Exciting plans

Newsflash - I've just been given permission by the local wildlife trust to trap in my local wood. I'm gonna put together a study of the moths, and am very excited. It's only a small piece of wood but it is really old so must have a good moth population. I've been birding there since I was little (saw my first Tawny Owl there) so it will be interesting to give something back. Hopefully the trust can use the data to safeguard it a bit more, before any more of it gets chopped down by [insert large supermarket chain here].

Trust it to be cold all next week though, but I don't think I'll be able to resist much past Saturday so I'll keep you posted on my moffing outside the garden!

March marches on

All this warm weather has been lovely, but comparing this years data with last years March records it appears that there is little to choose between them. The number of individual moths is actually down a little on last year despite the same number of traps but the number of species caught is up by 1 this year. Hopefully they'll turn up in April?

	2012			2011
	Number caught	No of traps	Avg	Number caught	No of traps	Avg
March	88	8	11	132	8	16.5

2011		2010
Agonopterix heracliana	7	Agonopterix heracliana	2
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla	1	Amblyptilia acanthadactyla	1
Chestnut	1
Clouded Drab	13	Clouded Drab	20
Common Quaker	21	Common Quaker	45
Diurnea fagella	1	Diurnea fagella	1
Double-striped Pug	7
Early Grey	8	Early Grey	12
Early Thorn	1	Early Thorn	1
Emmelina monodactyla	7	Emmelina monodactyla	2
Grey Shoulder-knot	1
Hebrew Character	12	Hebrew Character	38
Herald	1
March Moth	1	March Moth	5
Oak Beauty	1	Oak Beauty	1
		Oak Nycteoline	1
		Shoulder Stripe	1
Small Quaker	2	Small Quaker	1
Twin-spotted Quaker	3	Twin-spotted Quaker	1

And now the results of the trap from last night 29th March 2012
Two new for years came in the form of Diurnea fagella and Early Thorn, both cracking moths in their own special ways!

 

 

16 moths in total were caught - 6 potted last night, 2 potted from sheds this morning and 8 actually in the trap, so at least my new trap design is working fairly well.

A good hatch of Hebrew Character appeared to be evident with 5 individuals caught, also had a return of two Common Quakers.

Moth yearlist = 22

Heralding good times

27th March 2012
A firm favourite, since my interest in moths took over my life, arrived at the trap last night - this stunning Herald. A first for me after missing one at work a couple of years ago. It was resting on the shed wall, and was one of those "be careful while getting very excited about potting it up" moments (I realise that is quite a niche moment of excitement, in general circles, but I feel I'm among friends here!)



This March Moth is new for 2012. I caught 5 of these boys last year, all in March so it has a very accurate name. They have this fabulous way of rolling the wings tightly around their body when they come to rest. The photo, regretably, doesn't show this moth off to it's greatest potential. It has some very subtle patterning with white flashes at the ends of the wings, and delicate creamy undergarments.



 And finally we come to this little teaser! It's either my 3rd Chestnut or my 1st Dark Chestnut. Which one is your money on? It's being investigated my the helpful people at Back Garden Moths, so hopefully there'll be an answer soon, although I suspect it may be one of those 'cut his bits off' jobs, and we'll never know for sure.






Trap contents were 14 in total, the second highest so far this year. Adding to the total were the second Twin-spotted Quaker for the year, Double-striped Pug (getting quite regular now), and 4 x Early Grey, plus the usual Orthosia. Still no Quakers though. What's happened to them all? Maybe the weather is too warm for them. Is that possible?

Moth Yearlist = 20



Juxta-birding

A stunning weekend of beautiful sunshine yet annoyingly cold nights has produced several 'firsts'. My first Brimstone butterflies were seen in someone's front garden down my road whilst he sat watching TV completely oblivious to two superb butter-yellow males dancing under his window. My first wasp in the kitchen, not quite as pleasant as the Brimstone's but a sure sign of warmer times ahead. Our first trip to the park to play footie and throw the frisbee!

So it was quite an odd feeling this morning when, after dropping Jordan off at school, I popped in to Wilne Lane, and whilst listening to the Skylarks belting out their melancholy tunes and feeling the sun on the back of my neck I stood by the river watching my first Whooper Swan of the year. Lovely bird, no doubt. But not one I usually associate with blazing sun, and the signs of Spring all around me.

