Tuesday December 26

Just a quick update.

All birding recently has been incidental to my daily routine, but it has contained birds worthy of note. Firstly, at least one Hawfinch has reappeared in the field maples along Coster's Lane. I saw it on 16th, 23rd, and again earlier today. The significance of this morning's sighting was that it was close enough to our house to be visible from our front bedroom. Surprisingly this is not a garden tick, because I managed to see one from the house in March 2006.

Another surprise came on 24th. I was on a shopping errand on the way back from Morton Bagot which took me along the road which encircles Winyates Green. As I approached the Peugeot garage I noticed a Little Egret standing in the bushes at the edge of Ipsley Alders.

The fact that the presence of three Greenfinches in the Costers Lane field maples is worth mentioning is a sign of the times as this species is now Red Listed as declining in the UK. They certainly used to be very common around here.

One disappointing absentee is Blackcap. I struggled to see many winterers last year, and have drawn a complete blank this winter.

The only question remaining is whether the Hawfinches will still be around in January, as they seem to be working their way through all the field maple seeds in Costers Lane.

Sunday December 10

A few hours before dawn this morning it started snowing. There had been a little bit on Friday morning, which had not thawed, but this morning's was on a different scale. It is still snowing now, at 11.30am, and I popped out with my ruler to take some measurements. On our wooden garden table it is 15cms deep, and on the patio slabs, 10cms.

The Hawfinches seem to have disappeared, my last sighting being one which flew over our driveway on 3 December.

However, the bird feeding regime has been pretty successful, with 17 species in the garden yesterday including 10 Blackbirds, three Redwings, and three Chaffinches. A Wren hopped around the flower pots under the back window for a short while yesterday afternoon.

Redwing

Chaffinch

So this morning the garden looked like this:

I duly waded out and cleared patches of snow, put out more apples, sprinkled more seed, and retreated to see if anything new would turn up.

Redwing

Song Thrush

So, pretty much just the same birds. I could also see no evidence of a hard weather movement, but as the snow is largely confined to the Midlands and Wales, this isn't too surprising.

The neighbours have been busy though.

Update: One species which is surprisingly unusual in our garden is the Starling. But one found the fatballs at lunchtime.

Starling

An hour later I went into the kitchen to find that the apple tree was full of Fieldfares. At least 15 were peering down and they were soon getting stuck in, fighting with the local Blackbirds for supremacy.

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

A fantastic spectacle.

Finally, as the light faded, a Pied Wagtail appeared on the front garden feeder. Another unusual bird for the garden.

Pied Wagtail

The light was too poor for anything but a rather fuzzy record shot.

Saturday November 25

No dedicated birding done for the second day running, except that two trips to the paper shop produced three Hawfinches.

Yesterday's was slightly unsatisfactory. I saw what I suspected was a Hawfinch flying across the road into a tree, photographed the tree and found the head of a Hawfinch peering out at me. It quickly disappeared only to fly over my head and land in another tree before disappearing again.

This morning I had one flying away, before finding one in a tree above the paper shop. The sun was against me, but I got a satisfactory shot.

I then edged around the tree and looked back with the sun behind me, but it had gone. However, five minutes later what I presume was the same bird flew over giving the classic "tick.....tick" call. Ironically this is the first one this autumn I have heard making that call.

During the late morning I wandered around without seeing any, and also spent time in the garden pruning the buddleia. The only bird of note to fly over was a Grey Wagtail.

With more than a decade since the last influx, and perhaps 30 years further back to the one before, I am determined to enjoy this one to the full.

Sunday November 19

As my last post suggested, I have been on a bit of a mission lately.

Last Sunday Dave and I checked out the Field Maples opposite the bus-stop on Alders Drive on the grounds that in their last incursion (2005) the Hawfinches had favoured that area. We found nothing. Then on Wednesday my visit to the paper-shop on Costers Lane was enlivened by the discovery of a Hawfinch in Field Maples there. Sadly I didn't have my optics with me, and the bird had flown off by the time I returned.

