Stay cool... everybody dusk

Stay cool... everybody dusk

Oh no! It's 10pm, its dark outside, and you've got so hooked on Glee, or whatever it is you watch on these T.V.s they have now, that you've totally forgotten to put the moth trap out. You can't be assed to get it out of the shed at this time of night, and anyway you think you can see rain clouds in the distance heading your way... so what do you do?

... Stay cool is what you do.

Fetch a net, fetch a few pots, fetch a torch, and most importantly, fetch a Stella. Sit down on the garden bench, and wait for the moths to come to you. You are now dusking.

I've been doin' a bit of it myself recently, with a combination of A-Levels, rubbish weather and other bits and bobs stopping me from putting the moth trap out. Here are a few of the commoner species in the garden at this time of year.

Flame Shoulder...

Treble Brown Spot...

Treble Lines- very original...

Common Marbled Carpet...

It helps to stay in touch with your Latin side if your brave enough to delve into the micro moths. Alternatively, you could just copy and paste the names from Wikipedia...

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana- you can't make this stuff up...

Argyresthia trifasciata- so small it makes blades of grass look big...

Crambus lathoniellus- a common species of 'grass moth' which you can expect to easily disturb from your lawn during the day...

Lathronympha strigana- had a nice orange glow to it in the flesh...

Traps out tonight, but the temperatures have dropped right down, so expectations aren't too high. Drop by again tomorrow for an exclusive bonus full catch report. Hows that for a hook?

Everybody say "awhhh"

Everybody say "awhhh"...

Two things are inevitable in May: exams, and fledged birds.

The latter is something I look forward to (unlike the former... surprisingly) every year in the form of a family of Blue tits, which usually fledge without fail from nextdoor's nest box. This year however, they haven't even investigated the box for some reason or another, and I was starting to get a bit afraid that the blog would be devoid of fluffy little squeaking fledglings photos for a year.

Not to fear though, as today, a new family appeared on the block. Can you guess what species they are? I'll give you a clue, it has the letters O, B, I and N in it...

Well I don't know which famous Taliban leader you were thinking of, but I'm talking about juvenile Robins- three of which have been kickin' about the garden for most of today. Like their parents, they were ridiculously curious, and allowed for very close viewing whilst they fed on the stocked up feeders.

Under the watchful eyes of Mum, of course...

I thought I'd give a bit of a helping hand myself, so I popped off to Squires, and came back with these...

They've always looked so appealing in the bird food catalogues, and I was hungry at the time, so I thought I'd try one. From personal experience, wouldn't suggest them. They were a bit too crisp, and lacked any flavour, so I soaked them in water to see if that would bring out the pizazz.

It didn't work, so I gave them to the Robins instead, who seemed to like them...

Everybody say "awhhh"...

Wanna See Some Moffs?

Wanna See Some Moffs?

... Well, you don't have a choice.

The scorching weather we've been enjoying this April has meant that many moths have been emerging from their chrysalis stage earlier than they would normally do, and when the garden would usually be totally devoid of any night life, this month has been ticking over nicely, with a number of species being seen that I never would have expected...
 
Not least of these, the superb Great Prominent. A massive beast of mature oak woodland...

At the other end of the size scale, an Ochreous Pug. A moth of coniferous woodland, with a cool name to boot...

Waved Umber, a common species in gardens in the South...

One of my favourite moths of Spring, the highly distinctive Brimstone. This is another common garden species which anyone can expect at lighted windows...

And now for something a little bit rarer. Are you ready for this? You are? Are you sure? Ok... a Buttoned Snout!

... Proaaarrr, that is one heck of a moth. Its declining state means that its a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Unusually, the main stronghold for this species is in gardens, where it can be found in mid-spring after hibernation. I found it whilst watering the garden, so if you've got nothing to do, then get the hose out and prance around the garden with a net... you never know (clothes are optional).

Slightly less rare than the above, Lunar Marbled Brown is a common species in the garden in spring...

And who could overlook the smaller 'micro' moths...