Also on the river were a pair of Goosander who, in typical style, only let me get to a certain distance before belting off down stream. Here they are zipping past me! Just left of the Swan (Mute not Whooper).

Also heard a Green Woodpecker, but it wouldn't be seen. I think I'm never going to see one this year (cue the Green Woodpecker population to go into hiding now).

Bird Yearlist = 124

New trap designs

24th March 2012 -
The MV bulb switch-over has inspired more trapping ideas. Thoughts move to trapping at work, trapping in local woods, and definitely can't wait to get some warmer nights to see how the garden reacts to the MV blast!

In the meantime we have to put up with these horrid cold nights, and not a lot arriving at the trap (although it's making me wonder whether the meagre totals I'm getting would be simply non-existant using the Actinic setup?)

Anyway, yesterday plans came to fruition of a Robinson-style trap. A plastic crate obtained from work had a funnel installed and the MV hung via a tripod of garden canes over the top. I had this on for a few hours last night, and after some VERY patient waiting, I managed 1 x Clouded Drab actually in the trap, and 5 others to the sheds/sheet. I was a bit dissappointed by this as I wanted to try and work out whether the new set-up would work or not, but there just wasn't enough flying round to even judge whether the trap would actually trap anything!

We'll just have to wait and see...

Another foggy night

Friday 23rd March -
Putting your hopes in the weatherman/weather websites is proving to be the wrong thing to do at the moment. Last night I was promised (maybe that's where I'm going wrong!) that the temperatures would stay above 9 degrees, and that the sky was going to be cloudy. "Tonight is a good night to test the MV properly" I thought. As I arrived home after Scouts, watching the temperature plummet through the early evening I stood watching the trap for an hour. A Small Quaker arrived about 2215, and two Emmelina were on the shed walls waiting for me, but for that hour I got bored!
So I decided to call it quits at 2330. I picked my way through the eggboxes and managed a fairly respectable 10 moths in total. Not bad for the temperature and conditions (it was misty in patches under a clear sky).

The Small Quaker is new for the year.

Also in the trap were:
1 x Hebrew Character
5 x Common Quaker
1 x Clouded Drab

2 x Emmelina monodactyla on sheds
1 x Small Quaker potted from the sheet

Moth Year list = 18

Possibly too cold?

So plans were hatched to launch the MV bulb on the neighbourhood! My trap sits at the top of the garden and so is confined by a shed on each side and a tall thick hedge on the far side, with the only open side being the garden itself. The light from the MV bulb would however be so bright that it would be shining straight back down the garden and into my neightbours windows...not something I was comfortable with. However, the white sheet that I normally use to attract moths was stretched across the gap between the two sheds and stopped the majority of the light annoying people. It did of course also stop some of the light reaching into the garden, which in summer might be a problem to passing moths, but for now I'm happy with the plan.

Unfortunately I think the cold night (7 degrees from 2100 and dropping to 4 by morning) meant that the catch was small. 11 moths of 7 species. One of these was a new for year Grey Shoulder-knot which was found on the shed wall above the trap this morning. Beautiful delicate little creature, and only the third for the garden!

Others in the trap/potted up were the usual suspects -
2 x Agonopterix heracliana
2 x Hebrew Character
2 x Common Quaker
2 x Clouded Drab
1 x Emmelina monodactyla
1 x Early Grey

Moth year list = 17

First day of Spring

Was it a coincidence that the first day of Spring came with lots of sunshine and a nice warm evening? After spotting the Black-necked Grebe I settled back home with more than high hopes for the moth-trap. Earlier in the month, my friend and mothing guru, Ian G, had loaned me an MV bulb and electrics to try out. I finally got round to picking it up, and of course had to give it a test run (if only to see how much it would annoy the neighbours!). So I got it rigged up for a short while in the early evening from 1915 to 2000. In that time an amazing 8 moths came to the light, far more than I'd normally get (that may sound obvious, as this was an 80W MBF bulb, but it still shocked me). Needless to say I then started to hatch plans!

