Bookham invertebrates

The recent spell of decent weather continued for yesterday's LNHS survey at Bookham Common, and as usual I was treated to a number of new inverts in the company of the beetle and bug experts, with a welcome vocal supporting cast of Lesser Whitethroat and Cuckoo.

One particular large bug caught my eye resting on low vegetation by the LNHS hut, and turned out to be Box Bug (Gonocerus acuteangulatus), a species previously confined in its UK distribution to a single site in Surrey, but that has since expanded its range throughout the southern counties, making use of commoner foodplants.

Elaphrus riparius running across typical muddy, wet habitat.

Apion frumentarium- I've netted a number of vibrant red Apion weevils in recent weeks, but have been too afraid to key them out by myself!

Box Bug

Whilst everyone else had their heads to the ground, I kept an eye on the sky and managed a single moth 'tick' in the form of Agonopterix purpurea; a characteristic species of chalk grassland using wild carrot as a foodplant. Quite a nicely marked moth considering the genus it's in...

Agonopterix purpurea

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm rather liking the look of next week's forecast...

More lepidoptera please.

Moths... rare moths

In some kind of weird series of extremely unlikely events, the past 24 hours since returning from University have already seen me add two new species to the garden list, each one as completely unprecedented as the other. This exquisite Blossom Underwing was one of only two moths caught last night (the other one being a Common Quaker) on my first garden trapping session in over a month. The species came to light generously in Worcestershire's Monkwood reserve last week, but I never expected to catch it on the suburban Surrey/London border...

Just as extraordinary in its appearance as the Blossom Underwing was this Caloptilia cuculipennella, netted within minutes of arriving home as it daintily flew through the garden. Various literature describe the species as rare and seldom recorded in Britain, and it appears that this silvery individual constitutes the 5th record for the county...

Cool. Mega cool. 

Goodbye Grimley...

It was only as I packed up and left Worcester for the Easter Holidays this afternoon that I realised just how much I'm going to miss Grimley over the next few weeks. Things were really starting to kick off, with a brief Little Gull last week and a fly-over Osprey reported on Tuesday whilst I partook in the rare practice of essay writing.

A brief session yesterday produced a lovely range of common migrants, with 2 Yellow Wagtail and 2 Common Sandpiper new in, joining 3 White Wagtail, 150+ Sand Martin, 6 Swallow and pair of Dunlin to bring the patch year list up to 85 species.

One of two Common Sandpipers feeding at close range on the shoreline yesterday evening.

Here's to some good old Surrey birding (and mothing) for the next two weeks!

Four days before this day last year...

I know most normal people normally do these kind of anniversary tributes on the exact date of passing, but I'm not normal. It was exactly four days before this day last year that a male Bluethroat popped up in front of my flabbergasted face on the Isle of Wight. I feel it only necessary to remind you all of that fact...

... the one reason why my day was probably better than yours on 6th April 2013.

I'm afraid I can get quite nostalgic over previous springs, so you might have to sit through some more of this self-indulgent, sentimental rubbish in the next few weeks, especially as we move ever closer to the anniversaries of Stokes Field's first Redstart and Tree Pipit... those were the days.

Slender Groundhopper

Groundhoppers are the the first members of the Orthoptera family to emerge, with nymphs overwintering and becoming active in spring. I saw my first Slender Groundhopper of the year back on March 16th, but only managed to get decent views of an adult at Poswick Sewage Works last week. They come in pretty much all colours of the rainbow, but any grasshopper-like insect (with a thorax extending way past the legs) seen at this time of year is most likely to be this species. If you happen to be in Worcestershire, make sure you send all records of groundhoppers, grasshoppers and crickets to the brand spanking new 'Worcestershire Orthoptera' website here.

My University is Quackers

A strange sound greeted me as I walked into the kitchen at University the other afternoon. It was a quiet, muffled but intriguing sound coming from outside, and I opened the window to find two (no, certainly not what you're thinking...) Mallards mumbling to each other on the grass underneath me.

I've seen (and heard) some weird things during my time on campus, but ducks are a new one. Any plans for a ham and cheese toastie were duly abandoned, and I grabbed a couple of slices of bread to feed these clearly exhausted migrants. Worcester's St. John's Campus is about as far from natural habitat as a Mallard can get, so who knew how lost, tired and scared these extremely timid wild birds were...

Everything was going great until out of nowhere another male Mallard flew in, bundled past the original male, and started getting it on with the female right in front of him. Of course, the original male- presumably her boyfriend (although with the painful glances they were giving each other whilst I was feeding them bread, I thought it best not to ask)- was having none of this, and a massive fight suddenly broke out between the three of them. It was really getting out of hand- bills were going in, wings were being used- and things could have ended nastily were it not for a passing Wigeon which came in and split everyone up*.

Typical uni students. 

*that last bit about the Wigeon may not have been true, but the rest is. 

