro will turn out to be just a worn Codling Moth, I will turn to the new macros for the year. The first is Small Dusty Wave, and the second is Uncertain, of which I caught two.

Small Dusty Wave

Uncertain

The full list was as follows:

Brown House Moth 1
Bryotropha affinis 1
Cnephasia ag 1
Aleimma loeflingiana 1 (nfy)
Light Brown Apple Moth 1
Codling Moth 3
Phycita roberella 1 (nfy)
Figure of Eighty 1
Small Dusty Wave 1 (nfy)
Common Marbled Carpet 1
Peppered Moth 2
Buff-tip 1
Uncertain 2 (nfy)
Pale Mottled Willow 1
Heart and Dart 23

During the afternoon I was forced encouraged into the front garden by Lyn to do some weeding. She kindly joined me to make sure I didn't become distracted help. After 45 minutes of watching me chopping saplings and throwing snails she bowed to the inevitable.

A Mint Moth, Pyrausta aurata was putting in its annual appearance on our Cat-mint.

Pyrausta aurata

Actually I did glimpse one a few weeks ago in the back garden, but today's insect was more obliging.

Sunday June 7

The morning began fairly bright but within a couple of hours it was back to cloud and drizzle. At least I managed to get my camera out before the rain arrived.

Common Whitethroat - adult

At least two pairs of Whitethroats were feeding recently fledged juveniles, which meant I could finally feature some birds on this blog.

Common Whitethroat - juvenile

The ringers are back. We met Tony and Leigh just as they were preparing to pack up. I was given the opportunity to photograph a Blue Tit in the hand, but stupidly left the camera on auto mode so ended up with a slightly fuzzy Blue Tit in the foreground and a perfectly focussed Tony in the distance. The ringers had gripped us off with a Barn Owl earlier on.

I recently received a Caterpillar Guide as a birthday present, and had the opportunity to use it this morning when we found a ball of Peacock caterpillars on nettles.

Peacock caterpillars

In truth I knew what they were anyway.

Back to birds, House Martins were taking advantage of the recent wet weather by collecting mud for their nests. We reached the flash field where the Shelducks and Little Ringed Plovers were still present, and a pair of Tufted Ducks were on the Kingfisher Pool.

House Martins

Little Ringed Plovers

Tufted Ducks

Finally, with few butterflies or dragonflies on the wing, we were diverted by a single spike of a Pyramidal Orchid, a very nice thing to see.

Pyramidal Orchid

Tony has kindly supplied the ringing data, including retraps, for today's session (retraps in brackets):

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Blue Tit 23 (3)
Great Tit 8 (2)
Sedge Warbler 2 (1)
Blackcap 1
Whitethroat 2
Robin 2
Dunnock 2
Greenfinch 2
Goldfinch 11 (1)

Many of the resident species caught were juveniles, but all of their warblers were adults.

Dave and I noticed a ringed Sedge Warbler in the reed-bed, presumably one of the two birds caught today.