Monday May 29 & Corncrake

Last night's catch of moths in the bathroom was in some ways a bit disastrous.

Two moths were caught. An uninteresting looking micro-moth was not present in the pot this morning, having presumably crawled out of one of the air-holes.

The second moth looked like some kind of carpet moth, and was still present this morning. Unfortunately it was also dead.

Yellow-barred Brindle

I think it died of old age because it was extremely worn and thus a bit of a headache. Eventually I decided it was a Yellow-barred Brindle, the first I have ever seen.

I  emailed one of my shots to Mike Southall to get a second opinion. He has kindly confirmed my identification of the moth which he records annually in his moth trap, and which the books describe as local.

The day then took an unexpected turn when t'Internet told me that a Corncrake was calling at a site near Alvecote in north Warwickshire. Dave had mentioned the report of this bird  yesterday, but I had then learnt it was an "unconfirmed report" which is birder-speak for "thought to be a load of rubbish".
Clearly it was no longer thought of in that way.

I have only ever seen one Corncrake, on Scilly in 1987, and have only ever heard one, in Yorkshire during the 1990's. Records in the West Midlands since I have been birding relate to chance flushings of birds in autumn, so no-one has twitched one since 1972 (pre even me) when one spent a week at Upton Warren.

I made a mental note of where it was supposed to be and set off to twitch it. I no longer own a pager, and also do not own a smart phone (I'm very last century) so I was relying on my mental map based on the Internet report. This nearly led to disaster as I drove the entire length of the road I thought it was audible from without seeing any birders' cars. On the point of giving up I pulled into a lay-by which contained another car. The owner was sitting in it with a couple of small dogs. On his knees was a field guide opened at a page containing the Flycatchers of Europe. I tapped on the window and the gentleman, Roy, told me which road to take.

In no time at all I arrived at a T junction with numerous chaotically parked cars and a group of men standing at a gate. Clearly I had found the right place.

I joined the group, and within five minutes the Corncrake started calling. Crex crex, crex crex. Was a latin name for a bird ever so apt?

I did attempt to record the moment on my camera's video function. You can just hear it crexing above various extraneous noises.

The big issue is can I add it to my W Mids list? There are those who would say a bird must be seen to be tickable. However, I think a special exception should be made for Corncrake, so there!

Friday May 26

Another warm night and sunny morning. The overnight moth catch in the bathroom was slightly disappointing, just one tiny micro. It turned out to be Mompha subbistrigella a species I also caught earlier this year.

Mompha subbistrigella

This afternoon I was staggered to discover a damselfly in our utility room. I quickly potted it and took a couple of photos. As it was a female, I knew that identification could prove problematical. I took a quick shot of it in the pot and then took the lid off expecting it to fly off immediately. Instead, it perched helpfully on the rim of the pot, and photos taken of that moment proved sufficient to identify it as a Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum.

Common Blue Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

The key feature is the little spike on the underside of the eight abdominal segment.

This is the first damselfly I have ever seen in our garden.

Thursday May 25

Another warm night produced a macro-moth in the bathroom. I recognised it immediately as being the most distinctive form of Common Marbled Carpet. Readers of my other blog, Morton Bagot Birder, may be amused by the glibness of this identification because a few years ago I saw an identical moth, and after checking through all the books I had at the time, eventually posted a picture of it under the title mystery moth. Fortunately, it wasn't too long before Craig Round saw the photo and kindly came up with the solution.

You live and learn.

Common Marbled Carpet after it escaped the pot and landed on the brickwork

A little later in the morning I finally got a chance to photograph a Holly Blue in the garden. It had been visiting regularly for a couple of weeks, but always flew off as soon as the discovery was made.

Holly Blue

It seems to be a good spring for them.

Later still, I returned to Ipsley Alders determined to look only at birds, butterflies, and dragonflies to avoid hours staring at beetles and other bugs on the internet later. In the wooded boundary a Jay was flying around the canopy pursued by an array of mobbing Tits. It was obviously on the lookout for nests to rob.

Jay

I eventually arrived at the pool, and couldn't resist admiring the view.

