Busy Busy Busy

Remember the bird surveys I conducted on the Somerset/Devon border last spring/summer? I (along with the forestry commission) gave myself the deadline of last Friday to complete the full report. Well, last Tuesday most of it was unwritten! I clamped down on myself; virtually no birding and no mothing. It was worthwhile as by Friday at 11am it was complete : )

The only birding I allowed myself after my Beer Head visit on Tuesday morning was a little estuary time on Friday. Highlights were singles of Greenshank, Wood Sand, Whimbrel, two Blackwits and six each of Ringed Plover and Dunlin.

A quick look about tonight revealed singles of Wood Sand and Blackwit on Blackhole Marsh and 14 Teal. On the estuary were singles of Greenshank and Whimbrel. This morning, there was an unexpected addition to the garden list, with a Redstart calling in the front garden at about 6am. I glimpsed it briefly - looked like a juv - but it soon moved out of the garden to the north west

Last night was the first time for a while I had a moth trap out - the Robinson in the back garden.

I was working at 7am, so planned to get up at 5am to go through the catch. When I woke up though I had a killer headache, and when I got up, chucked up everywhere! After several more 'throw ups' (and the Redstart!!) I retired back to bed and phoned work. A few hours later I was awake again and felt much better, so I got up, covered over the moth trap and went to work. Many many hours later, at 17:30 in fact, I finally got to have a look through the moths.

There were 152 moths of 32 species. The five firsts for the garden were...

Dusky Thorn - cute....

A more useful view of it!

True Lovers Knot

Side on

Garden Carpet

Lime-speck Pug

Cypress Pug

There was another first for the trap, but we have had this species in the garden before. My old man hates them because they - well their larvae anyway - destroyed ALL the vegetables in our garden one year....

Angle Shades

Look at it - evil pest!

The rest of the catch was made up of: 38 Large Yellow Underwing, 34 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 14 Willow Beauty, 9 Flame Shoulder, 6 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 6 Common/Lesser Rustic, 5 Silver Y, 4 Jersey Tiger, 4 Uncertain, 3 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 3 Rustic, 3 Setaceous Hebrew Character, 2 Common Carpet, 2 Brimstone, 2 Dingy Footman, 2 Double-striped Pug, and singles of: Nut-tree Tussock, Iron Prominent, Double Square-spot, Sqaure-spot Rustic, Flame Carpet, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Riband Wave, Black Arches, Straw Dot, Spectacle and Rosy Footman.

I have a day off tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to do some birding...

Sylvia borin Falls At Last

Far from boring... well in my eyes anyway!

After I covered over the moth traps this morning at 5:30 (by the way it was another HUGE catch - even bigger than yesterdays!), I went up to Beer Head. 100% cloud cover and no wind filled me full of optimism...

I was just leaving the head when I phoned Bun at 08:10 to say what I'd seen, but mostly to moan than despite seeing a fair selection of migrants I'd STILL not seen a Garden Warbler. This species has been a bit of a patch bogey bird for me of late, the last one I saw on patch was in August 2007 - and it was a rubbish view. For a decent view I'd have to cast my mind back to autumn '06! And I've not seen a spring bird since '06!

Anyway, the 08:10 phonecall lasted about three minutes. At 08:15 I phoned him again, screaming down the phone in excitement as a Garden Warbler had just appeared in front of me! It showed REALLY well as it preened and fed on the edge on a small bush opposite the old barn above The Dell. EXCELLENT! : )

Other birds noted included: 15 Willow Warbler, 11 Wheatears, 8 Blackcaps, 3 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Dunlin (over east, later I had two west over my back garden), 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Chiffchaff. An unusal Beer Head sight was of six Canada Geese over west.

Now that Garden Warbler has fallen, Tree Pipit becomes my next easiest 'common' migrant that needs a 2009 tick next to it!

Now to Moths....and look what I did last night...

...put both traps in the back garden!

I caught 316 moths of 44 species, 180 moths of 34 species in the Skinner and 136 moths of 28 species in the Robinson. Firsts for the garden were....

This lovely Bordered Straw - an immigrant

This well marked Dog's Tooth - what a fab name!

