Common Scoter - Sat July 27

A text from Mark Islip caused me to visit Arrow Valley Lake for the first time in ages. The reason was the presence of a Common Scoter.

I walked all the way around the lake in pouring rain, pausing to look at five Oystercatchers. They must have bred here I imagine.

Oystercatchers

Eventually I met Gavin coming the other way and we discussed the surprising absence of the Scoter, and moths (he has been trapping them for longer than I have).

Then on one of our scans I noticed the Common Scoter, a drake, asleep opposite the cafe. We both must have walked past it.

Eventually it woke up and I got a reasonable shot of it.

Common Scoter

This is not a species which is ever going to occur at Morton Bagot, a true sea duck. They are a lot more regular on Midland reservoirs than I am nowadays, so its probably my first for many years.

I can recall a record from Arrow Valley Lake from about 1972, but not any since.

Tuesday April 8

No moth-trapping as such for the last few days, but plenty of moth stuff to talk about. On Sunday I was obliged (by Mrs H) to do some half-hearted gardening. I quickly got distracted by some leaf mines in the leaves of the brambles I was cutting.

This could be the mine of Stigmella aurella but I don't really know, and I suspect my Facebook friends will be a bit irritated by having to judge the unidentifiable.

So this morning I headed for work and on alighting from the number 50 bus in the city centre I discovered a collection of moths on a grating on the side of Selfridges. They were two Angle Shades, a Common Quaker, a Small Quaker, and a two-tone dark moth about the same size as an Angle Shades. Annoyingly it was out of reach, and all I could do was try to take a photo with my Smart Phone.

I got to work and struggled to find an image of anything like it. My best guess was the migrant Dark Swordgrass. I shared the photo with JS who agreed it could be a Dark Swordgrass. As this is quite a scarce moth I photographed the screen shot this evening and posted it on the Facebook page. No one has commented yet. I think I may be getting a bad name in moth trapping circles.

Speaking of which, my name is now mud at work. I had captured one of the Angle Shades and popped it into the downstairs fridge. Here it was discovered by one of the receptionists, who freaked out.

Angle Shades

Back home, the moth was shivering its wings as I took it out of the pot. It soon flew into the garden to hide.

PS; Robert Cox from the Facebook Group has agreed it is probably a Dark Sword-grass, so I have felt emboldened to send the photo to David Brown. It appears that three migrant Blossom Underwing moths turned up in garden traps in Warwickshire at about the same time, which strengthens the argument as they are very scarce migrants, much rarer than Dark Sword-grass.

Saturday April 4

After waiting impatiently for the temperature to rise this week, last night it was just about ok so the moth trap went out. I quickly noticed a pug on the window of the utility room, and potted it to see what it was.

As I had hoped, it turned out to be my first Brindled Pug of the year. I decided to photograph it under artificial light and then release it. There was always a chance it would find its way into the trap by morning. I also saw a micro, probably a Light Brown Apple Moth, but didn't look at it closely enough to be sure.

Brindled Pug

So a rather poor photograph. Annoyingly there was no sign of it, or the possible LBAM, by morning.

However, there was another species of geometer on the window, and a much more attractive one. A Streamer was new for the year. I only saw one last year so it is also a bit special for the garden.

Streamer

The rest of the catch were in the trap. It contained 10 Common Quakers, one Small Quaker, two Hebrew Characters, and one Clouded Drab.

Clouded Drab

So 17 moths of seven species (including the possible LBAM) represented a typical haul for a cool night in early April.

An unexpected visitor

Sometimes you don't have to try too hard to see wildlife.

Last night I was putting off lights, checking the doors etc before heading for bed when I noticed a butterfly-like shape on the wall of the dining room. I grabbed my pot and caught it. When I put the light on it went berserk, so I had to return the room to semi darkness to calm it down.

Eventually it settled and I walked it into the hall where I was able to confirm what I had suspected. I had caught an Early Thorn.

Early Thorn

This is, as the name suggests, a moth which appears early in the year. I managed to capture one with the moth-trap last year, but this second one came as surprise.

The last time the windows were open was at the weekend when Lyn was cooling down in the afternoon. They were accidentally left that way until nearly midnight, so I guess the moth must have come in then and remained undetected until last night.

I released it (well, took the lid off the pot) and photographed it this morning. A male Blackcap appeared in the apple tree while I was making breakfast, and I was almost tempted to rush out and shoo it away.

Shame about the sub zero temperature overnight.

52 moths - 29/30 March

I almost chose not to put the trap out last night as the forecast suggested it would be cold and clear. Within minutes I knew I had done the right thing as moths were soon fluttering against the window and I was dividing my attention between watching West Brom beat Birmingham City and grabbing moths for identification.

This morning I peered into the trap and eventually tallied 52 moths of six species. These included one new for the garden (and a very attractive lifer for me) in the form of a Pine Beauty.

Pine Beauty

The full list was: 33 Common Quakers, 11 Small Quakers, five Clouded Drabs, a Double-striped Pug, a Light Brown Apple Moth, and a Pine Beauty.

The only other thing to report is a bee in the house yesterday morning which carefully removed, photographed, and placed on the Rosemary growing outside the kitchen window.

Red Mason Bee

I identified it as a Red Mason Bee.

Casual mothing

Since my last post I have seen three moths.

The first was a ridiculously tiny micro which I found on the inside pane of our back garden window. Getting any sort of image of a 2mm moth was quite a challenge, but I eventually came up with something which the Warwickshire Moth Group suggested was a leaf-miner, Stigmella sp.

On Wednesday, back at Selfridges, I spotted a moth behind the grating of a air duct. It was inaccessible, except that by standing on tiptoe I was able to photograph it with my mobile. Two people, a road sweeper and a hijab wearing young woman, asked if I needed any help. I think they were referring to my mental health! My tenth attempt came out well enough for me to identify it as a Common Quaker.

Finally this evening I was about to start cooking Spaghetti Bolognese when I noticed a pug sp fluttering outside the kitchen window. I was out in a flash and duly caught what turned out to be my first Double-striped Pug of the year.

Double-striped Pug

Shots taken under electric lights never come out very well. I nevertheless decided to let it go rather than keep it until morning.

Another city centre moth

My journey to work has been enlivened by the discovery that moths are occasionally attracted to the discs which form the fascia of the modernistic Selfridges building.

This morning a Small Quaker was discovered. I potted it and transported it to my garden after work.

Small Quaker

I'm not sure what the moth makes of falling asleep in Birmingham City Centre and waking up in Redditch. Probably not very much. It should find more Small Quakers in the leafy suburbs than in the concrete jungle, so I reckon I have done it a favour.