Plenty of birds were singing, including Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcaps, Goldcrests (there were also recently fledged young), Treecreeper, Chiffchaffs, and Common Whitethroats.

Common Whitethroat

I saw relatively few butterflies, but did manage several Speckled Woods, a few Green-veined Whites, a Large White, and a Red Admiral.

The dragonflies on offer were the same as yesterday, although I did get confused by some damselflies which I have come to realise were the rufescens form of female Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Blue-tailed Damselfly 

Finally, as well as the Mirror Carp which were blundering about in the pond, another escape was evidently frequenting the same bit of space.

Terrapins are bad news. Kept as pets they often get released into ponds and lakes in suburbia, and they then tend to eat their way through the local wildlife. Needless to say they have no natural enemies in the UK.

Stop Press: During the early evening I was about to plant out some flowers of some description when I noticed a pretty, but familiar, micro-moth. It was a Pyrausta aurata. Another one for the year-list.

Pyrausta aurata 

Wednesday May 24

A warm late spring morning had barely started when I was in the garden trying to identify the latest insect to fly through the bathroom window overnight. It was a species of Cranefly, and I am fairly confident that the species involved was the Spotted Cranefly Nephrotoma appendiculata.

Nephrotoma appendiculata

Like several of the craneflies I have seen it seems to have lost a leg at some stage during its life.

Today I decided to leave the confines of our garden in search of insects, specifically to kick-start my dragonfly list, by wandering up the road to Ipsley Alders nature reserve.

I was still kicking through the grassy border of Alders Drive when I disturbed an attractive day-flying moth, the Mother Shipton.

Mother Shipton

I am quite familiar with this species, so named because of the hook-nosed witch pattern on its forewing, from seeing it regularly at Morton Bagot.

I eventually cut through the gap into the woodland surrounding the reserve. After walking past an apparently dead Tree Bumblebee I spotted another cranefly. This was another one I hadn't seen before, namely Tipula luna.

Tipula luna

There were so many insects to look at I realised I would need to be fairly selective, or I'd never make any progress. I recognised a micro-moth from seeing one at Morton Bagot last year. This was the Nettle-tap Moth.

Nettle-tap Moth

One I will probably never identify was a leaf-mine left in leaves below knee-level. They will presumably have been caused by a leaf-mining moth. It would probably have helped if I had troubled myself to identify the leaf.

Although I have promised myself not to get into beetles (too difficult and too many species) a bright red one reminded me of a species I had identified as the Cardinal Beetle Pyrochroa serraticornis when I last noticed one, at Upton Warren in 2015.

Pyrochroa serraticornis

By now I was approaching the pools, and it wasn't too long before I was seeing damselflies. There were several Blue-tailed Damselflies, and many Azure Damselflies and Large Red Damselflies all in the process of mating and egg-laying.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

An orgy of Large Red Damselflies

Azure Damselflies

Also associated with the pond side vegetation was a small beetle. After considerable research I have concluded it is probably the species Donacia vulgaris.

Donacia vulgaris

Ipsley Alders is a lovely reserve, and the citizens of Redditch are very fortunate to have it on their doorstep. However, the pool is full of Carp which attracts the occasional fisherman. Evidence of their presence can be seen in the numerous floats left abandoned in the pond. This is regrettable but probably accidental littering, but I'm sorry to say the pool does attract a lot of beer cans and I even found a couple of arm chairs fly-tipped there. The reserve deserves better respect from its visitors.

Disappointing !

Returning to the insect life, I saw only one butterfly today, but it was new for the year. A Green-veined White.

Green-veined White

I tend to photograph only male damselflies because the females are largely dull and similar to one another. Many of the Azures and Blue-tailed were flying up into the overhanging trees, which was where I saw a couple of unidentified female or immature damselflies like this one. I believe it to be the immature brown form of Blue-tailed Damselfly.

As I surveyed the pond I finally saw my first dragonflies of the year. A male and female Broad-bodied Chaser were patrolling the edge of the pool, the female clearly egg-laying. Only the male posed for a photograph though.

