Box Hill at sundown

One of those 'you-had-to-be-there' sunsets from a very cold and frosty walk to the top of Box Hill back on Sunday. The frost in the valley was so extensive that it gave the impression of a decent dusting of snow!

A beetle at Christmas

Pogonocherus hispidus

Christmas Eve came with a bit of a surprise at the Bill's Birding household this year, when this rather stunning Pogonocherus hispidus decided to join the festivities. It's a member of the aptly named Longhorn family and shouldn't even be thinking about emerging as an adult beetle until next spring. What this one was doing inside the house in mid-winter is a bit of a mystery. There's no firewood here for it to have been transported in on.

I guess the only sensible explanation is that the magic of Christmas caused it to emerge early from its larval slumber and crawl into our bathroom.

Christmas fungi

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from myself and this assortment of fungi found during a chilly foray on Fairmile Common with the British Mycological Society back at the beginning of December.

 Bitter Oyster

 Trumpet Chanterelle

Cristulariella depraedans

 Dead Moll's Fingers

Hoof Fungus

A walk in the park

I was in Bushy Park on Sunday evening as the light began to descent below the horizon. I was hoping - far too optimistically - for a vocal Lesser Spotted Woodpecker up in the oaks, or a Yellow-legged Gull amongst the gull roost, but had to make do with Green Woodpeckers and a lone adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.

The local Grey Herons were far more obliging than I've ever seen them before. They showed little interest in the stream of families that stopped to feed the ducks, let alone me sticking a wide-angle lens in their face.

Plumed Prominent

In preparation for a moth trapping event I've organised at Sheepleas next Saturday night, I had a recce at the site back on Thursday evening. I was searching for mature Field Maples, the larval foodplant of the enigmatic Plumed Prominent. This hardy late-season scarcity has a stronghold at Sheepleas, and I'd been told that trapping underneath large trees will significantly increase chances of catching the adult moth.

By the time I'd scoped out a couple of suitable trees the light had all but faded and a windy overcast night ensued. The air temperature was still in double figures and I felt optimistic enough to grab a net out of the car and hang around the woods for a while after dusk. My reward for doing so was a spectacular male Plumed Prominent, caught as it flew low amongst the shelter of the undergrowth.

 

Take a gander at those antennae! 

Plumed Prominent

A good omen for the event? If you like what you see, we'll be meeting on Saturday in St. Mary's C of E car park (just off the A246) at 15:30.

Tortrix at the end of the tunnel

It's been a pretty dire year, there's no getting around it. In the aftermath of last Wednesday's happenings, I found myself desperately searching amongst the doom and gloom for positive memories to take into 2017. It took me a while, but I eventually remembered one. This has been my best year for finding moths in the family Tortricidae with 73 species racked up since April. Impressed? Didn't think so.

Pammene splendidulana - Richmond Park, 11th May

Dichrorampha sequana - Worcester, 22nd May

Epinotia subsequana/pygmaeana - Worcester, 3rd June

Celypha woodiana - Pershore, 7th June

Epinotia fraternana - Worcester, 3rd June

Lobesia reliquana - Worcester, 9th June

Commophila aeanana - Stokes Field, 10th June

Orthotaenia undulana - Wyre Forest, 13th June

Epinotia nanana - Garden, 3rd July

Apotomis lineana - Bury St. Edmunds, 27th July

Cydia amplana - 27th August

Fungal foray

A chilly but sunny walk through Esher Common failed to turn up the presumably wintering Dartford Warbler I'd seen there a few weeks ago, but it did give me a chance to start getting to grips with some autumn fruiting fungi. I've come away with a memory card full of photographs to identify, but for now I'll leave you with two of the most impressive specimens I found on my wander: the Brown Birch Bolete and Spectacular Rustgill.

 Brown Birch Bolete Leccinum scabrum

Spectacular Rustgill Gymnopilus junonius

The week in moths

The three occasions I ran the moth trap in the garden this October all yielded no moths, but a last minute decision to run the trap on a freezing Saturday night last week rewarded me with two hardy souls - an Oak Rustic and Monopis crocicapitella.

The Oak Rustic is a new species for the garden, and is still a fairly rare moth around these parts with the first Surrey record coming from Redhill as recently as November 2014.

An indescribably stunning Merveille du Jour caught on Halloween night was the 3rd record for the garden.

Coleophora ibipennella

 Coleophora ibipennella

That 'thing' in the photo above is the protective case of a tiny moth called Coleophora ibipennella. The larva lives inside this peculiar looking construction and feeds (upside down) on an oak leaf before pupating within the case and emerging as a slightly less peculiar looking adult. Despite there being well over 100 species in this genus, feeding within cases on an equally large number of foodplants, I rarely have any luck finding them in their larval stage. Coleophora ibipennella seems to be an exception, with this being the third case of this species that I've found so far in 2016. I stumbled across it whilst taking a jaunt through West End Common in the sun yesterday evening.

Camera troubles

I made the run into town last Friday to book my Nikon D300s onto a well-needed spa break at one of the brand's repair centres just outside Kingston. I stopped off in Richmond Park on the way home for a dose of fungus spotting, mainly in an attempt to take my mind off the hefty price tag needed to bring the camera's auto-focus capabilities back to life in preparation for the slight possibility that I might take some photos of birds this winter.

Parasol Mushroom Macrolepiota procera

 Yellow Fieldcap Bolbitius titubans

 Ochre Brittlegill Russula ochroleuca

Purple Brittlegill Russula atropurpuea

The Deceiver Laccaria laccata

I know what you might be wondering. I have two cameras.