Since then I have surprised the shop's proprietor by turning up regularly with binoculars and camera around my neck, and have also searched the trees along Alders Lane with Richard B, all to no avail.

This morning I was approaching the shop when three Hawfinches launched themselves from a Field Maple. One landed in a maple across the road and perched perfectly while I scrabbled to put my camera on. Then, disaster, it took off as I was taking aim and flew to a more distant tree, where it landed and I got my record shot.

Hawfinch

It looks like a female to me. Males are even more spectacular.

One other thing to mention is that, right on cue, the first Blackbird was seen picking the berries off our Rowen. The tree will be stripped bare in a fortnight.

Thursday November 9

Well it had to happen. A two-pointer (re Patchwork Challenge) at last. Predictably enough the excitement was provided by a Hawfinch, which flew over me as I was returning from the paper shop. With a newspaper in one hand and a plastic bottle of milk in the other, binoculars left at home, it was not the ideal of circumstances. One thing I did have going for me, though, was that it called. A thin two syllable "siier" which it repeated a couple of times as it bounded away to the south.

This sort of thing makes me reflect on the role of luck in birding. Had I not been stuck behind an old gentleman taking an age to buy copious amounts of lottery tickets, I would not have been in the right place at the right time, winning my own personal lottery.

Mind you, how many rarities must fly over when I'm somewhere else? Probably best not to think about it.

The next challenge is to find one perched in the trees around here, nibbling on seeds. They were quite easy to find here in the last invasion winter, 2005/2006, so there has to be a good chance.

That's put the mockers on it!

Wednesday November 1

I had taken the day off with the intention of going birding, but life intervened and instead I spent most of it taking my parents to a routine hospital appointment in Birmingham. Before that happened I managed an hour wandering around Ipsley Alders dreaming of Hawfinches flying over (they are everywhere this autumn).

None put in an appearance, but I did count 36 Fieldfares heading west, and also 19 Redwings. The woodland was very lively with dozens of tits, Goldcrests, and an impressive 17 Blackbirds. Meanwhile Goldfinches featured heavily in the more sparsely wooded parts, at least 50 with about 12 Siskins.

Some Goldfinches

Cut to late afternoon. I took Lyn to Castle Nurseries (just off patch) to buy a plant and some veggies. No need for the binoculars. Which meant I have been left sighing a lot this evening after I stood and watched a largish, dumpy, short-tailed passerine undulate its way north over the Castle Nurseries car-park. It almost had to be a Hawfinch, but I could see no plumage features at all, and it was silent. Other options included Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, which I don't think it was, and Woodlark, which I can't rule out but seems much less likely than Hawfinch.

I suppose you can't take your bins everywhere, but not having them can lead to frustrating moments like this.

Friday October 20

A dull, cloudy morning with a few light showers and a light westerly breeze.

Given that this is a Hawfinch-winter, and bearing in mind that the last one, 2005/2006, produced up to five through the winter including one visible from our garden, I clearly needed to go out looking for them.

So with my focus firmly on birds, the first beastie to appear was naturally a moth. In fact it was a moth I had never seen before, although with my limited moth list this is not a particular surprise.

Red-green Carpet

The moth in question fluttered past me as I entered the suburb of Winyates Green, and unexpectedly landed at the top of a fence. The light was terrible and the rain started to fall, but I managed to get an image of it, a Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata. Quite a common moth I believe, but one of the few still on the wing in late autumn.

The mild weather also allowed me to see a Hornet, but as the sun refused to shine, I soon reverted to the original plan of looking for birds. The woodland at Ipsley Alders contained a couple of tit/crest flocks, but all the crests were Goldcrests (as ever), and the one phylloscopus warbler I chanced upon turned out to be a Chiffchaff.

As I emerged from the woodland I found several flocks of Redwings heading south, the total of birds was at least 44, and with them came eight Chaffinches, and three Fieldfares. The latter are in bold type because they were a patch year-tick as I had failed to see any last winter.

So no Hawfinches, but I remain optimistic.

