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.