A night in Notts

Thursday night was the first of (hopefully) a monthly event at work. The grounds surrounding the British Geological Survey are hugely varied and the plantlife found there is broad. We have one boudary edged by farmland, another by the houses of the village, the northern edge is a lane and cricket pitch and the eastern side has a wooded stream. So the chance to organise a mothing session was organised by myself and a couple of colleagues. We set up both of my traps (15W Actinic/60W Clearbulb combo and an 80W MBF) and the only thing to let us down was the weather. We had a warm day with maximum temps of 18degrees, but the wind was blowing constantly, up to 30kph. We chose one site by the stream and the other site was in our wildlife garden next to a small drying pond. We sat and watched and waited but up until 10pm we had only had one fly-by. A couple of bats were seen and lots of associated insects that normally come to trap lights, so the signs were good. At just gone 10pm the MBF attracted a Pine Beauty, Flame Shoulder and a Waved Umber in quick succession so I was pleased that the visitors managed to see something before they departed around 1030.
I returned in the morning to unload, and we had managed 10 moths in total - 3 from the Actinic and 7 from the MBF. A bit disappointing but hopefully things will improve as it warms up! Plus these species are all new for the BGS list so I'm looking on the brightside!
Results
Actinic Trap
1 x Syndemis musculana
1 x Scalloped Hazel
1 x Agonoterpix heracliana/ciliella

80W MBF
1 x Pine Beauty
1 x Waved Umber
1 x Flame Shoulder
1 x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 x Bright-line Brown-eye
1 x Elachista atricomella
1 x Oak-tree Pug

We also found quite a few other bugs, the best of which are below.

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Oak-tree Pug

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Scalloped Hazel

Nursery-web Spider

Woundwort Shieldbug

Some sort of hoverfly - anyone got an id?

Micros at last

Although not that many, but the garden did give me a new one. This lovely Caloptilia rufipennella!

I even managed to get it to pose on a leaf for me. It's just a pity this was only one of four moths caught - the others being 1 x Emmelina, 1 x Brindled Pug and 1 x White-shouldered House Moth. Not thrilling considering the conditions...I guess the rain has put off a lot of the early May moths?

Hopefully the weather will improve for Thursday night where we're holding a moth night at work, and then Saturday when we're off to Carr Wood for our second trapping session.

Fingers crossed...

A weekend away

Our first camping trip (since our inauguration at Chatsworth last year) took place this weekend, and what a fantastic time we had. Four friends and associated partners, kids and dogs set up home at Bank House Farm, Hulme End in the Manifold Valley. Located right next to the river on the flood plain, this little campsite was absolutely perfect for us. Plenty of space for the kids to play, a good set of facilities and very friendly, helpful site owner meant that we all had a throughly enjoyable weekend. And to top it off the birding wasn't too bad either. After pitching up Friday evening and enjoying a good catch-up, we put ourselves to bed, only to be duetted by a pair of the local Tawny Owls around 11pm.

Early morning dawn chorus included a Redstart, which turned out to be very showy the following day, and was one of several that we saw on a walk from camp downstream to Thor's Cave. The walk was full of spring, with warblers in full song, plenty of flowers in bloom and the sun shining well (considering the poor weather we had been promised!). The Peregrine put on a quick show for us, but the Dipper was missing this time. As you can see the kids loved hunting down some of the fossils found in the Carboniferous Limestones of the Manifold Valley. This spot held loads of Crinoids, corals and shells of various sorts.

The limestone is also the culprit for the phenomenom here. This is the state of the River Manifold (one of the major rivers in Derbys/Staffs). The river, during dry periods, falls through the cracks and gullies in the limestone, disappears completely from this stretch and resurfaces further downstream. When we visited earlier in the year the winter rains had kept the river above ground, but as you can see with the recent "drought" the river has retreated to calmer passages.

These flowers (which I think are Wood Anemones?) were carpeting all the wooded walk up to Thor's Cave, with patches growing elsewhere along the trail. This Ammonite was spotted inside Thor's Cave on a particularly slippy bit where clearly many people have trod before.

And finally, these two snippets of nature that were found during the weekend. Some sort of fungus coating a dead piece of wood used as a barrier at the campsite. I think it's a Trametes but would appreciate any wiser reader comments. And the same for this hoverfly. No doubt it's a common enough species but hoverflies are a new world for me that I enjoy dipping into every now and again.

The weekend was completed in style with a quick twitch over at Long Eaton after news of a Little Gull was received. After picking up a massive number of Swift and hirundines over Pastures Lane it was clear that a big hatch of insects had pulled in the gull. This site is virtually guaranteed to get them and also Arctic Tern at this time of year and today was no different. At least twenty Arctics were floating around the furthest lake and after following them into the corner the Little Gull was picked out. A cracking pair of birds, and to add to the evening's entertainment a Lesser Whitethroat led me on a merry dance up the lane until finally giving itself away. A Twenty-plume Moth was also spotted flying across the path. Four ticks and a lovely evening walk to top off a fabulous bank holiday weekend!

