Tuesday September 1 - still sticking to the patch

At this time of the year there are distractions everywhere, birds to go for. A week ago I made the right decision when choosing not to twitch the Greenish Warbler in Staffordshire. It was not seen in the afternoon after its discovery. This weekend I may have made the wrong decision. A stunning adult male Red-backed Shrike is currently present in Sutton Park. I very nearly went there this morning but the news of its continuing presence missed my departure for Morton Bagot.

Fortunately I've had quite a nice morning. An adult Peregrine was sitting on a pylon, and within a few minutes of seeing that I found a female-type Redstart in the hedge between Netherstead Farm (under construction) and the paddocks.

Peregrine

Redstart

Although this is the same hedge as the last two sightings here, this is surely a different bird.

I ended up taking a slightly different route, missing out the chat field. Several Blackcaps, and other warblers were seen before I spotted another birder. He turned out to be Martin from a part of Redditch which is close to where I live.

We ambled to the flash field where Martin quickly spotted the Little Owl as it flew up into the foliage of its favoured oak. The flashes themselves just contained 38 Teal, and 29 Lapwings. However there was a surprise in store for us as the Goldfinch flock was accompanied by several Siskins. It's hard to get shots of Siskins here, so I spent the time I should have taken to count how many there were, trying to get a shot.

Siskin - probably a juvenile.

It looks like it will be a good winter to see Siskins. The first ones appeared over our house in June with a few Crossbills, and although there seems to have been a lull since then, I have noted odd Siskins calling over the garden again in the last week, and so an early autumn arrival seems on the cards.

Martin and I parted company, and I continued back to my car. I went through the chat field where there were no chats, and in fact I didn't add anything else of significance.

Will I be going to see the Shrike? The next two days we have visitors, and so on. So that's probably a no.

I'm a rubbish twitcher.

Sunday August 30 - nearly but not quite

 A morning of sunny intervals and a chilly northerly breeze can make birding hard work. Indeed the last 24 hours have been quite frustrating.

Bear with me, I'm just going to slip back to yesterday evening's mothing first. The target species group for Moth Night was a spectacular group of very large moths with bright red and crimson underwings and names which matched the description. What they have in common is that they are more attracted to sugar than light. Sugaring is basically daubing trees in sweet stuff, like the 2016 raspberry jam I found in the cupboard, and hoping something comes to eat it.

When I wandered down to the apple tree for the second time in the evening, torch in hand but camera back in the house, I was shocked to see a massive moth sucking the solution up. It was above head height but was definitely a "something" Underwing or a Clifden Nonpareil. By the time I retrieved my camera it had gone. 

Back on the patch, the morning had its moments but there was also a hangover of frustration  similar to last night's experience. Wildlife watching is often like that.

The first decent bird was a Kingfisher which unexpectedly flew across our path and over a hedge as it departed the Netherstead area. I then picked up a distant falcon powering away towards Studley. Probably a Peregrine. 

The same range of warblers were present in the hedgerows, but maybe slightly fewer than recently. We got to the chat field where three chats were found. However they were Whinchats and were not at all keen to pose for photos. There was no sign of the Stonechat family.

Whinchat socially distancing

Arguably the highlight of the morning was watching Dave attempting to do himself a mischief by climbing a rather saggy wire fence. By the time we reached the flash pool we had added the first Meadow Pipit of the autumn which headed over unseen, and also a rather smart Painted Lady. This migrant species has not been very common this year.

Painted Lady

The flash field contained 42 Teal, five Shoveler, about 50 Mallard, and 26 Lapwings. Yawn. Walking back along Morton Brook we came across the flock of about 80 Goldfinches and a few Linnets.

Juvenile Goldfinch starting to acquire its adult plumage

But that was about it for birds. Instead, we had to rely on insects to keep us amused. A Common Blue butterfly was presumably from a second brood.

Common Blue

But the most frustrating moment of the morning came at the dragonfly pools where we watched what I'm still fairly sure was a male Emperor head across to the far side, and then disappear. This is an exceptionally late date for this species, so we hung around hoping for another look. Instead, a male Migrant Hawker appeared. Personally I'm sure the first dragonfly was not a hawker, but Dave started to have doubts, so I'll have to let it slip away without conclusion.

Ah, the frustrations of recording wildlife.

Moth Night (part two) - 28 Aug 2020

A vital component of any moth trapping session was missing from yesterday's post, the weather. 

Last night's effort had to contend with very different conditions. Where Thursday night was relatively balmy (no lower than 12 degrees centigrade) and the wind was a gentle southerly, last night was cold (no higher than nine degrees) with a fresh northerly.

When I peered at my trap at various times during the evening it appeared mothless, and this morning I glanced out at 05.00am to see no insects around it, not even wasps. No wasps! This might suggest that their arrival could be dawn related, and they hadn't set their alarm. I dashed downstairs, turned off the trap and hauled it indoors before shutting all the doors and retiring back to bed.