Bucculatrix nigricomella...

Not quite such a struggle to identify, the Garden Pebble is bigger than many 'macro' moths...

I was quite surprised when I looked through my photos of this Caloptilia syringella at how intricate the details are on its wings. It seemed pretty dark and colourless when looked at normally...

Cydia strobilella- a silvery, sparkly Surrey scarcity, known from only 5 other sites in the county. Found it flying around the borders one sunny afternoon. The larvae feed on Norway spruce, and the species presence in the garden might just be explained by a whoopin' great big Norway spruce two doors down... just a possibility.

I'm actually quite pleased with myself recently, as I haven't put the moth trap out now for a week.

The withdrawal symptoms are coming on fast though- I keep glancing up at the nearest light just to make sure I haven't missed a Death's Head Hawk-moth sneeking past me, and bed time reading is currently Townsend and Waring's 'Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland', although its quite hard to read, because I may have accidently spilt cereal over it one morning in my excitement at seeing the illustration of a Kentish Glory.

A Hairstreak in a Spot of Bother

A Hairstreak in a Spot of Bother

With its iridescent, golden bordered green wings, the Green Hairstreak is one heck of a smart looking bugger. Emerging in mid-spring, these butterflies are on the wing until well into June, but to see them in their best outfit, its best to catch up with them in spring.

I was hoping to see one when I went for Grizzled Skipper back at the beginning of April, but never managed to, so this individual on Denbies Hillside the other week was a welcome surprise...

When it turned its side to the sun, a stunning coppery greenish tinge would show, but this was hard to capture on the camera, especially when you are lying down, on stinging nettles, with a butterfly that has a habit of going walk-about on flower stems rather than keeping still.

Whilst I was photographing the butterfly on a nearby bluebell, Mr Green Hairstreak's habit of walking about aimlessly over flowers got him into a bit of a pickle. He had walked onto a bluebell which was already occupied by a naughty little Crab Spider, that was looking for his lunch.

Luckily though, I was on hand to take pictures of those last moments of Mr. Green Hairstreak's life, and just as the Crab Spider was about to pounce, the sound of the camera shutter shutting sent the little butterfly into the air, and out of harms way. To be honest though, a spider pouncing on, killing AND eating a Green Hairstreak would have made a pretty decent shot wouldn't it?

Waxwings, Heading Your Way

Waxwings, Heading Your Way

Picture the situation...

You've been stuck inside all day, so decide to walk down to the shops for a Fanta. You get to the shop. You buy a Fanta. Your walking back, and get two roads down from your house, when suddenly you hear lots of trilling sounds coming from above you in a tree. The trees have leaves on them now, and you have a Fanta in your hand, not optical equipment, so you can't clearly see the things thats making the noise, but they are clearly birds, and they aren't Blue tits. Suddenly, the mystery birds decide to fly, and its then that you see that they are about the size of a Starling, but that they are not making the sound that Starlings make.

You think you have temporarily lost them when you turn a corner and find a flock of 14 Waxwings happily trilling away at the top of a tree by a bridge. The birds have strategically placed themselves over a railway line, so that when the train comes, they will fly away and never be seen again. Its ok, you say to yourself, the train shouldn't come for a few minutes, giving you the chance to get closer. But those few minutes are spend looking dazed, and wondering what to do, so the train comes, and the birds fly away.

But thats not the end of the story. The Waxwings fly off, but in the direction of your house, and although you can't see the birds flying over your house, you can guarantee that if you were in your house, looking out at that time, you would be able to see the birds.

You fall to your knees, and wimper. You are overcome with emotion. Half of you is jumping with joy for finding Waxwings a few doors down from your house, and the other half is filled with regret that you didn't take your camera, or rush back home to try and spot them from your house.

So yeah, thats what happened to me (if you haven't already guessed) the day before yesterday. I went home, grabbed the bike and cycled around the area to try and look for them again, but did I see them? Have a guess. I did manage to get some shots of the tree they were in though, 10 minutes after they left. Let your imagination run wild, and you should be able to see Waxwings in this photo...