But for the rest of the night I switched back to my usual Actinic/CFL combo, and the results were still great. 21 moths of 8 species. 3 of these were new for the years so I was very pleased.
The best of the bunch has to go to this stunning Oak Beauty. A joy to behold, and Jordan clearly loved this one!

Four of these Agonopterix species turned up. There are two that are difficult to tell apart (A. heracliana & A. ciliella) but without almost certainly comdemming them to death to check their hindwings it's fairly impossible to tell which is which, so for my list they go down as A. heracliana







Another year first that I've wanted to find was this Early Grey. All these moths are fairly common in any garden, but I think they just have that essence of 'spring' that is in the air at this time of year.

Moth year list = 16

Bird Year list = 123

Black-necked Grebe - Kingsmill

20th March 2012 -
The news of the Black-necked Grebe hit my computer screen at about 1445hrs, and a quick check back through the days reports seem to indicate that it had been found in the morning and last reported at 1410hrs. Good timing, as I had to pick Jordan up from school which meant that I could pop straight over after I'd got him. Which is what we did, with a quick stop en route to collect my dad for a spot of fresh air (he had his hip replaced 4 weeks ago and hasn't been out of the house much. Kingsmill is perfect for a bit of new hip physiotherapy).
So we hit Kingsmill at 1700hrs and got straight onto the Black-necked in glorious sunshine near the reedbeds on the opposite side to the car park. We had a wander round to see if we could get some better views, but of course it had other ideas and scarpered down to the dam end by the time we got round to its last position! I still managed this poor video, taken using my mobile phone through the scope.

The moth trap is out tonight in what were good conditions, but it's dropping cold now. I've already caught at least two new for the year, so hopefully tomorrow's report will be full of Spring goodness!

A Purple patch

 The only problem about getting bird news during the week is that 99 times out of 100 I can't see the bird, because of work or having to pick my son up from school. The only day I can hopefully get away with it is Mondays, as firstly I don't have obligations on Mondays and this gives me the opportunity during the rest of the week to make up any time that I spend away from the desk. So yesterday's news of the Purple Sandpiper at Kilvington couldn't have come at a better time. This bird is the 16th record for Nottingham, and it was at a site that I have wanted to visit for a while but never quite found the right moment. This seemed perfect, the only problem was that it was reported twice this morning but nothing since 0945. I put this down to the working habits of most birders, and so went for it anyway. And I'm glad I did. I got onto it straight away, and it was associating with my first 2 Little Ringed Plover of the year too - bonus birds! The Purple showed well but not scope-filling views in the south corner of the West Lake and looked a bit like this, but not quite so shaky....

Also on sit were this pair of Stock Pigeons, just sat huddled in the field for the whole time I was there (about an hour), not too sure why or what they were achieving?

Bird Yearlist = 122

Spring is definitely here

16th March 2012
The return of one of my favourites heralded the return of Spring for my mothing year. With reports of Swallows, Garganey, Wheatears and Brimstones the discovery of my first Hebrew Character for the year brought a little smile to my bleary-eyed face early on Saturday morning. Now I know to any moth'ers reading this that the Hebrew Character is by far a rare species, nor is it decidedly gaudy enough to stop people in the tracks...but there's just something about them that I like. I mean look at this photo and fail to find this little chappie anything but cute!?

So delicately patterned and cuddly, if they were the size of hamsters people would keep them for pets, I'm sure of it!

Also in the trap were a Common Quaker and a Clouded Drab was found on the shed door shortly after turning the trap light on. Not a big catch again, but things are looking up (except for this week, cos the weather looks crap again!)

Moth yearlist = 13

Sunday - I had a walk round Trent Valley Pits next to the A50 today. I had seen some reports from here earlier in the year and wondered where they were. So a quick search on t'Internet revealed this guide http://www.lros.org.uk/trentvalley.htm. The site certainly has lots of potential as a number of habitats are covered, but it did appear as though it was quite busy. The pits had several anglers on them and cars were moving around the pits transporting the anglers to their pegs. I didn't see much exciting although a possible Cetti's Warbler was calling from the reeds. Good numbers of Great Crested Grebe were present, along with a few Tufties and several Black-headed Gulls and two Commons. Reed Bunting and Chaffinch were both in full song which sounded great in the morning sun. Looked like a cracking spot for some mothing too...