When I finally emerged from the pit an hour later I was half expecting to find nothing at all, so I was pleasantly surprised to find moths pebble-dashing the walls of the utility room (actually I'm exaggerating, but there were several). 

My final tally was 49 moths of 12 species, about half as many as the night before. Weather is key.

As the variety was quite low, I will be sharing the full details, but before I get to that there was at least one which was new for the year, a Small Blood-vein. This is not a particularly rare moth, although I failed to catch one last year.

Small Blood-vein

The full list was: Light Brown Apple Moth 1, Agriphila geniculea 13, Agriphila inquinatella 1, Mother of Pearl 1, Small Blood-vein 1, Garden Carpet 1, Vine's Rustic 1, Flounced Rustic 14, Flame Shoulder 1, Square-spot Rustic 2, Large Yellow Underwing 12, Lesser Yellow Underwing 1.

I don't think I'll be winning any Moth Night prizes.

Moth Night (part one) - 27 Aug 2020

 I have been a subscriber to Atropos, a magazine for those interested in insects, especially migratory ones, since its first issue in 1995. This is despite the fact that for the first 22 years of my membership I only really knew anything about butterflies and dragonflies. Moths were just names. They meant nothing to me, although it was apparent that they meant a lot to Atropos. There are just so many species of moths and so few butterflies and dragonflies.

The reason I mention this is that Atropos introduced something called National Moth Night, a movable feast of moths set on different dates each year. Hundreds of moth-ers took part, and each year it grew and grew. The results were published annually in the magazine. I wished I could join in.

Finally I did. I bought a moth trap in 2018, and learnt about moths. At last I could take part. Unfortunately it has got so big that, as well as being rebranded as Moth Night, the results have stopped appearing in the magazine. To see them it is now necessary to access the Atropos website. I preferred seeing them in the magazine, but hey ho, the result of this year's efforts will eventually appear here: https://www.mothnight.info. 

Last night was the first of three nights over which this year's event will run. My trap went out and I did pretty well. After clearing all the wasps I found a total of 89 moths of 22 species.

Excitingly these included two which were new to the garden, one of which is still scarce in Warwickshire having spread from southern England in recent years, while the other was a less than common migrant.

The scarce one is a pug (but not a boring one). The Cypress Pug is quite a looker for a pug, and also massive (pugwise) with a forewing of 11 millimetres. Phwoar !

Cypress Pug

How rare is it? They were first established as a resident in Warwickshire in 2007, and ten years later fewer than ten were found each year. Since then they have got a bit more frequent with 16 in 2018, and 14 in 2019. So not mega rare, but still a pretty good find.

The migrant was a Dark Sword-grass. They turn up every year, but are still unusual enough that most records are documented. I have to admit that the 18 which turned up Warwickshire in 2019 included one I saw on the side of Selfridges in Birmingham, so last night's moth was new for the garden but not new for me.

Dark Sword-grass

This particular example seems to be a female and is rather more worn than it might have been, but I suppose if its flown all the way from southern Europe it has every right to look a bit worse for wear.

One other migrant turned up last night; a Silver Y, and one other moth was new for the year; a spectacular male Vapourer. 

Vapourer

You've probably seen this moth without realising it. An orangey moth jinking its way across the countryside in broad daylight at Morton Bagot generally goes unidentified, but is almost certainly a male of this species sniffing out the pheromone trail of the flightless female. 

My only previous garden record was in 2018.

The commonest moths were the usual suspects; 

35 Large Yellow Underwings, 16 Agriphila geniculea, 10 Flounced Rustics, and six Vine's Rustics. 

Part two will follow tomorrow. I can hardly wait.

Wednesday August 26 - Stonechat conundrum

 Yesterday was not a day for the fainted-hearted. So that let me out. The birding bravehearts were out there, suffering for their art, finding wader and tern passage everywhere they looked, and getting very wet in the process.

This morning I tiptoed out into the aftermath, dodging fallen saplings aplenty on my way to the patch. The wind was still a brisk south-westerly but lessened in strength with every passing hour. The calmer areas in the lee of the hedgerows were full of birds. Admittedly most of them were Blue Tits, but I did find handfuls of Lesser Whitethroats, Whitethroats, Blackcaps, and Chiffchaffs along with at least three Willow Warblers.

So to the chat field where, instead of the half expected Whinchats, I found a family party of Stonechats. The male was in heavy moult, while the female had been ringed. The question is, was it the female ringed here in December, or is it a completely new bird which has been ringed somewhere else? Either way it would be fascinating to know.

The ringed female Stonechat

The male Stonechat regrowing its moulted tail feathers

There seemed to be six in total; the pair plus four juveniles. As far as I could tell, the juveniles appeared to be weeks old rather than days old, so they may not be the second brood of the pair discovered to have recently fledged young at the end of May. I pinged an email to the ringers, but the earliest they can get down is late next week, so the conundrum may remain unresolved.

