Hi From Scilly

It's raining outside, and I've managed to take cover in one of the only shops in St. Mary's to have a usable computer. Whilst I'm not doing much, here's a few taster photos from the first two days on Scilly.

The weather has been a bit disappointing, but that hasn't stopped the birds. Whilst photographing a Yellow-browed Warbler in torrential rain yesterday, the camera decided to jump out my hands and take a dunk in a nearby stream. It functioned for a while after that, but soon the buttons stopped working, and now it won't even turn on. Nightmare. These two were taken before the watery accident- luckily the memory card that was in the camera at the time is completely fine, and the lens had a waterproof cover on at the time... why didn't the bloody camera body think of that?

Now back to using my trusty old back-up Nikon D60. An absolute life saver of a DSLR, never let me down... touch wood.

Be Right Back

... just going to the Isles of Scilly to indulge in a well deserved week of hardcore birding. Should be interesting.

Here's a Migrant Hawker to fill this space in the meantime; never seen one at rest before.

Yeah, I'm Still Alive

Quite a fair bit has changed since my last post back at the end of August. Got my A-level results - they weren't bad, but a D in Biology was a bit disappointing, so I'm planning on heading back to college to re-take the exams I flopped.

In the meantime though, I've got a nice long gap year to enjoy, and I've already booked myself in for full time retail at work over the Christmas period, so that should be extra fun. Before that though, I've decided to treat myself with a week away in a B+B on the Isles of Scilly in the second week of October. If all goes to plan, my arrival will coincide with the arrival of rare American vagrant birds, blown hundreds of miles across the Atlantic... can't wait.

Whilst I count down the days till twitching mania on Scilly, here's some stuff from Bushy Park the other morning...

18th Birthday Moths

As I write this, its uncomfortably warm outside, and I've had the worst hangover possible for most of today (the big old 18th last night... don't ask). Weirdly, I woke up this morning to the sight of a moth trap in the garden. I don't remember doing it, but it seemed that somehow, before I went out and did more stuff I don't remember doing, I must have registered the promisingly muggy, calm and warm conditions and put out a moth trap... that is the kind of thing you do before your 18th isn't it?

Anyway, there was some decent stuff waiting for me in the trap this morning, including a nice Hoary Footman, and an even nicer Gypsonoma minutana.

Back on the 16th August I was slightly more sober when I emptied the moth trap, and resting on the last egg box at the bottom was a Toadflax Brocade. It's quite a rare species in Britain, usually confined to shingle beaches along the south coast, but in recent years, wanderers have been turning up further inland, with the likelihood of localised breeding in Surrey and London. It's been on my garden wish list for a long time now, but I never thought it would actually turn up...

Another species that's been on the wish list for ages is Jersey Tiger. Unlike the Toadflax, Jersey Tiger already has a well established population in the London suburbs, so I was expecting it arrival to an extent. Still an absolute stunner, especially as its the scarcer form lutescens which has awesome yellow hindwings...

Hoary Footman- fighting off hoards of these at the moment...

Possibly the most wanted insect in Britain, Oak Processionary. DEFRA would have a fit if they knew how common the species is becoming in the garden...

Sallow Kitten...

Narrow-winged Pug...

Rush Veneer, a very common immigrant, but only the 3rd garden record...



Straw Belle and the Road Race

Encouraged by the recent excursions of blogger Steve Gale (of North Downs and Beyond) to Box Hill in search of rare lepidoptera, I couldn't help but make my own way up there on Monday, if it meant the possibility of catching up with my dream Surrey moths, the Straw Belle.

It may have the aesthetic appeal of a folden piece of white paper with two pencil scribbles down either side, and I'll admit it's not really much of a looker, but Straw Belle is the creme de la creme of rare moths, with an extremely restricted range covering just a few isolated sites in the North Downs (including one of the most reliable sites, Box Hill), along with a small isolated population in the west of Ireland.

The routing of the recent Olympic road race through Box Hill caused quite a stur, especially once it was released that crowds would be allowed onto the upper chalk slopes occupied by Straw Belle at this time of year.

On arrival, there were no obvious signs of damage to the wildflower slopes, and careful consideration had clearly been taken to ensure minimum disturbance to the most vulnerable areas, including the so called Straw Belle 'viewing point' below...

Despite a strong breeze, and spells of rain at times, at least 6 Straw Belle were weakly fluttering above the grassy slopes, dropping down to shelter on the underside of grass stems every few seconds. The caterpillars feed on low growing herbaceous plants, and it was worried that the high risk of trampling associated with large crowds could shatter breeding hopes when it came to egg laying on the foodplant. Of course, we'll have to wait until next year to note any possible adverse effects, but the condition of the hill, not to mention the lack of litter, was really pleasing to see...

With a slightly wider distribution throughout Britain that Straw Belle, but a similar restriction to chalky soils, Chalk Carpet were out in large numbers as well, but only started to settle for photographs once the rain kicked in...

A nice supporting cast of late summer butterflies were also about, including this slightly worse for wear Dark Green Fritillary...

Chalkhill Blue were staying low to the ground, perching for long periods of time on grass stems to shelter from the rain. I spent bloody ages with this one butterfly attempting to get an in-focus shot and the stem blew about in the wind. Not to dissatisfied with the results...

Never seen so many Silver-spotted Skipper before in my life...

Things Finally on the Tern?

Things haven't been looking too bad in the past few weeks. The moth trap has, rather surpringly, begun to catch some moths, and we've reached that time of year when everyone's favourite migrant birds start to return to the South coast, before ditching us again for hotter climes.

With a few hours free last Saturday, before another evening in front of the Olympics, I thought I'd try my luck down Richmond Park for a few early Whinchats or Wheatears that might have dropped down.

... No luck on that front, but a pair of Common Terns had successfully fledged at least two chicks on Pen Ponds, and there was a smart pair of Little Owls in oak trees a little further up, by the car park...

Sad to see the Olympics coming to an end tonight. I'm far from patriotic, but after watching Team GB's performance this year, it's hard not to feel a sense of pride in what the team has achieved this year. Watching the legendary likes of  Mo Farah make history in the 10,000 metres, and then go on to win the 5,000 metres the other night, and Jess Ennis winning Heptathlon gold, was a real priviledge to watch... not forgetting the cycling and rowing success, and of course the Jamaicans, laughing their way to more incomprehensible world records.

T.V. will be boring for another 4 years, and I guess I'll have to get outside into the field again. A trip down Box Hill for Straw Belle, me thinks.

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.