Friday October 13

My enthusiasm for doing this blog seems to be trickling down the plug-hole. Until today I had made no effort beyond keeping the feeding station in the garden topped up, and have been rewarded by regular visits of the usual species including up to 10 House Sparrows. One or two Chiffchaffs during September almost convinced me to set finger to lap-top (modern version of pen to paper), but I wasn't  so moved.

I did see a squashed Hedgehog along Alders Drive about three weeks ago, which at least means that they still existed up until this unfortunate individual's false move. They used to be so common here that we would get up to two live ones in the garden. Those days are now a distant memory.

So to today. It was rather breezy and mild so I walked around Arrow Valley Lake where everything was much as I remembered it. So much so that I am struggling to find anything interesting in my notebook. A moderately large flock of Long-tailed Tits had about three Goldcrests in tow, but nothing better than that.

A single adult Herring Gull was the only "unusual" bird on the lake. I use the term unusual very loosely here.

Herring Gull

Maybe next time there will be some ducks (other than Mallards).

Saturday September 2

I spent the morning on household chores, largely ignoring the warm sunshine outside. However, our front door was to supply me with a tiny moth, Psychoides flicivora, which I found in exactly the same place last year. I believe it comes from the ferns growing in the front garden.

Psychoides flicivora

When I say tiny, I mean TINY.

While I was photographing the moth, a Chiffchaff landed on the bird-bath while another began singing from trees beyond the garden. The walk to the paper-shop produced a third.

A fall of Chiffchaffs!

Monday August 28

A warm and sunny day was largely spent in the garden.

Early on, a little moth was disturbed from the patio but disappeared before I could confirm my suspicion that it was a Garden Carpet.

During the afternoon we sat out, Lyn reading, while my eyes were drawn to the Buddleia. It attracted at least three Small Tortoiseshells, three Red Admirals, a couple of Small Whites and a Large White. This was good, but I can't help thinking that in years gone by the totals would have been a lot larger and surely would have included many Peacocks.

Small Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral

Large White

I suppose that on these warm days in early autumn, I am always studying the skies. My dream bird would be an Osprey heading south. It'll probably never happen. Instead I counted up to six House Martins, while House Sparrows, Blue Tits, and Robins gradually overcame their fear and landed on the feeder. One of our neighbours keeps pigeons, but this is the first year they have adopted our garden.

Overnight two moths appeared in the bathroom. One was another Agriphila geniculea, but the second was a Garden Carpet, surely the one I had seen during the morning.

Garden Carpet Xanthorhoe fluctuata

Friday August 25

The days of daily posts to report new moths in the bathroom appear to be over. The last ten days have tended to be a bit cool, and when, like last Monday, a warmer night came along the moths failed to oblige.

There have been a few; Large Yellow Underwing, Double-striped Pug, Twenty-plume Moth, but all ones which have occurred before this year. One micro defied identification, possibly a blastobasis sp. The photograph was not really clear enough. Here it is anyway.

Don't know

One feature to please the stay at home birder at this time of the year is the action on the feeders. Every morning about 40 birds have visited the feeders. The majority have been Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits, with up the eight House Sparrows. Scarcer visitors have been been a Nuthatch, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Blackcap, and a Chiffchaff.

The Buddleia has attracted Peacock, Red Admirals, Large White, Small White, and Small Tortoiseshell.

Today our car has been taken away for servicing. The day is warm and sunny. Just after lunch my enforced captivity became too much to bear, and I decided to walk over to Ipsley Alders to see what I could find.

Birds were pretty much off the agenda due to the time of day, a male Blackcap being the highlight. I was hoping to see some butterflies, but they were disappointing. I saw lots of Speckled Woods and Large Whites, but nothing else.

It was left to dragonflies to brighten the afternoon. In particular there were lots of Migrant Hawkers in evidence, and for once some of them allowed me to photograph them.

Female Migrant Hawker

Male Migrant Hawker

I also photographed a tiny moth in the boggy grassland at the east side of the reserve. It looked quite extraordinary in the view finder, and I felt sure I hadn't seen one before. However, reality has since set in and I think that part of its strange appearance is a result of the shadow cast by a grass stem. Its red eyes are harder to explain away though, maybe the light caused it to reflect the colour.