Blame the weatherman

15th March 2012

After a week of cold mornings I was hopeful for Thursday night. Whichever weatherman I listened to they said it was going to be a nice day, warm temperatures and a warm night. What did we wake up to? The thickest fog all year and a daily maximum of 9 degrees! I debated about putting out the trap, but then I had been looking forward to it all week, so I decided to try it. By 10pm I'd not had a sniff, so I was very doubtful about the mornings success.

However, just to prove me wrong I did have a few moths to pot up. Three species in all, and all three new for the year, of course.

These two Twin-spotted Quakers were a nice find as I've only caught two other individuals before.

I've never seen one with the rusty coloured marking across the middle before.

 Next were two Common Quakers, a common species in the garden but such lovely markings when they're nice and fresh like this.
And of course the last one had to be the Clouded Drab. I managed three of these and the variability of their colours can be seen in the photos of the three of them together below right.

So not quite as bad a night as I was expecting. 7 moths of 3 species. Not a big catch but certainly a sign of things to come...

Black-necked Grebe @ Colwick

After hearing about this on Tuesday evening, I decided that I'd had two late nights at work so I deserved a treat. So I headed over to Colwick before work (it's kind of on the way, but with a small detour!). I arrived there at 730am, in a very gloomy misty morning. And cold! Only about 5 degrees.

There were plenty of ducks to be found, a few Wigeon left over, plenty of Tufties, 5-6 Shoveler, 4 Gadwall, at least 30 Little Grebes which seemed like a high count for the site? A female and 2 male Red-crested Pochard brightened the morning a little, although one was a funny colour! A Green Woodpecker called intermittantly and got my heart jumping (I still haven't got one on my 2012 yearlist!) and also a Great Spotted was drumming closeby. Not many gulls were present, just 30ish Black headed and 3 Commons. I got chatting to a guy as I got my kit out of the car and we wandered round the lakes chatting about Notts birding in general. We covered every inch of shoreline but we couldn't find the Black-necked Grebe! I left him at the West Lake, and walked back to the car and bumped into another chap who said that the grebe had been around the island in the south-east corner. I double checked it but still couldn't find anything. It hasn't been reported on Birdguides today either, whether that's a sign of it's departure or not. The other mildly interesting species I found was this, and I certainly didn't know that it was on site!

Weather is looking good for the moths tomorrow and Friday so I might have a bit of Leps to report soon!

Every cloud...

Friday saw me jumping into our lorry at work for a jolly down to Oxfordshire to pick up some drill core. My first obvious thought was "Yes! Red Kite country". However, the excitement of spotting my first Kite for the year was quickly dampened around 1130am when the electrics on the dashboard blew and we had to towed back to Nottingham! The kites put on a good show to cheer me up though, two flying right overhead about 1300 whilst waiting for the recovery truck to turn up!

Friday evening and a quick wander round Elvaston Castle Park in the hope of hearing (and then finding) the Tawny Owl resulted in nothing but this toad.

No owls to be heard, but I did also see a weasel (or something similar). The evening got slightly better with some drinks at my bessie mates house before his inevitable slump into married life, and after getting through beer and chat he booted me out at 230am. The walk home leads me past the Ripley Greenway at the bottom of our road and to my excitement the Tawny's were calling! And even better I'd brought my bag with my torch inside with me as I'd gone from work to my friends and left my car there. Brilliant! What ensued must have looked a bit odd with me creeping slowly over the grassy fields, listening with head on one side, occasionally trying to imitate a drunken male Tawny and flashing the torch at the slightest movement. Eventually, one flew across my path, but I reckoned there was at least three calling. Well, I think it was three?

Sunday - A quick wander round Willington in the afternoon provided some interesting sightings. 17 Curlew were present on the main pond but flew off north about 1600 and a Dunlin was at number 4 platform. Good numbers of Goosander were present, along with Wigeon, Shoveler and Gadwall. At least 2 Cetti's lead me on a merry dance but eventually gave themselves up, and Reed Buntings were very evident, with at least 8 pairs zipping around platform four.