Changing the subject slightly, a funky Bee Fly that was in the garden recently...

And a Crab Spider, that eats Bee Fly...

In Which I See A Rare Grizzper

In Which I See A Rare Grizzper

April is great, isn't it? The leaves are slowly appearing on the trees, bluebells are emerging, the swallows are returning and not to mention the fact that we get two bank holidays in this month alone. One of my favourite thing about April however, is that the butterflies, and in particular, the rare Grizzled Skipper, are back on the wing.

A few years ago, in this post, I had a very brief glance of a single Grizzled Skipper on Old Winchester Hill- where the sheltered chalk downland are host to flowering plants in spring, which in turn play host for Grizzpers (a newly thought up shortened word for Grizzled Skipper, if you were still wondering) to feed on-but ever since that day, I've wanted to get myself proper views of this Red Data Book species, which is threatened with extinction throughout its range in the South.

This species is best searched for from late April to late May, but I figured that the recent scorcher we've had might have encouraged earlier emergence, so last Sunday, when I had the opportunity, I headed down to OWH (a newly thought up shortened word for Old Winchester Hill, if you were still wondering), with Grizzpers in mind.

It was sunny, and the views of the South Downs were great. This is habitat no self respecting Grizzper would want to be without...

After initial distractions from a singing Sedge Warbler fresh from Africa, I noticed a small blackish thing resembling a Grizzper flying around a patch of wildflowers along a notoriously steep part of the hill. With the description of 'small blackish thing', I'm sure you all know what it was... a Grizzper! (or Grizzled Skipper as some people call it.

There were two of them in total, and they were surprising easy to photograph, frequently resting on grass stems, unlike most of the other Skippers species I've dealt with, which seem to just fly at high speeds, and land everywhere I don't want them to...

One of the Skippers seemed to have one wing that was completely blurred out. It most certainly didn't have anything to do with rubbish focusing on behalf of the photographer, oh no... certainly not. Nope.

On a number of occasions, I found myself chasing after what I thought was a Grizzled Skippers, only to find that they were moths. Very pretty moths at that. This here is Pyrausta nigrata...

We stopped off at the Shoe Inn for lunch, in East Meon. I wouldn't mind living in East Meon- you get a river, and a water meadow, as your back garden, as well as a bridge (sorry if this is your house, by the way)...

Getting All Nostalgic and Stuff

Getting All Nostalgic and Stuff

I've been having a little rustle through some old picture files on the computer, containing bird photos which date back to 2008 when I first started taking an interest in the natural world. My searches took me back to the beginning of that year, when I first discovered my parents Olympus 3x optical zoom point and shoot camera. This would become my weapon of choice for the next few months, as I went out into the garden every evening after school to try and capture the garden birds in action.

I am short of material at the moment, so I thought I'd post a few of the very first bird photos I ever took (this is exclusive stuff right here). The funny thing is, I even use to rate some of the photos...

3 star rating... (5 stars if you can tell what bird this is)

Coal tit (4 star rating)...

Greenfinch (4 star rating)...

Robin (a full 5 star rating)... I'm contemplating sending this one to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

I'll try and get out somewhere over the weekend so you won't have to look any more of my excellent photography, maybe for Wheatears at Bushy Park, or maybe I'll go prancing about for a few early butterflies.

One last thing, if you haven't already noticed, I've started tweeting on Twitter, and if you can't get enough of me, then you can follow me by clicking here, or by clicking on the link in the sidebar which says to follow me on twitter. That is all.

Celebration time!

Celebration time!

Had a call from NASA yesterday asking me to take some shots of the moon last night, which was apparently going to be much brighter and larger than usual, cos' its closer or something like that.

With my busy schedule, I had to reject the offer this time, but at about midnight, I found myself with a few seconds to spare, so I whacked up the exposure metering thing, and went for it. To be honest, I was expecting something a little bit bigger, isn't the solar system such a let down?

