Moths

The weathers a hell of a lot better, and without further ado, here are some garden moths to celebrate with...

Small Ranunculus...

Dark Sword-grass...

Leopard Moth...

Coronet...

Hoary Footman...

White-point...

Recurvaria nanella...

Eudemis profundana...

Gypsonoma oppressana...

Enarmonia formosana...

Lozotaeniodes formosanus...

Just let this be a warning. Whenever I have nothing to blog about, I'm just going to throw moths at you... like now.

A Hoot of a Time in Bushy Park

I've just spent most of this evening creeping through Bushy Park with a camera (what better way to spend a Saturday night?), in the hope of catching up with a few night-dwelling critters. I was looking in particular for Owls, after counting double figures of Little Owl in the Park last Wednesday whilst catching (more like attempting and failing to catch) moths.

This time round, I'd come armed with a camera, and unlike on the two other brief occasions that I've seen Little Owl in the Park (both in daylight, and both flying in the opposite direction) it was nice to finally have a proper encounter with one, as it flew from perch to perch, and at one point started hunting insects between the Lime trees along the Avenue...

Fifteen minutes (and two Little Owls) later, a Tawny Owl started calling from high in an oak by the gated entrance to the Woodland Gardens. I'd heard it in the exact same spot last Wednesday, so this must be a regular hang out for the bird. Here's a bad sound recording of its distinctive, but slightly odd call...

After a while of calling, a second bird appeared in an oak directly above me to investigate, and perched gloriously for a good five minutes, before starting a calling competition with the original bird. Words cannot describe the feeling of  watching this bird, in twilight, in the middle of the woods. Sheer class...

To top off a memorable evening, a further 3 Tawnies were making weird high-pitched calls to each other in a nearby Plantation, and once again, perched completely out in the open. Would have made a great shot for anyone with a night-vision camera...?

You'll need to use your imagination a bit to hear it, but I did manage to grab a recording of the birds calling to each other. It was a weird, raspy sound. Never heard anything quite like it...

A truly memorable night. It's always a priviledge to see great birds, but there's just something else about Owls.

Money Saving Clearwing

Some of you may remember (how could you not?) that last year I bought a set of moth pheromones tailored specifically to attract the secretive, retiring family of moths known as Clearwings.

They worked to great success when I tried them in the garden during what can only be described as a very 'different' June, weatherwise. Clearwing lures work best on warm, sunny, breezy, with a slight breeze to carry the scent. I can think of many ways to describe the weather so far this summer, and those three words don't feature.

The other weekend saw a slight break in the clouds, producing just enough of a weather window to string the lures up in the garden, and encourage a few moths onto the wing.

Orange-tailed Clearwing- 4 of which turned up within the first 15 minutes...

Orange-tailed Clearwing (right) posing with a worn Yellow-legged Clearwing, the latter of which has probably colonised an Oak tree across the road from our garden...

This Red-tipped Clearwing showed up completely out of the blue later in the evening. It actually has its own lure specifically tailored for it, and shouldn't be respond to the 'VES' lure that I use. I'm definitely not complaining though, as it saves me a good tenner that would have been spent on buying the proper lure for it later in the year!

Did Someone Say Summer?

Thanks to Garry Prescott for allowing me to completely ruin his excellent photo of a less than happy Hobby. See more of his work on his flickr page.

Literally, I've seen so much wildlife over the past month that I just haven't had time to share it all with you. A weeks ago, it rained, and a Blue tit flew into the garden. Then, like at the same time, a Pigeon flew over! Then, it rained again, and I saw a Frog. Yesterday, you won't believe this, but I saw a butterfly on a flower. It was truly amazing.

Seriously though, its been the worst start to a summer weather-wise that I can remember, and this, of course, has had an adverse effect on basically everything, including my motivation to do anything that vaguely involves prancing around meadows chasing butterflies, or squinting at distant Stonechats perched on dead bracken in the extremely wild, untouched landscape that is Bushy Park.

It's annoying, 'cos I had plans to go out and photograph early season insects, specifically the engimatic Glanville Fritillary, confined to the Isle of Wight, and extreme south coast of England. No doubt the bad weather has capped their flight period, along with many other butterflies. It isn't even worth talking about moth trapping this year. On the rare occasion that a suitable night has arisen, the moth trap has either been plagued with those bloody Cockchafers (there's a reason they're called that), or has produced numbers less than I'd expect on the coldest nights in February.

Saying that, I did get out into the garden yesterday with the Clearwing pheromones from last year, to great success. Photos of them to follow.

This is usually the point where I'd say something along the lines of 'it can only get better', or 'lets hope things pick up', but you don't need to be a meteorologist to know that's probably not going to happen. Just a typical British summer.

Time For Another Chat

A few more birds from Bushy Park and Richmond Park, the only places I've had time to get out to in the past few weeks...

Stonechats have completely avoided me this year in Bushy Park, and I haven't found a single pair in the usual haunts. I took a trip to Richmond Park especially to catch up with the spring males yesterday, and without much trouble, found a very vocal pair, actively collecting caterpillars in the gorse above Pen Ponds to feed a fresh brood...

An early visit to Bushy Park midweek yielded some reward, with a showy Heron on the canal. As the Park gets busier during the day, the birds tend to retreat to the grassland, where they sit it out until the evening...

Spring Migrants in the Park

After a three week birding drought, I spent this afternoon in Bushy Park searching for spring migrants. The search were more successful than first imagined, with a very smart female Whinchat proving the undoubted highlight alongside a double-figure count of Wheatear amongst the anthills, and a pair of Hobbies circling over the Woodland Gardens, accompanied by countless Swifts.  

Along with Ring Ouzel, Whinchat is another one of those species which, rather embarrassingly, I have never seen before; so to catch up with one out on the patch was an added bonus...

Unlike the Wheatears, this Chat refused to come close, and with no cover out in the grassland apart from old anthills, there was little chance of getting the frame filling shots I would have really liked.

The supporting cast, however, were a bit more showy, including this male Wheatear- one of thirteen counted...

It was a drizzly, gloomy afternoon, and whilst the Skylarks would usually be singing their arses off high in the sky, most were lying low, giving the odd burst of sub-song every now and again...

Wrens were extremely vocal amongst the dead bracken, this one perching briefly for a photo...

Not to be overlooked amongst the anthills, the ever shy Green Woodpecker...

Over by Heron Pond, and another surprise in the form of a Little Egret, which flew over the car park, and landed in a silage ditch briefly, before a dog sent it on its way towards the Thames.

See you in another three weeks!

Two for One

Whilst out searching for migrants in Richmond Park yesterday, I managed to catch up with some very photogenic thrushes, which were feeding out in the grassland.

It appeared that a pair of Song Thrush had hatched young early, and were constantly flying back and forth with beakfuls of caterpillars and worms collected from the soil...

A pair of Mistle Thush were also foraging nearby, and provided a rare opportunity to photograph the two species at close range, within metres of each other...