Birding Yearlist = 120

A Bumper find

6th March 2012 - The fact that Great Grey Shrike has been present on Beeley Moor for at least since before Christmas has been bugging me cos it's one of those places that I never know where to look, but I finally decided to go and find it today. The locality has also got Bramblings (we went to find those before Xmas too!) so hopefully I could get a BOGOF deal.
A quick dash over to Beeley after picking the nipper up from school found us on site at Wragg's Quarry for 1615. A guy was coming off the moor as we arrived and told us that he'd just had the shrike down near Bumper Castle. We followed them down to where they thought it had been and parked up. After a short scan round the shrike gave itself up by flying to a hawthorn and showing really well!

The Brambling were also found by my new birding friend and after satisfying myself with shrike-views I moved further up the hill to view the birches which held a good flock of at least 12 Brambling (this is probably an under-estimation!), plus Chaffinch and Linnet. Not bad for 45 minutes twitching before tea and many thanks to the birders that helped secure the sightings.

2012 Yearlist - 117

Two Smews for me!

5th March 2012 -
The Smew that have returned to Holme Pierrepont for at least the last three winters proved true to their word again this year. This time being found mostly on Blott's Pit, I popped down during my lunch hour to try and find them. As I dropped off the road and onto the footpath over the stream I disturbed a Great Spotted Woodpecker and some tits and as I rounded the corner to view the lake the first birds I scanned past were the Smew. A male looking resplendant in the spring sunshine, and his female no less attractive. Always a stunning duck to watch and fortunately I managed to get some video through the scope too.
Firstly from a distance...

And I managed to creep around the bank and eventually grab the male having a good preen through the reeds...

Also present were several Goldeneye and Shoveler and a nice raft of 50+ Wigeon. Green Woodpecker was heard (I still need it for the year list).

This brings me to 115 for the year.

Photos and videos from Attenborough 26th Feb

Finally had chance to download my phone to get the pics and videos from last weekend. Hopefully you find them interesting enough to have waited for them!?

Firstly this lovely male Bullfinch stayed still long enough for me to get some footage through the scope. It was in company with 2 females.

On Tween Pond the Yellow-legged Gull put on a good show!

The Bittern showed for us briefly as we approached but quickly crept off back into the reeds. This was the best I could do!



It seemed so perfect...

28th February was one of those days that just seemed like the right conditions to put out the trap. It was cloudy and humid all day, the temperature got up to 13C and stayed at around 11C all night, only very slight breeze fro mthe SW. So why didn't more come to my trap??
Three moths were caught, well two were caught and one was sat on the shed door waiting for me in the morning. All three were new for the year, which is good. This puts me on 4 x Macros and 4 x Micros.

The first to the trap was Endrosis sarcitrella. Common, yes. But it was my first for the year, so here it is.

Next to arrive (but I had to wait a further 3 hours!) was this nice Amblyptilia acanthadactyla. I got several of these last year but they're always interesting to see!

Finally, as I was packing the trap away in the shed, I spotted this Emmelina monodactyla sitting waiting for me to photograph it on the door.

Slowly, we are getting there!

Attenborough pulls a few in

26th Feb - A Sunday afternoon in the glorious sunshine over the weekend couldn't be resisted, so we set sail for Attenborough Nature Reserve. I love a good walk round the pits and woods at this great reserve, there's always something to see and it provides plenty of entertainment for kids too.
We walked from the Barton Lane car park up to the church at Attenborough village and was hoping to get through to the woods at the top to search for the Lesser Peckers, but when we got to the old car park we were blocked by the new flood defence system that they're installing. Instead we cut across to the river and back round to the centre. The birds were out in good force with 46 species in total. A stunning number of Goosanders were present (in excess of 30) but unfortunately the Smew couldn't be found. A couple of Fieldfare were found feeding on Glebe Field. New for the year were Red-crested Pochard, Ruddy Duck and a cracking Bittern which was showing well on Dragonfly Pond (this is the one between Tween Pond and Wheatear Field and is viewable from the main path to the VC). I managed to get a poor mobile grab through the scope, watched it for a minute or so and then it silently crept backwards into the reeds.
Not very often my luck turns out that that! Usually it's "Oh it's just crept into the reeds, you should have been here a minute earlier"
I'll upload a couple of videos of a gorgeous male Bullfinch and a Song Thrush singing his heart out as the sun went down.