Oh wow- just as I was about to post this, I realised that this is also my 150th post, and since I didn't celebrate the 100th post, lets do it now!

Woooo! Yeahhhh! Get in there!!! Woahhh! Oh yeah! Woo... yeah... cool... OK... boring.

I'll go fetch the champagne, although on second thoughts, perhaps a Tuesday night is a little bit of an inappropriate time to pop off the cork... I'll get the vodka instead.

Hows about a bit of Kool and The Gang to get everyone in the party mood!



Thanks to all the blog readers out there (I know the three of you), and feel free to stick around for the rest of this year's adventure.

Who's a Pretty Boy Then?

Who's a Pretty Boy Then?

I promise you a moth free post today. I've done three posts on them, and I think its time to have a break from them... is it too late to start lent? One thing is for sure, I'm certainly not going out in the garden after finishing this post, and I am most definitly not going to put out the moth trap. Oh no.

Where better to get out to than Bushy Park, where the woodland should be alive with early spring birdsong, and there was even the possibility of getting an early Wheatear out on the grassland. Win-win situation.

We started out at the Water Gardens, or was it the Canal Plantations? I always get mixed up with the two places. They could even be different names for the same place? I just don't know. Perhaps I should look a map. For the sake of the blog though, let's just say I went to the Canal Plantations.

The blossom appearing on some of the trees was an absolute explosion that was quite hard to miss...

Even harder to ignore were the birds that were perched in the trees, Ring-necked Parakeets. We all moan at them when we're at home, complaining at how they scare other birds away, and take their nest sites. Then we go out and come face to face with one, and are completely possessed by them. They are the ultimate non-conformists. We don't get colours like that in England (unless perhaps on a Camden Town street corner after a friday night).

Bloody foreign birds stealing our native birds jobs an- ohhh its soooo pretttyyyy...

I took a few more shots, and looking back through them noticed that the birds were taking small branches of flowers, eating a small part of one or two flowers, and then dropping the rest on the ground. Now, I'm no mathematician, but by using complex calculations on causation and effect relationships, I have concluded that the Parakeets, by dropping flowers, may actually have caused the carpet of pink to form beneath the trees.

That is possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever said on this blog, but when you think about it, thats a heck of a lot of flowers to drop for a bird.
Pick up...

And drop...

So, next time you and your friends walk past a blossoming tree, with lots of flowers on the ground, you can tell them who made that pretty scene possible, and you can look up and thank those foreigners.

On a more serious note, my thoughts and condolences are with my readers in Japan.

The Joys of Being a Moth-er

The Joys of Being a Moth-er

Just thought I'd highlight the '-' in 'moth-er'. Luckily, I won't have to experience what it is like to be a mother, but from personal experiences as being a son, I can guess that there are few joys associated with it.

Secondly, you can keep your Rufous Turtle Dove in Oxfordshire and your Slaty-backed Gull in Essex, cos' I've got me here an Agonopterix scopariella.

If you don't know, for some weird reason like you don't spend your day looking at photos of the sub-family Depressariinae, this species of micro moth is scarce in Surrey, and very hard to separate from many of its counter-parts, but thanks to a second opinion from the micro-lepidopterist, John Langmaid, I have now added another 'dot' to the Surrey micro moth distribution map, slap bang on our garden. These maps should be included in a book called 'Smaller Moths of Surrey' published later this year which funnily enough covers the smaller moths of Surrey; and thus with my trusty dot, I shall become famous.

... Agonopterix scopariella, caught in the act of taking in UV light from a fluorescent tube in the garden, on the 24th February- distinguished from heracliana by the paler, buffer overall ground colour, and from atomella and subpropinquella by the presence of two white discal spots on a faint but distinctive black background of scales... obviously. Would you just look at that squared forewing apex, Christmas has come early.

So there you go, catch a moth, send it to your county moth recorder and you could find yourself living the high life, like I will be... any day now, girl in each arm, people coming up to me in the streets asking for identifications, autographs, the lot. I can just imagine it...