Is this an improvement...or a brief reprieve?

Wahay! Monday is dry and - are my eyes deceiving me? - sunny! Yep the weather forecast looked good for Monday morning so I got up at dawn and headed down to Attenborough to mop up as much as I could of the recent summer migrant arrivals. I was hoping for Black and Arctic Tern and Little Gull, but none of these were on show. However, I did manage an impressive list of 48 species in 2 hours! 

The difference a bit of sunshine makes is phenomenal. There were birds everywhere and each one had a song in its heart! The Linnets at the Tower Hide were looking brilliant, this female (left) sat up long enough for a snap. Blackcaps stood out warbling proudly, Chiffchaff chiffed and chaffed happily in the morning sun and this Whitethroat was one of many scratching out it's little song from the tops of the low shrubs.

You tell by my writing that even I'm a bit infected by this spring feeling. The new additions to the yearlist came in the form of Sedge and Reed Warbler, Common Tern, the aforementioned Whitethroat (and I'm pretty sure I heard a Lesser Whitethroat too), Swift and to top it off, a quick chat with a photographer on the bridge by the Nature Centre made us pause long enough to spot two Hobbies flying over. A truly fantastic spring morning, and made all the more pleasing by the shiny yellow thing in the sky!


A couple of flowers caught my eye on my wanderings and I wonder if anyone reading this can identify them for me (flowers are still a bit of a black art for me!). No doubt they are common species but one's that I haven't noticed before.

The day just got better with temperatures reaching 19degrees on my way home. "The trap is definitely going out tonight" I thought to myself. "It'll be brilliant!". The temperature stayed around 12 degrees until I got home from the City/Man U game and I inspected the trap.

The only new visitor was this V-Pug, found on the shed wall. In fact he was the ONLY visitor. As the rain started again about 2300hrs I packed the trap away to discover that I hadn't caught anything!

Is the trap not up to spec, or am I still a bit too hopeful? We'll see soon enough I'm sure...


Bird Year List = 136
Moth Year List = 27

Rainy Sundays

Not much to report really, in fact the lack of mothing opportunities is really getting me frustrated. When I look back at last year it's amazing that two years can be so different. 43 Species trapped last year...15 this year.

Today the rain really put me in a glum mood, but a tiny bird brought me a bit of brightness. On dropping Jordan back at home in Derby we drove past Bass Rec in the middle of town, as we came alongside the river a group of hirundines were catching insects low over the grass and with them...my first House Martin for 2012. It flew alongside the car at one point, it was great! This prompted me to pop into Wyver Lane on my return journey, but I suspect it was getting a little too late in the day. One Swallow did fly through, and the pond held 1 male and 3 female Goosander, 2 Oystercatcher, a good number of Tufties - perhaps come in off the river? - Gadwall, and Mute Swan.

Has it been so long?

This weather has really had a dramatic effect on my mothing. Probably not the moths, they've no doubt been getting on with it, but the rain and cool temperatures have kept my trap firmly locked in the shed. I gave it a few hours on the 21st when it was slightly drier (only a couple of light showers) and managed a year first Early Thorn and a Hebrew Character.

The 24th seemed fairly warm, so despite the threatening clouds I put the trap out, and glad I did too! There were a few little beasts falpping around at a few points up to 2300hrs, and I managed to pot up a Double-striped Pug and year first Brindled Pug. Some sort of Carpet sp. came and dropped into the trap at 2230 so I'd have to wait till morning to check that one. At this time of year it was most likely going to be a Garden and indeed on emptying the trap there it was sitting patiently on one of the egg boxes. There was also a supporting cast of another DS Pug, Hebrew Character and an Emmelina monodactyla. Certainly the best catch in a long time.

The planned trapping session at Carr Wood has been put off for a second time, but hopefully I'll get out to the wood one night next week, and then do a proper session in early May. There should be something worth the effort by then!!

Rain, rain go away...

I don't mean it as I know we need it (God, I am starting to sound like my parents now!) but it has meant a stop to the mothing and an almost stop to the birding. In fact I was so desperate to see a moth (other people in the blogosphere still seem to be catching NFY even with this foul weather?) that I put out the trap on Monday night, only to have to fetch it in at 3.07am when it started persisting it down.
Results...1 x Hebrew Character. Poor little bugger.

I also thought I'd try last night as it was probably going to stay dry, albeit a bit cooler. By 2330 it has dropped to 5.5 degrees, so I packed it away. Results...1 x Hebrew Character, but also 1 x Clouded Drab and 1 x Early Grey, so not a complete loss. I was trying a new 42W Halogen Clearbulb with the Actinic so maybe that helped get those three? Who knows!!

Anyway, with all these Arctic Terns turning up I'm going to try and get out after school tomorrow, assuming it's dry enough...