Missing Moth Migration

I really need to sort out a way that I can moth trap in rain, as over the weekend I missed some really good moth immigration (take a look at the Portland Bird Obs website).

With last night being the first forecasted dry night, I trapped at Mum and Dads. Despite the lack of anything exceptional, it was nice to see some of the mid summer species as I've not done any mothing for over a month!

Out of the 151 moths of 45 species, this Herald took some beating...

Herald

Although for the 'wow factor', Black Arches aren't too shabby...

Male Black Arches

And how about this Scorched Carpet...

Scorched Carpet

Although annual here, Crescent Dart is quite a localised species, so I always like seeing them...

A worn male Crescent Dart

This is small and not that spectacular, but it was nice to trap as I've only caught one before...

Least Carpet

Look out a Shark...

A Shark

And it wasn't quite a blank catch for migrants, thanks to one of these...

Silver Y

I have to say, Honey was a very good and patient girl whilst I was emptying the trap. Although I suspect she would have loved to have been able to chase the moths around the garden!

I will keep this post insect related and mention the wander around Lower Bruckland Ponds with Jess the other day.  It was nice to see Small Red-eyed Damselflies again, with most on the top pond. Lots of males were visible along with a couple of ovipositing pairs.

Male Small Red-eyed Damselfly

And I just had to take a pic of this Common Blue Damselfly munching on its dinner...

Common Blue Damselfly

I don't have any earth shattering bird news, so the few bits of slight interest can wait to the next post.

Nightjars Return With Friends

Last year Nightjar was added to everyone's patch lists as at least two birds were found late summer in only recently created suitable habitat (see HERE).  We couldn't prove breeding but both male and female birds were present.

Last Sunday night I took my first dusk trip to the site this year, and was delighted to see a male Nightjar fly in and begin churring at 21:25. Even better a female immediately reacted to the song and flew up to join him. They both flew around together before heading off into the darkness - awesome! 

Whilst here, in the fading light I was pretty sure I could hear a Tree Pipit singing from somewhere, so went back this morning for a walk round during day light hours.  And it just shows that if the habitat is there, birds will use it, as I saw an amazing three Tree Pipits! Two males and a female...

 And how do I know one was a female? Well....

Tree Pipit porn!  I'm pretty sure this is the first known breeding Tree Pipits on patch.

Only other news I have to report is of my first immigrant moth of the year, in a rather unusual location!  This Silver Y was on the charging lead for the works van...

Great to see again!

Moth Overload!

First of all, thanks to all the texts/tweets/phonecalls/emails about yesterday's TV first. If you missed it I will put up a link to the BBC iplayer page, it is worth watching for the stunning Hoopoe footage.

Now if you are a tweeter, you would have seen most of these photos already, so I apologies. And if you really don't like moths, this post won't interest you (but please give it a look!). Also if you are a moth expert there's nothing that's going to set the world alight coming up, but I just get SO MUCH excitement from these critters - I have to share it! Each moth is stunning in its own right (well most of them anyway!) so please just scroll through and enjoy the variety.

I trapped at Mum and Dads on Tuesday and Wednesday night this week. With the muggy and still conditions there's no way I couldn't - perfect moth weather.  The numbers were lower than I expected, but overall I still managed 150 moths of 42 species.

And here's some of the best. Starting with the big guns...

Elephant Hawkmoth

Eyed Hawkmoth

Only the garden's second ever Lime Hawkmoth

The Lime Hawk with a Poplar Hawkmoth (Pop's are HUGE!)

Here's some of my other favourite macro moths that I caught...

Starting with the smallest, this isn't a bird dropping it's a Chinese Character!

Another white one, a Clouded Silver

Cream-spot Tiger, a relation to the Jersey Tiger that is a moth that can often be seen by day around here

Another view of the Cream-spot Tiger - it's a very colourful beast!

There are few distinctive Pugs, but this Foxglove Pug is one of them!

A not very Green, Green Carpet

Pale Tussock

Peppered Moth - black and white always does it for me!

Love the name of this one, Scorched Wing

Small Waved Umber, compare to last week's Waved Umber

White Ermine - Buff Ermine are far more regular for me but I've not had one yet this year

Alder Moth

 I was pleased to get an immigrant species too. No surprise that it was one of these though...

A Silver Y ready to fly!

And although (as yet) I don't really 'do' micro moths, I did notice this - another immigrant species...

Rush Veener

Ok moth-haters/moth-pro's, you can look again now! Post done. 

A Catch Up

And I'll try and keep it as brief as possible...

Early morning visits to Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday and Wednesday failed to reveal the biggy, but the Tuesday visit did show; 28 Teal, 25 Blackwits, 23 Dunlin, 11 Common Sands, four Green Sands, four Ringed Plover, two Lapwing, a Whimbrel and a Wheatear. On Wednesday it was slightly different with; 28 Teal, 24 Blackwits, 24 Dunlin, 15 Common Sands, 14 Green Sands (my biggest count of 2012), nine Ringed Plover, two Gadwall, a Redshank and a Snipe.

The two Gadwall

The Dunlin flock right in front of the hide!

Another look over Black Hole Marsh on Friday (I was a 'Guide in the Hide' for three hours) showed lower numbers of everything, but an adult Med Gull was my first in the valley for several weeks.

