I Don't Like Street Lights

As Autumn moves on, you'll be glad to know that the constant hijacking by moths of this blog should be coming to an end.

... but for now, you'll have to endure some recent autumnal additions to the garden this past October...

Barred Sallow; a classic yellow, orange and brown autumnal moth

Black Rustic, such an unflattering name for quite a smart moth

Blair's Shoulder-knot

Hoary Footman

Just 10 years ago, this species was confined to a few coastal locations in the South-west, but more recently has seen an expansion in its range into many south London gardens. It appears to be thriving here, with 6 moths caught in 2011. This tatty example on 3rd October must have been part of a smaller 2nd generation, that flies later in the Autumn, after the summer generation.

Red-line Quaker

Just as it looked like October moth trapping was going to end on a high, I came home the other night to find that the whole of our road had been installed with new extra bright white street light, replacing the standard orange light. This is very annoying, and every moth trappers worst nightmare (along with blowing ballasts, and a trap full of Hornets). Light pollution is bad enough around here, and the garden is now lit up like a bloody Christmas tree, so its doesn't take an expert to work out whats probably going to happen to my catches next year.*

Anyway, I'm off to catch me a Death's Head Hawk-moth to mark this seasonal occasion.

*if you happen to have a few days worth of free time on your hands with nothing better to do, and you don't know what artificial light; including moth traps, can do to insect populations, then this and this article make for a long, boring good read ).

Larkin' About

Larkin' About

I've just realised that I haven't mentioned the word 'bird' on this blog in 4 moths months, ironic considering the name of this blog is 'Bill's Birding'.

Anyway, I twitched bird today- a Shorelark. It's a very special Shorelark as a matter of fact, being the first Shorelark to be seen in Surrey since the late 1980s. Whilst they are usually to be expected along the East and coast in late autumn, one bird had decided to make Queen Elizabeth II reservoir its temporary hang out for the last couple of days, and yesterday morning I took a chance and decided to head down to try and break my birding drought.

It was an extremely early start at half 9 in the morning, but after two cups of tea and a tube of Smarties, the hardcore twitcher inside of me managed to drag my body out of the house, onto a bike, to a train station, onto a train, off a train, over a fence (gates are for lazy permit holders), past guard dogs and finally up a hill to a large pond...

They may need new guard dogs after what I did to them...

The bird was a bugger to find, prefering to feed low down in the reservoir gunk as far away from any human as possible, and the slightest sign of aggression from one of the millions of Pied Wagtails also present would send it shooting off to the other side of the reservoir. Eventually I pinned it down metres away from where I had first entered the reservoir, but not before I'd completed a 2 mile lap around the bloody place in search of the bird.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year material right there...

This seems to be a recurring problem when I'm with birds...

On the contrary, I was fighting off swarms of these...

and these...

One of the reservoir's regulars, Dave Harris, also found a bonus Short-eared Owl whilst we were waiting for the Lark. It showed brilliantly, for passengers on the planes taking off from Heathrow a few miles away...

Je ne parle pas français

... but I do know a Merveille du Jour when I see one.

Few others can match this species for looks. I've caught one before in the garden; around about this time last year, but that still hadn't prepared me for the shear sublime nature of its plumage when I caught this moth last night.

Possibly one of the best things to come from France since Stella Artois...

What with the moth trap not likely to go out on too many more occasions this year as we head further and further into the autumn, and with nothing to do this afternoon (except for 2 Biology dissertations and a Sociology write-up which can wait until the night before their due in), I decided to do what any bored teenager does and put the data from this year's moth trapping to good use, to find out how this year faired in terms of species diversity of the moths in my garden...

The small dip in numbers in March is due to the fact that I only trapped 4 times that month, and the complete failure of a month in June has probably got something to do with the completely s@!t start to summer we experienced in terms of weather. This is only my second year of trapping, so I can't exactly compare these records to previous years. However, the general consesus is that its been a pretty crap year for moths, with many commoner species simply not appearing.

Now, what to do tomorrow? There's a Shorelark just down the road, but that would mean getting out on my bike and experiencing what they call exercise, so I probably won't do that.

Childcare

Why the lack of blog posts, you ask?

Well, I've been dedicating my time to other things, namely child-rearing. To be honest its pretty simple really, despite what others would tell you. Just put them in a cage and feed them leaves every now and again.

Now before you reach for the nearest phone to call Childline, perhaps I should point out that I am of course talking about Early Thorn caterpillars, and just in case anyone is unsure as to how a caterpillar turns into a pwetty butterfly, then observe...

A few days after hatching (15th August)...

About 20 days old...

Look at me, I'm a spiky thorn...

45 days old...

Look at me, I'm a twig...

Look at me, I'm a chrysalis...

Look at me, I'm a chrysalis inside a leaf...

60 days old...

A pwetty butterfly finally emerges (2nd generation adult Selenia dentaria to be more precise)...

A more detailed explanation of the complete process of metamorphosis can be found below...

UK400 Club

Acleris schalleriana...

... Officially the 400th species of moth caught in the garden to date.

Am I cool now?

Rare, or are they?

Rare, or are they?

If you were wondering why I haven't been posting in a while, it's because I've been staring at this photo constantly for the last two weeks, not believing I've caught this moth... 

For the night dwelling moth-trappers amongst you, I'm sure this moth will need no introduction, but all other normal people, this is a Jersey Mocha; but not just any Jersey Mocha... only the first record of Jersey Mocha for Surrey. According to the literature, it's a rare immigrant to Britain, that occasionally gets blown off course, first being recorded here in 2003.