Dipping

I managed to get in a couple of hours on the patch yesterday evening in the vain hope that the Little Gull would return, or an Osprey would fly over. Neither happened but it was a nice session nonetheless, with my first flock of least 14 Swallow feeding amongst the Sand Martins, and a distant Ringed Plover being my 9th species of wader for the area in 2014. It was hard to walk very far without flushing a wagtail of some kind, and I had some nice views of one of 3 male 'alba' wagtails feeding on the shoreline.

Ringed Plover

 

One Swallow doesn't make a summer, but it sure as hell makes a spring!

I did have the misfortune to experience my first on-site dip, when a text came through saying I'd just missed a fly-over Yellow Wagtail. This would have been easier to take had it been for the fact that the bird flew over the exact spot I'd been standing in 5 minutes previous, whilst I was off staring at some Canada Geese. Ouch.

In my defense, the Canada Goose did look slightly interesting...

But it's still a Canada Goose, and it still made me miss a Yellow Wagtail.

Little Gull, little twitch

With the recent movement of birds through Worcestershire, it was only a matter of time before a Little Gull appeared on the patch. I was hoping one would do the right thing and wait until the weekend so I could find it, but of course the inevitable text from Brian came through at 7pm this evening.

I dropped everything (although I wasn't exactly doing anything- I am a student after all) and made it over to Grimley within 10 minutes, where the little beauty was still daintily dancing over the southern Pit as the sunset illuminated the water.

Hopefully it will still be there tomorrow morning. 

Crème de la crème

I was lucky enough to be invited to a moth-trapping session organised last night at Monkwood (a WT reserve located north of Worcester) during some very favourable weather conditions. In total, eight 125w MV skinner traps were wired up between the six of us and spread out along footpaths in the northern section of the reserve, underneath a cover of blackthorn and oak.

A Black-tailed Godwit called as it flew over in the gloom, and various Tawny Owls were vocal throughout the night, but whilst the birds were nice, the moths were better. Things got off to a fine start when the very first moth I plucked out of a trap turned out to be a Blossom Underwing; a moth restricted in its breeding range to ancient oak woodland, and a species that I've only previously been able to appreciate through photos on the interweb. Four more entered various traps throughout the night, making a welcome change to the usual Orthosia that typically dominate early season catches...

The crème de la crème of early-season noctuids, one of five Blossom Underwing caught.

The same Blossom Underwing, putting a Common Quaker to shame.

Mixed in with the usual Quakers and Chestnuts was a single example of Dark Chestnut as well small numbers of Twin-spotted Quaker, Early Tooth-stripe, Frosted Green, Pine Beauty and Shoulder-stripe. Five beautifully fresh Purple Thorn in one trap indicated a recent emergence, but the adrenaline was soon pumping again when an egg box was turned over to reveal a single White-marked- the first modern record for Monkwood of this uncommon species, and a completely unexpected bonus for the night... 

The crème de la crème of early-season noctuids... oh wait, I already said that for the Blossom Underwing didn't I? So much quality in one night... I just can't decide between them.

Surprisingly low numbers of micros were recorded, with the highlights being adults of both Semioscopis avellanella and Semioscopis steinkellneriana, giving a nice opportunity to compare the two species up close, and a few probable Eriocrania sangii which were mixed in with the usual E. subpurpurella. All the above moths were caught in just the three traps that I kept an eye on, with insect activity getting so busy that I didn't find much of a chance to take a peak into the other five traps. I'll try and see if I can get a full species list together, but in the meantime the killer question needs to be answered:

... Blossom Underwing or White-marked... which is better?

Early Thorn was one of the more numerous species to enter the traps.

Extracting Blossom Underwing no. 5 from the same trap that would turn up the White-marked half an hour later. Moth-trapping at its finest! 

An unlikely migrant

A slightly quieter session was had on the patch yesterday, with the departure of the Garganey pair as well as the two Wheatear, although at least one male White Wagtail was still showing well having been joined on the scrape by a Green Sandpiper.

One of the more interesting finds of the day came in the form of the tiny Plutella xylostella (aka Diamond-back Moth), which was flushed from short grass around the edge of the Pits. These moths can arrive in Britain en masse throughout the summer, but this particular individual represents my earliest ever record of the species, and shows that it isn't just birds migrating at this time of year. Despite being only a few millimetres in length, this tiny species is one of the most capable of migrant moths, spreading northwards through Europe every year and has managed to colonise much of the world.

A Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella), flushed from grassland on the Camp Lane Pits yesterday afternoon.

A quick search of the nearby Grimley church produced large quantities of Luffia ferchaultella larval cases- most of which had probably already emerged last year. This moth is unusual in that males of the species have never been recorded in Britain, and it is assumed that our population is made up entirely of self-fertile females!

Green Sandpiper

Migrant wader heaven... hopefully.