It appears to be one of two species, the common Agriphila tristella, or the scarcer (and usually coastal) Agriphila selasella. Neither is supposed to have red eyes (but neither are any other British grass-veneer species). In the end I have gone for the commoner species, but mainly out of cowardice.

Overnight I caught two Agriphila geniculea a species I caught in the bathroom last year. Another year-tick though.

Agriphila geniculea

Post script: Many thanks to John Sirrett who responded to my Twitter post by corning that the grass veneer species at Ipsley Alders was actually the scarcer Agriphila selasella. Tick !

Monday August 14

It has been a rather unsatisfactory period since my last post.

The cool weather has restricted the number of insects reacting to the bathroom light, and those that have come in have been tricky or too difficult to identify. This irritates me.

Last night was a bit warmer and four moths turned up. Two were Pugs, one was Mother of Pearl, and one was a rather nice Green Carpet moth.

Green Carpet

The Pugs were different sizes so I felt sure they were different species. However, some research suggested that a species I have recorded before, Double-striped Pug, varies not only in upper wing pattern, but also in size. So I think they may both have been that species.

Double-striped Pugs?

One other species turned up, a Common Wasp. The discovery of a wasp nest in the window frame of the other window in the bathroom has caused some consternation in the family. I am in a minority of one where it comes to allowing them to remain.

I'm afraid their days are numbered.

Sunday August 6

This afternoon, after watching a Peacock, a Comma, and a Large White fluttering around the Buddleia, I finally got out to do some gardening. Mainly mowing the lawn.

This activity disturbed a new micro-moth for the year, a Common Plume.

Common Plume - Emmelina monodactyla

Another way to add a moth species to the garden list is to cut into an apple. We were curious to know how close to harvesting our apples are, so I picked a couple. One of these had an obvious hole, which on further investigation contained the grub of a Codling moth.

Codling Moth caterpillar - Cydia pomonella

I haven't seen any of the adult moths this year, but I did see one in the bathroom last year.

Friday August 4

Finally, after basically ignoring the place all summer, I got the opportunity to walk to Ipsley Alders. The intention was to see as many dragonflies as possible as they have been much neglected thus far.

I actually met another nature photographer, and in the brief chat we had I understood he had been photographing fungi with his macro lens. I had just photographed a female Sparrowhawk which was being heckled by its very vocal newly fledged child.

Female Sparrowhawk

I reached the pool and soon started accumulating dragonfly species. There were numerous Blue-tailed Damselflies and smaller numbers of Common Darters. A Southern Hawker perched helpfully, but the far more numerous Brown Hawkers refused to land, as did a single male Emperor.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Common Darter

Southern Hawker

Moving to the other end of the pool to avoid a smoking fisherman, I found more dragonflies. A couple of Black-tailed Skimmers were not unexpected, and I saw several "blue" damselflies without getting good enough views to identify them. Then I discovered there were lots of Small Red-eyed Damselflies. Ten years ago this would have been big news, but this recent colonist has established healthy populations locally, and I seem to see them wherever I go.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Orgy in full swing

I also had a distant view of a Common Emerald Damselfly to complete the odonata list.

Monday July 31

I haven't really done anything since my last post, other than look out of the kitchen window.

Our feeders were deluged in birds on Saturday. Its very difficult to assess the numbers when birds are visiting regularly, but my best estimate would be 12 Long-tailed Tits, 12 Blue Tits, six Great Tits, two Coal Tits, three Robins, a Dunnock, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Bullfinch, a Song Thrush, three Blackbirds, a Wren, a Goldfinch, and five House Sparrows.

I fear for the last of these because we finally bit the bullet and arranged for our guttering and fascia to be replaced. Some of the wood was rotting due, it seems, to errors made by some guys carrying out loft insulation about ten years ago. My worry is that the House Sparrows will not like the change and may not breed next year. We'll see.

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

Juvenile Song Thrush

The last House Sparrows ?