Having this one in the garden the other week suddenly made me wonder- really just how rare are these species we would class as rare vagrants? How many potentially 'new' species to Britain have simply gone under the radar? How many Jersey Mochas have passed through Surrey un-noticed before I caught this one in the garden? Thousands, I bet.

And the scene is the same with birds. If you ever need to know the best way to make a twitcher emotionally unstable in a matter of seconds, just remind them about the Canada Warbler that will be happily singing away in an unknown hedgerow, in an unknown part of the British countryside as you speak; or the Black Woodpecker, nibbling away at some anonymous Oak tree somewhere, never to be discovered.

So get out there and start looking... although preferably not in Surrey, and preferably not in the form of a moth trap. I don't like competition.

The Many Faces of Bookham Common

The Many Faces of Bookham Common

Just in case you were starting to worry, the authorities didn't arrest me in the end for putting that Oak Processionary moth in the fridge. Thankfully, this meant I could get down to Bookham Common the other morning for the monthly field survey that takes place at this very well documented SSSI.

This month, the focus for the survey was on Grasshoppers and Bush Crickets, a group of insects that I've trodden on plenty of times whilst sweeping through fields in search of moths, but apart from that, haven't really ever given much attention to. By the end of the day, we had managed to biologically blitz our way through a healthy variety of hoppers, including these (although I take no credit for identifying them)...

Roesel's Bush-cricket...

Rufous Grasshopper, identified by the white tipped antennae, apparently...

Dark Bush-cricket...

Speckled Bush-cricket...

The main highlight of the day came when a member of the team started to lift up a large boulder along the side of the footpath (as you do) to reveal a neat female Great-crested Newt hiding under it. I've never seen one before, so it was nice to finally put a face to the animal that seems to have most conservation bodies worried out of their skin at just the mention of this little amphibians name...

We got back to the hut for lunch just in time to help Paul Wheeler (only one of the top moth recorders in Surrey) go through one of the moth traps he had set up in the woodland the previous night. The catch wasn't brilliant, but if its of any interest to anyone, the highlights did include the scarce and elusive Square-spotted Clay, a migrant White-point and some very nice Sharp-angled Carpet.

Square-spotted Clay...

White-point...

Out in the tall grasses, micro moths were easy enough to flush out. The pick of the bunch had to be this Agriphila sellasella, sporting a small ice-cream cone for a nose...

Breaking the Law

Breaking the Law

Who would have thought that such a harmless hobby could get so out of hand? When I first started, I knew I was getting myself into a commitment that may ruin my life (and my sleep pattern) for ever, but I never thought it would tip me over the edge so soon. At first I managed to keep it to a minimum, but it wasn't long before I became hooked on it all. Night after night, I'd be out there, lurking in the shadows with them until the early hours, but it seems that last night everything just went too far. They made me do it, they did. Those damned moths made me do it! An Oak Processionary moth to be precise, and last night I broke the law by putting it in fridge.

Due to the caterpillar's tendency to demolish any oak tree it can get its mouth around, and its ability to release extremely skin irritating microscopic hairs from its back, this species is very high on the list of species that many of the top environmental agencies in Britain want dead. Its not native, and although the adults do occasionally accidently come over from mainland Europe, the caterpillars of the species are thought to have arrived with a delivery of foreign oak trees into Kew Gardens. The moths are feared so much by the government, that there is even a law which makes it illegal to knowingly keep or store the moth.

I realised this a little too late after I carried out normal practise by putting the moth in the fridge (to calm it down ready for photography later of course- who do you think I am, a moth torturer?) and thus I have become a criminal.

All because of this ugly (but flippin' rare) little bugger...

I can only assume its a matter of time before the authorities will be onto me, and I wouldn't be suprised if MI5 don't already have their top covert Human Intelligence Agents watching me as I type this. I guess the best thing to do will be to go into hiding... preferably somewhere with a really good list of moths to boot. How about Portland? Or maybe Dungeness?

Hopefully I can keep you updated on my progress using these new internet connections they have on mobile cell phones nowadays, but I wouldn't hold out any hopes.

May my last words to you be this: don't start moth trapping.

An Assortment of Butter

An Assortment of Butter

Let's end July with some butterflies, eh? Overall, the weather hasn't been great for them, but on the odd occasion I've found a few have been kicking about here and there.

I was particularly pleased to find this Pained Lady a few weeks back down the local Stoke's Field. Its a migrant species, and after it has a very good influx year in 2009, 2010 was arguably one of the worst years for the species, with very few people lucky enough to see one. Perhaps we can hope for a few more in August.

These little butterflies have been arriving en masse to the garden, Gatekeeper...

I photographed this one back in June, but haven't found the right time to post it, so here it is in all its glory. A Purple Hairstreak...

And finishing off with something that I don't really take any notice of when I'm out and about... a plant. This one is a Pyramidal Orchid, but I take no credit for identifying it, looks like a pink Dandelion to me. Unfortunatly, this wasn't in the garden, but at the chalk downland site Norbury Park.

It also happens to be the Big Butterfly Count at the moment, in which you simply note down any butterfly you see at a particular place, and send in your findings to this website. If you haven't already done it, have a go... or I'll get Big Daddy Attenborough on you, and he won't be happy.

Cheers Italy

Cheers Italy

Whilst I re-consider the title of this blog to 'Bill's Mothing'- judging by the fact that I haven't done a bird post in two months- here is a rare moth which I caught at Norbury Park the other week. Its so rare that it was once considered endemic to Italy, but a few have started to turn up on the south coast of Britain in the past 10 years, confirming a tiny breeding population. Its called Metalampra italica...

Now if only we had Italy's weather at the moment, instead of their bloody moths.