Shaded Broad-bar

And there were two of these - Square-spot Rustics

The rest of the catch was made up of: 102 Large Yellow Underwing, 40 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 21 Silver Y, 20 Brimstone, 20 Flame-shoulder, 12 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 10 Willow Beauty, 7 Riband Wave, 7 Common/Lesser Rustic, 6 Dingy Footman, 5 Uncertain, 5 Nut-tree Tussock, 4 Jersey Tiger, 4 Ruby Tiger, 4 Iron Prominent, 4 Spectacle, 3 Rustic, 3 Straw Dot, 3 Dark Arches, 2 Dark Sword Grass, 2 Magpie, 2 Pebble Prominent, 2 Swallow Prominent, 2 Early Thorn, and singles of: Black Arches, Buff Arches, Rosy Footman, Common Footman, Common Carpet, Scorched Carpet, Flame Carpet, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Single-dotted Wave, Small Waved Umber, Smoky Wainscot, Bright-line Brown-eye, Buff Ermine, Lychnis and Yellow Shell.

I also caught three of these rather attractive little Pyralids...

Orthopygia glaucinalis

There was one last highlight today, I found this walking across the road just down from my house...

What a find!!!

We had him for most of today, but late tonight his owner was found and has him back. His name is 'Mr T' and he's 3 and a half years old! I want one....

My Two Days Off

I'll split this post two ways, birds and moths. I'll start with...

BIRDS

Whilst at work on Saturday evening, Martin (from the Exe) phoned to say he had seen the Wood Sands, and that he had a small grey parrot-thingy sat in front of him on Seaton Marshes. Amazingly, about 40 minutes later when I was fumbling about in the backyard, it flew over heading west, calling as it went - quite a sight!

So, what was is? Well neither Martin or I know, but hopefully someone might. Thanks to Martin Wolinski for this photo...

Certainly a patch tick for me - whatever it is!?

Early on Sunday morining, after I'd covered over both moth traps I went for another early morning look over Blackhole Marsh - a tatic that gave me a Little Stint the day before. I wasn't there long 'til I realised the two Wood Sands had become three. And whilst I was watching them, thought I could here a fourth closer one but never actually saw it. A little later there were four here - I should have looked some more!

The Little Stint wasn't anywhere to be seen, but other birds included: 1 Hobby (flew low north), 9 Teal, 2 Shoveler, 3 Ringed Plover, 12 Dunlin, 12 Snipe, 5 Green Sands and 4 Common Sands.

After this, and after I went through the moth traps (which you can read about a little further down the page), I went up to Beer Head. It was quiet, but I still managed singles of Lesser Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler and three Wheatears. There were loads of Silver Y's and Painted Ladies about...

Ok so this bit isn't totally about birds!

This morning, Blackhole revealed the four Wood Sands still, a few Dunlin and Common Sands and at least two Yellow Wagtails, but little else. And that's all the birding time I had today.

MOTHS

I had both traps out on Saturday night, and the result was brilliant! The Skinner was in the front garden and gave me 119 moths of 25 species and the Robinson in the back which produced 120 moths of 36 species. This totalled 239 moths of 43 species. AWESOME! In the catch there were four garden firsts...

A VERY lovely Poplar Kitten

Scalloped Hook-tip, a real smart insect

Yellow-barred Brindle

One of the few Minors which are fairly easily identified; a Rosy Minor

The other 234 moths were: 63 Large Yellow Underwing, 37 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 20 Silver Y, 15 Riband Wave, 9 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 9 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 9 Flame Shoulder, 6 Nut-tree Tussock, 6 Dingy Footman, 6 Jersey Tiger, 4 Brimstone, 4 Common Footman, 4 Uncertain, 3 Willow Beauty, 3 Early Thorn, 3 Black Arches, 3 Buff Ermine, 3 Common/Lesser Rustic, 2 Small Waved Umber, 2 Flame Carpet, 2 Dun-bar, 2 Red Twin-spot Carpet, 2 Ruby Tiger, and singles of: Rosy Footman, Leopard Moth, Iron Prominent, Pale Prominent, Swallow Prominent, Smoky Wainscot, Rustic, Spectacle, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Blood-vein, Maiden's Blush, Single-dotted Wave, Small Fan-footed Wave, Dark Arches, Crescent Dart, Common Carpet, Yellow Shell, Bright-line Brown-eye and Magpie.