Juvenile Robins

Finally, on Sunday afternoon a "small orange butterfly" which Lyn had been seeing (and which I had been assuring her would be a Comma) landed on the Scabious and was actually a Gatekeeper.

Gatekeeper

Too cool for moths though.

But hold the front page: Just squeaking into July was a Brimstone Moth caught tonight in the bathroom.

Brimstone Moth

Its that rare thing, a pretty moth. They turn up every year in our garden though.

Thursday July 27

The walk to the paper shop this morning produced a terrific new bird for the year. A Hobby flew across the road just beyond the shop.

Wednesday July 26

Four more moths last night, two of them new for the year, and all of them micros.

I was up early photographing the two new ones before the rain arrived. Both were familiar from previous years. First was the giant micro, Mother of Pearl.

Mother of Pearl

The second was a male Light Brown Apple Moth.

Light Brown Apple Moth (male)

Left to their fate in the bathroom due to a shortage of pots were a Twenty-plume Moth and a Crambus sp which may have been Crambus pascuella.

Tuesday July 25

Last night was exceptional for beasts. I hadn't expected anything, to the extent that I only opened the bathroom window as an afterthought.

At 11.30pm the first beast made itself known, and it was a bird! A Tawny Owl was audible from the landing, so I shot outside and quickly located a large blob on the TV aerial across the street. The blob resumed its prolonged quivering yawl, not really a hoot. I had been half expecting the noise to be coming from a cat. Through my bins I was in time to see the owl take off and fly away over the roofs. We have heard Tawny Owl from the house before, but only a couple of times in the last 13 years, so it was definitely a bit of a coup.

Back indoors the bathroom was starting to fill up with moths. This is a slight exaggeration, but given that I still possess only two perspex pots I was going to have to be discriminating. A fruit-tree tortrix was rejected, then another one, before I spotted a little grass-veneer which looked different. I potted it. Then a medium sized macro turned up. It gained a place in the other pot. Next to appear was another biggish macro, but I could see it was a Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, so I was able to ignore it. On the landing a pug sp had appeared. It looked interesting enough to warrant a photograph, but was later identified as a rather bright Double-striped Pug.

Later in the night a second visit caused a large geometer to arrive. I was fairly sure it was a Willow Beauty, so reluctantly released the grass-veneer in favour of the sexier beast. As luck would have it I was able to recapture the smaller moth in the morning after photographing the two macros.

So what did I get?

The first one turned out to be another one with the caveat that certain identification was not always possible without examining the genitalia. Bloody moths. Nevertheless I am pretty certain that the moth in question was a species called The Uncertain. The problem being the closely similar Rustic (not the Common Rustic which is a different species altogether).

The Uncertain Hoplodrina alsines

The geometer was, as I had suspected, a Willow Beauty.

Willow Beauty Peritabodes rhomboidaria

It's feathered antennae showed it to be a male.

Finally, by conveniently resting on the window frame, the grass-veneer was potted and I identified it as Agriphila straminella.

Agriphila straminella

Finally, the morning was to produce one more surprise, this time a bird. As I drove along Alders Drive a Kestrel flew across the road at the island. A somewhat overdue year-tick.

Monday July 24

Most of the action recorded in this blog occurred on Sunday. Overnight I caught a couple of moths. One was another Blastobasis adustella, but the second was a macro-moth which I thought would be straightforward to identify. Today I realise it is actually not identifiable to species without an examination of its genitalia.

Common Rustic ag Mesapamea sp

The problem is that Common Rustic is vary variable, as is Lesser Common Rustic, and a species called Remm's Rustic, which the book I use doesn't even illustrate and which may not actually be a species at all.

Easier species included two Peacocks, three Red Admirals, a Comma, and a Holly Blue which all appeared in the garden yesterday. Also the local Robin has brought its surviving fledgling to the garden.

Peacock

Just fledged

Last night two small macros turned up. One was instantly identifiable as a Straw Dot, so I released it. The second was a pug sp, but I have now decided it is a dull example of Double-striped Pug.

Double-striped Pug