One flew over the gravel pits

Last night whilst Jordan was at Scouts I had a run down to Willington Gravel Pits to see what was about. The last time I was there a few weeks ago it was during the massive amount of rain that we were experiencing and the entrance track looked like this...

Fortunately it had dried up a little and was passable. In fact I think all that water had levelled things out along the road - it didn't seem half as full of pot holes as I remember! The rain started to spit a little so I donned waterproofs and a cover for the scope and made the best of it. I'm glad I did too, as the first bird I spotted was this...



It stayed in the first field where the sign board is, and flitted around between perches, cuckooing occasionally. Its mate was seen briefly further back towards the reeds presumably looking for warblers or maybe pipits nests in which to lay its progeny.

Along the lane were the usual warblers with Lesser Whitethroat showing briefly and a male Blackcap eventually giving himself away. The hawthorns were absolutely buzzing with bugs, a huge hatch of midges and flies providing food for hundreds of hungry Swift, Swallows and Sand Martins (but no House Martin spotted) that were feeding in droves over the lakes! A brilliant sight. Sedge and Reed Warbler were singing/chirruping and the Cetti's even gave me one blast of song, just to let me know he was still there. The lakes looked a bit bare of waterfowl with only a few Great Crested Grebes, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan and Mallard being seen. But these Ruff reminded me that Willington really was a place that things can turn up out of the blue!

 

This thought also got my mind racing when a small wader flew across the main lake and landed on the spit. In the gathering gloom it could have been anything from a Little Ringed Plover to a Temminck's Stint, but I'm struggling to pin it down with the very brief views I had of it. Some just have to go down as mystery birds, don't they! The return to the car was done a bit quicker as the rain got a bit heavier, but these small mushrooms growing on the side of a chopped down tree caught my eye. If any of my readers have any ideas what they are, I'd be most appreciated!

Bird Year list = 141

Moth Yearlist = not much improvement on 42. Although the weather looks like it could be good this weekend so hopefully there'll be more Lep news shortly!

I've found Sanctuary

I've already seen the Dartford Warbler a few years ago at the Pride Park Sanctuary but that wasn't from the "official" place, we were looking over the hedge from the stadium side. After school today we visited the Sancuary proper, and it was really good!! Despite being in the middle of a big urbanised area with gas works, car showrooms and of course the home of the Mighty Rams this little spot really does feel like a Sanctuary, a space away from all the hustle and bustle where nature (and it's watchers) can be alone together. I'm starting to appreciate the ethos of David Lindo after today's visit.

Tonight's cast were this splendid female Wheatear, the nesting Sand Martins, a pair of Little Ringed Plover at close range as well as some Coot, Mallard, a Sedge Warbler which didn't show itself, a very melodious Linnet and a pair of Lapwing. A brilliant site that I encourage everyone to visit, especially as it seems to be on the verge of being swamped. To come so far with the place to only lose it again would be a shame. The list of wildlife is quite amazing, this Spring a Ring Ouzel stayed for a while. Wish I'd gone to see that now...








Bird Yearlist = 141
Moth Yearlist = is almost forgotton about due to the terrible weather!

A weekend of ups and downs

The temperatures looked ok-ish, the wind had dropped, it was dry. So why did we only catch three moths???

This was the result of our second trapping session in my local nature reserve - Carr Wood. I'm worried that if this carries on we may lose the interest of my semi-nature loving brother (who helps with all the carrying of equipment!). I'm gonna make sure that the next trip out there is in perfect conditions, just to prove to everyone that moths do actually live in Carr Wood (I'm not even sure of this myself now...)

Anyway, despite the poor form the three moths that we did catch were all new for the Carr Wood list. Hurrah!

1 x Green Carpet

1 x Eriocrania subpurpurella

1 x  another micro to be identified

EDIT: The omniscient Douglas from Montgomery Moths group has come up with the answer here, Zelleria hepariella. A new moth for me and for the Carr Wood list, so I am happy about this! Thanks Douglas!

After this disappointing night, the garden obviously felt that it needed to make up for it, and produced this Garden First - Adela reaumurella - on Sunday morning.

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Sunday was a lovely day, weatherwise, so we took the opportunity of an afternoon walk around a new site - Clough Wood near Winster. Well, we tried our best. But the navigator wasn't as good as my usual crew and so we ended up on the western side of the wood, in a deeply gouged farm track that my car found unpassable. So we walked for an hour along this road and eventually found Clough Wood, so at least we know where it is , but we still have to explore it properly.

We did have a good time though. A male Redstart put on a quick show in a hawthorn hedge, and a few other common woodland birds were going about their business. I did find some interesting plants (I'm finding plants/flowers more and more interesting, perhaps cos it's the only things I can photograph!?!).

I believe these are Yellow Dead-nettles (EDIT: Ragged Robin has pointed out that these are Yellow Archangel. Thanks RR!)

The bluebells are also fully in flower now and looked gorgeous as they carpeted the slopes running down to the stream.

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An evening to myself needed filling (I'm still feeling out-of-sorts from a cold I've had all week, so I've been a real grump today!) so I thought a trip to Netherfield Lagoons would sort me out. Netherfield hasn't been in the birdnews for a while but I thought that there would be something to see - it's always a good spot! The photo left shows the gravel pit viewed from the Deepwater Pit, the sun was casting a huge shadow over the lower pits.

The wind was blowing a hoolie again today, so lots of the smaller birds were hunkered down, however I did hear Blackcap, Reed, Sedge, Willow and a Cetti's Warbler and the Whitethroats were on show. A Kingfisher zipped by at one point, and the number of Swifts and hirundines was staggering, there was a good hatch as I walked back to the car so obviously they had anticipated this and collected here tonight ready for the feast! Once again my photography attempts turned to insects and flowers. These tiny purply-blue flowers caught my attention. I know I've seen them a hundred times, but the strain of not knowing their name is stretching my OCD to it's limit! If anyone can help out then I'd appreciate it. (EDIT: Again Ms Robin has pointed me in the direction of Ground Ivy. A lovely name for a very delicate little flower.)

The White-tailed bumblebee below wasn't put off by my presence in the slightest as it merrily fed on the White Dead-nettle.

 My other great find tonight was my first Red and Black Froghopper. I was suprised at how big it was, I'm used to getting the smaller greeny ones in the moth-trap, but this was a brute. I gave him a quick test of his strength by slowing nudging him off his perch, and my goodness he could jump!! Impressive beast!



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