Broad-bodied Chaser

I think I would argue that this is the most stunning British dragonfly. Very easy to identify. I then spotted a large spider on its web in the reed and thought that it was so distinctive looking that it should be a cinch to I.d. Not so. It was an orb-web spider and was probably the species Tetragnatha extensa but the reference I found warned that there were several near identical species which could only be safely separated by examination of their genitalia under a microscope. A good reason not to get into spiders.

Tetragnatha sp

Birds have not been mentioned at all up to now. I heard several Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, and Goldcrests singing but nothing that inspired me to divert from bug-hunting.

The walk back produced a final beetle, this time along Alders Drive. It was Oedemera nobilis otherwise known as the Swollen-thighed Beetle, a species which is common at Morton Bagot.

Oedemera nobilis

Thus ended an action-packed hour and a half. I will certainly be returning while the sun continues to shine.

Monday May 22

I have been concentrating on completing my breeding bird surveys at Morton Bagot lately, so Winyates East has been rather ignored. Birds in particular.

So the only things I have to report are a couple of garden insects. One of the easier bees to identify seemed to have disappeared last year, but in the last couple of weeks good numbers of Tree Bumblebees have resumed their former status in our garden.

Tree Bumblebee

Bumblebees are generally hard to photograph as they never stay still, so this one warming itself up one morning on the side of the shed was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The last couple of nights have been warm enough to open the bathroom window in the hope that a moth or two might be attracted to the light. Finally, last night, a macro-moth found its way in.

I say macro, it was in fact a pretty small boring looking challenging Pug. After due deliberation I have concluded to my satisfaction that it was in fact a Common Pug.

Common Pug - Eupithicia vulgata

My identification was based on its small size, brownish appearance, black forewing dot, and rather grainy appearance (although to be fair most of my early morning photos could be described in that way).

Other moths are available - thank goodness.

Friday May 5

First Swift.

Seen from front garden. Summer is here.

Thursday May 4

Spurred on by another report of the Dipper I headed for Arrow Valley Lake this morning arriving at 06:50. It was cloudy and cool, with a light north-easterly breeze.

I did record a new species for the year, but it wasn't a Dipper unfortunately. A Garden Warbler sang from a thicket although it was outnumbered by numerous singing Blackcaps.

The most interesting discovery was another birder, namely Adey who is a council employee, and quite clearly a keen and knowledgeable birder. He has evidently been birding in the Arrow Valley for years and has witnessed many changes over the last twenty-plus years.

I come to birding through my membership of the West Midlands Bird Club, and thus receive its annual report of birds submitted to whichever county recorder is in office. From listening to Adey, and previously to Mark, it is clear that they have amassed a wealth of valuable records over the years, but I suspect have not joined WMBC and have therefore never been incentivised to submit what they see to the county recorder.

In the olden days (my day) records were either submitted and thus became "official", or remained heresay. Nowadays there are far more avenues available. A myriad blogs like this one have a limited readership, but there is also the social media revolution which gives us Twitter, Facebook, and Bird Forum. Records submitted to the BTO via Birdtrack do get forwarded to the county recorder to get to the recorder that way.

The reason for all this reflection is that Adey told me stuff which was undoubtedly correct, but as far as I know unrecorded in print. He hasn't seen this Dipper yet, but its not the first one to be seen in the Arrow Valley (bombshell). One was seen and photographed along the river in Redditch a few years ago. Willow Tits bred here until 2004. Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Tree Sparrows, Yellow Wagtails, Grasshopper Warblers, and Skylarks were all part of the local avifauna until recent years.

The local council seems to have cut back its spending on the environment in line with national government policy and this has had its effects. Ironically, the vegetation of the island which has increased since the council stopped paying the sailing club to clear the undergrowth on it has had a beneficial effect in that it is now too overgrown for Canada Geese to nest, and is now more favourable for the heronry to prosper. A pair of Little Egrets was present this morning. Could they breed here one day?

Returning to this morning's walk, I counted seven Common Terns (Adey had 18 yesterday) and consider that there are even more Reed Warblers singing.

Reed Warbler

Common Tern

At least one Common Sandpiper is still present, and a Grey Wagtail carrying food indicates that, not surprisingly, they are nesting somewhere along the river. It looks ideal for them, and perhaps also for a Dipper.