I've done a bit of sea watching since my last post too, although a twenty minute watch on Wednesday morning was the only one worth talking about, as a Balearic and 24 Manx Sheartwaters flew east.

That leaves me with today to mutter about. My phone was busy this morning, with Beer showing good numbers of grounded migrants. So I decided it would be a great idea to take Jess for a walk around the Beer Cemetery Fields :-). Lots of Willow Warblers about, along with four Spot Flies and a nice male Redstart. Sadly no shrikes or rare warblers though.

And now for moths! Although the total of 134 moths of 35 species wasn't very impressive at all, some of the species were...

Best of all was a new species for the garden, there were two of them in fact...

Hoary Footman - ok it may not look great, but they certainly made my day!

These represented one of the four species of Footman in the trap, with the other three species being Buff, Common, and this...

Male Four-spotted Footman - one of my favourites

There was also one of these...

Crescent Dart

Two of these...

Iron Prominents

And four Silver Y, including this very black individual...

The blackest one I've ever seen!

I will not leave it so long until my next post I promise!!!

The End Of The Summer Break

Well I'm sure any blog viewers I have left are fed up of that baby Barn Owl they keep seeing when they click to look on this blog! On the bright side, it could have been something less cute, like a photo of me!!

Anyway, yes, that was my 'unofficial summer break' from blogging - back to normal (whatever that is!) now. I know - can I describe the last month as being summer!??? Well my calendar says it was.

My first post back is going to start with a bit of weirdo! This afternoon Fraser was at the Field Studies Centre, where there is an Egyptian Grasshopper on show at the moment...

Sorry for the picture quality, this photo was taken through a fish tank!

It doesn't really look like much in the above photo, but adding this 1p to the picture should show why it is pretty cool to look at...

It's bloody huge!!!

It was found about a week ago in Colyton, apparantly on a house roof! Although it arriving in a packet of fruit/veg/salad is probably more likely, with all this Saharan sand dust carpeting vehicles all over the county within the past week - could it not maybe have arrived with this? Personally I don't see why not - especially if it really was found on a house roof.

Whilst on insects, I should just mention my first catch of over 100 moths for this year, in the garden on the evening of 25th/26th June. I won't list the whole lot, but the big guns were represented by 3 Elephant and a Poplar Hawk, my first immigrant of the year with a Silver Y, numbers thanks to Heart and Dart (47), and other new species for the year with Maiden's Blush, Large Yellow Underwing (4), Heart and Club (5), Common Wainscot, Snout and this (very fine) Herald...

A fine moth - The Herald

Silver Y - hopefully 2012 will prove a better year for this immigrant species (and the rest!) than 2011 was!

Back to birds then, well I haven't been out and about much at all. Mostly because it has been June, but also because I haven't (as usual!) had much time.

I did visit Black Hole Marsh late Saturday (30th) with Jess, a lone Common Sandpiper on the Estuary, and the first juvenile Black-headed Gull of the 'autumn' were the only 'highlights'...

So where did you come from?

Today Black Hole Marsh offered a Black-tailed Godwit (as my Twitter followers will have seen - or as you will have done if you've been watching my Twitter feed at the top right hand corner of this blog), and a Greenshank which circled over the marsh before flying south and appearing to land on the Estuary.

After the fog had cleared I attempted a sea watch - seven Manxies later and I gave up!

As well as little birding, I haven't done all that much ringing. A short session last week gave me 15 House Sparrows (always great to handle) at Jessie's, and later in the day back home my first 3J Bullfinch of the year, and this beast...

The second Wood Pigeon I've ringed in the garden

Several weeks ago I ringed a brood of six Swallows near Beer, late last week they looked like this...

Almost too big!

At the weekend, five birds successfully fledged the nest. So great to hear they have done so well considering the awful weather!

Is This The Longest Awaited Post Ever.....

... answer; NO! But this is me giving in to all the the cries of "we need a moth update", well both of them anyway!

I'm afraid it is going to have to be a brief one, but there's a few pretty pictures to enjoy. And - just for the 'proper mothers' - there's even a few micros featured!!

I'm not going to publish the full lists of the six catches that haven't been mentioned as yet on this blog, just some highlights.

I haven't trapped anything that's been new for the garden - although I'm 99% I had a Small Marbled 'get away' a couple of weeks ago. Just as I was unscrewing the lid of the pot to put it in, it flew off... I was rather miffed at missing out on the Rannoch Looper influx too - although it serves me right as I wasn't trapping on the nights of the main influxes.

Obviously I have had all the usual 'new for the years' as the months tick by, this morning it was nice to get the year's first one of these...

Jersey Tiger

Also this morning, I had what can only be described as the prettiest July Highflyer I've ever seen...

Well smart!

For me immigrant numbers have been very poor. In fact i've only trapped two immigrant macros so far this year, and both of them have been...

Silver Y's!

Out of the new species for the year that I've trapped, it was nice to see three beasts that are nationally rather scrarce and patchily distrubted...

Four-spotted Footman - a rather worn and faded male

The Fern

Crescent Dart - a male

And now it is micro time! Without noticing, I am looking at these little critters a little more now...

Rusty-dot Pearl; boring to look at - but it's a migrant!

Catoptria pinella; lives in wooded heaths and bogs - not sure why it was in my garden then!?

Endotricha flammealis - a smart little critter

And that's my mothing update done, now time to go out and look at some Gulls.......