Four in one shot was the most I could manage

I continued to the flash field where, as expected, the water level remains too high for waders. Once again a single Green Sandpiper was on the furthest flash, and 42 Lapwings were getting their feet wet on the nearest. At least the two Shovelers had chosen to switch to the closest flash.

The Shovelers

A Tree Pipit called as it flew over while I was counting Mallard (44 if you're interested), but I nobly continued with the count and didn't even look up. I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway.

Lapwings

I haven't photographed many dragonflies this year, so when a typically inquisitive Southern Hawker decided to perch, the opportunity was not to be passed up.

Southern Hawker

On the walk back I got the chance to have a good look at a Willow Warbler. This species was once extremely common, but its range seems to be shifting northwards presumably due to global warming. It is therefore quite likely that this bird is a migrant from further north although it must be said that the HOEF woods are full of birches and young growth, which is ideal for Willow Warblers to breed in.

Willow Warbler

How do you tell them from Chiffchaff? Leg colour is useful but not diagnostic (pale is better for Willow Warbler), juveniles can have very yellow underparts or at least be quite pale like this bird. The supercilium (pale stripe above the eye) can be more obvious in Willow Warbler, and they lack the pronounced white eye-ring shown by most Chiffchaffs. 

Also it helps if it sings, which this one did.

I spoke to my old pal Mike last night. He told me that he does have some wader habitat on his patch at Middle Spernal, although it never seems to get any. So I decided to investigate. It took me about 45 minutes to find the pool (I have been there before but the HOEF trees are very disorientating) so I was greatly relieved to find it, and not surprised to see that Mike was right. The extensive gravel edge looks great, but not a single wader had found it. 

I did however flush a Barn Owl from a woodland ride, and a Shoveler, a Teal, and a Cormorant from the pool.

Sunday August 23 - Do I feel lucky?

 Yesterday I had a nose bleed. After stemming the flow I noticed I had bled onto my shirt, my lucky shirt. Also on my jeans, but they have no pedigree. 

So this morning I switched to my other lucky shirt, latterly considered to be an unlucky shirt. I drove the ten minutes to the patch. On arrival I discovered I had forgotten my phone, and as I don't like to leave Lyn with no way to contact me and I was early anyway, I returned home. As I pulled onto the drive I discovered it had been in my coat pocket, where I never put it! So that was twenty minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Back at the patch I warned Dave that we would be seeing nothing today. The weather suggested we had a chance, relatively calm and mostly cloudy. 

Hope arrived in the form of three Whinchats in the chat field. 

A smart Whinchat

A scruffy Whinchat

Shortly afterwards another bit of luck came our way. A Yellowhammer flew in and seemed to land in a hedge. A few years ago I might not even have been motivated enough to pick up my bins, but the species is now lost to the patch except for a few winter birds. This was the first since February. Unfortunately I couldn't see where it was calling from, and it took off before I got a proper view.

We did not have high expectations of the flash field, and as predicted the water-level was still too high for waders beyond a couple of Green Sandpipers and 23 Lapwings. On the other hand two Shovelers were swimming around the furthest flash, the first for a while. Other ducks present were 14 Teal and 94 Mallard. Two Kingfishers briefly appeared, chasing each other around. Probably the first time I have seen two here. 

The rest of the morning was busy. Plenty of finches, most of the expected warblers, and generally decent numbers of birds.

Luck plays a massive part in bird finding, and we may have used all ours on being in the right place at the right time when the Marsh Harrier flew through a couple of weeks ago.

Twitching on the other hand takes determination and effort. Half an hour after I got home I got a call from Dave. There's a Greenish Warbler in Staffordshire. He didn't know where (wrong Bird Guides tariff), but I made a quick enquiry and discovered it was at Cuckoo Bank, Heath Hayes. Should we go? Twenty years ago I'd have been out of the house like a shot, but these days I agonise. I don't know the place. How much can I be bothered? Which shirt should I wear?

Two hours later I'm still here.

Late summer moths

 My garden trap contained about 73 moths this morning, several of which were so worn that I released them without attempting an identification. There were also quite a lot of wasps again and I'm afraid one moth, a Dusky Thorn I think from the wings that were left, was eaten by them.

Most of the survivors were Large Yellow Underwings (27), and the next three in order of abundance were Agriphila geniculea (nine), Vine's Rustic (six), and Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (four).

There was just one moth which was new for the garden, a small micro which unfortunately cannot be identified to species level without the recorder becoming involved. However I believe it to be either Caloptilia alchimiella or Caloptilia robustella. The recorder later confirmed it was C robustella which is the commoner of the two.

Caloptilia robustella

The only other moth which was new for the year was a Six-striped Rustic, although an Orange Swift was unusual in being a female rather than a male, and is therefore sort of new for the garden.

Six-striped Rustic

The female Orange Swift

It looks as though I'm going to be stuck with the annoying wasps for the duration of the autumn as my neighbour hasn't noticed (I assume) the nest entrance in the corner of his garage. I keep having to remind myself that they are good for the garden ecosystem.