Here's a few more photos from this mega catch...

A much fresher insect than the first Blood-vein I caught, which you can see HERE

My second ever Leopard Moth - stunning!

My third ever Crescent Dart

The smartest Large Yellow Underwing I've ever caught!

Two of the Black Arches - note the size difference!!

The four Prominents, from left to right: Pale, Iron, Swallow and Poplar Kitten

And that's that. Tonight I will put the Robinson out but am not expecting much as it's quite windy.

A Little Autumnal Quality

After I turned off the Robinson at 5:15 I went down to Blackhole Marsh for a look about.

The Wood Sand was still there (there's now two apparently), with several Green and Common Sands, two Teal, a Snipe, a few Dunlin and best of all, a Little Stint - our first of the autumn. It remained distant, as you can see...

Can you make it out? Foraging just below the grass

A bit clearer... maybe?!

I came back to sort through the moths at 7am. With the clear skies, blustery winds and low temperatures of last night I wasn't expecting much - and I was right! There were no new species for the garden.

I got 58 moths of 25 species, they were: 10 Large Yellow Underwing, 6 Flame Shoulder, 6 Silver Y, 5 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 3 Nut-tree Tussock, 3 Brimestone, 3 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 2 Willow Beauty, 2 Early Thorn, 2 Dark Arches, 2 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 2 Riband Wave, and singles of: Pebble Hook-tip, Small Fan-footed Wave, Cabbage Moth, Coronet, Knot Grass, Rustic, Uncertain, Grey Dagger, Heart and Dart, Dingy Footman, Common Footman, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing and Purple Thorn.

As I have no photos of garden firsts to post, here's a rather rubbish photo showing the four Yellow Underwings, the Broad-bordered was a lovely female...

It's a shame that two of them are out-of-focus! Clockwise from top left: Lesser Broad-bordered, Large, Lesser and Broad-bordered. There's also a Flame Shoulder in there

For the rest of the day I shall be working, til 8pm.... lucky me....

Two More New Ones

A quiter night for moths last night, but the Robinson in the back garden still gave 74 moths of 22 species. This included two very pleasing firsts for the garden....

A Devonshire Wainscot, a local speciality

....and again. A great garden tick : )

Then there was this migrant, at last....

A slightly worn Dark Sword Grass

The rest of the catch was mainly Yellow Underwings! Here's the full haul: 23 Large Yellow Underwing, 9 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 8 Nut-tree Tussock, 5 Dark Arches, 4 Silver Y, 3 Riband Wave, 3 Flame Shoulder, 3 Pebble Prominent, 3 Early Thorn, 2 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 2 Small Waved Umber, 2 Dingy Footman, and singles of: Grey Dagger, Spectacle, Heart and Dart, Buff Ermine, Willow Beauty, Common Carpet, Knot Grass and Common/Lesser Rustic.

Just to finish this post, there's been a Wood Sandpiper on Blackhole Marsh over the past couple of days if anyone is interested. Our third of the year.

A Monster Catch

I didn't catch no monsters though - just plenty of moths! The Robinson in my back garden gave me 149 moths this morning of 44 species.

New for the gardens were....

Scorched Carpet - there were two of these

Mullein Wave

A very worn Maiden's Blush

A very VERY worn and faded Blood-vein

And this little guy - a Straw Dot

The rest of this awesome catch was made up of: 17 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 14 Large Yellow Underwing, 13 Riband Wave, 11 Nut-tree Tussock, 9 Willow Beauty, 9 Dingy Footman, 8 Brimstone, 7 Common Footman, 7 Flame-shoulder, 5 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 4 Common/Lesser Rustic, 3 Silver Y, 3 Small Fan-footed Wave, 3 Buff Ermine, 2 Jersey Tiger, 2 Rosy Footman, 2 Single-dotted Wave, 2 Magpie, 2 Dark Arches, 2 Early Thorn, and singles of: Pebble Hook-tip, Yellow Shell (my first in a trap record!), Bright-line Brown-eye, Pebble Prominet, Crescent Dart, Small Fanfoot, Knot Grass, Buff Footman, Small Waved Umber, Cabbage Moth, Uncertain, Purple Bar, Spectacle, Buff Arches, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Small Phoenix, Common Carpet and another Carpet sp. (too worn to identify).

A Little Tern Up For The Books

Can anyone guess what bird I saw today...three of them in fact!

Early on, Gav had three Little Terns past the seafront, whilst I was getting ready for work. Whilst I was at work they came back and loitered for all to see, but when I finished work at six a half hour sea watch failed to locate them.

I had one last look, up the estuary, and struck gold at Coronation Corner. Three gorgeous Little Terns appeared from up river, I followed them as they slowly flew down river. It was brilliant to see that two of them were juvs - this species always seems to struggle to breed succesfully. They performed superbly, calling to each other as they flew. Great stuff - and patch year tick number 169!

This is only the second time I've EVER seen this species on patch - the first time relates to a group of three too! I think this is the patches first ever autumn record.

After dinner I gave Blackhole Marsh a grill, look...

It's full of water again!

All I could see were 17 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plovers (ads), a Little Ringed Plover (a juv which I stupidly passed off as just another Ringo; don't know why - I blame rain and tiredness!!), 2 Snipe and several Green and Common Sandpipers. I think our first decent autumn goodie on here will be a Spotted Crake...

Moths And Chips

An excellent catch last night with the Robinson in the back garden. I'm kinda glad I didn't have both traps on the go - otherwise I'd have been sifting through moths all morning! There were 105 moths of 39 species. This total included eight new species for the garden...

Pale Prominent

Purple-bar

Small Waved Umber

Tawny-barred Angle

Small Blood-vein

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Small Phoenix

Marbled Green

The rest of the catch included: 13 Large Yellow Underwing, 9 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 8 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 7 Riband Wave, 5 Common Footman, 5 Dingy Footman, 5 Nut-tree Tussock, 4 Red Twin-spot Carpet, 4 Early Thorn, 3 Willow Beauty, 3 Common Carpet, 3 Silver Y, 3 Flame Shoulder, 3 Common/Lesser Rustic, 2 Spectacle, 2 Bright-line Brown-eyes, 2 Rosy Footman, 2 Ruby Tiger, 2 Dark Arches, and singles of: Smoky Wainscot, Small Fan-footed Wave, V-Pug, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Magpie, Jersey Tiger, Small Rivulet, Burnished Brass, Elephant Hawkmoth (my first for some time), Grey Dagger, Snout and Iron Prominent.

Blackhole Marsh this morning showed the 16 Dunlin and Yellow Wagtail still, and late this afternoon they had been joined by singles of Turnstone, Ringed Plover and Teal. Also this morning, 13 Common Terns flew high south down the river, drifting over Blackhole Marsh before continuing south.

Ringing on Colyford Common this morning was slow, with just a few juv Sedge and Reed Warblers being dumb enough to fly into our very wind-blown nets! It was just too windy.

And to finish off the post, this is what I enjoyed for dinner tonight...

Haddock and Chips from the Four C's - top nosh!

Moths And Birds

Had the Robinson on last night in the front garden, but it was the first time I didn't get up before dawn and collect up any moths resting around/outside the trap. It wasn't a great catch, with only 35 moths, though this one was a lovely first for the garden....

Burnished Brass- a bit overdue really!

The rest of the catch was made up of: 6 Flame Shoulders, 2 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 2 Common/Lesser Rustic, 2 Silver Y, 2 Riband Wave, 2 Common Footman, 2 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 2 Brimestone and singles of: Jersey Tiger, Heart and Dart, Uncertain, Buff Footman, Dingy Footman, Single-dotted Wave, Willow Beauty, Buff Arches, Pebble Prominent, Nut-tree Tussock, Large Yellow Underwing, Small Fan-footed Wave and Double Square-spot. There were also two Mother of Pearls and a Small Magpie.

Jersey Tiger

Mid morning I paid Blackhole Marsh a visit, it looks even more yummy, but is quite hard to work now as there are so many places waders can hide and so much mud to look at!! This is looking north...

Mud mud mud!!!

It was a rewarding visit with a nice fresh juv Yellow Wagtail in amongst the mass of Pied Wags - one day it will be a Citrine! Also three Ringed Plover (1 ad, 2 juvs) and 16 Dunlin.

One more highlight today, while at a BBQ in town tonight I spotted a moth resting on a garden shed, it was my first Marbled Green! Cool!

Night night all....