Much Ado About Mothing

Although todays gloomy weather could make you believe otherwise, it is almost summer.  And with the season fast approaching it's been time once again to brush the dust off the macro lens and head out looking for moths. Oh, ahum, and butterflies too.  The annual summer transition from Ornithology to Lepidoptera has begun.  And I must say, it's been a rather good start.
 A 6:40am walk up to Hollingbury Golf-course (or rather the fields and woods around it) on the 25th for a couple of hours, transpired into over five hours.  Of course, it was on one of the few occasions I had neglected to have breakfast before leaving. And no, I didn't get lost, I just got a little bit carried away looking for moths...
 The morning started off with a stunning Alabonia Geofrella, and as it started to warm up, one of the hedgerows held a Green Long-Horn, Elachista Atricomella,  Red-twin Spot Carpet and a few hundred Cocksfoot moths.  And in the grass along the edge, a pair of Aspilapteryx Tringipennella (Yes, I wish that name was simpler too) and a Small Yellow-Underwing.
 I began to slowly make my way home, heading through a patch of woods where I found a lovely Pammene Regiana.
While walking through the main field, an interesting looking orange micro moth flew over the path in front of me and landed briefly, I grabbed a few record shots before it flew off and I was distracted by a Mother Shipton.  That little orange micro turned out to be the nationally scarce Orange Conch! A very unexpected find.

 Hoping to re-find the Orange Conch, I headed back for an hour or so in the afternoon the next day, and although I was unsuccessful in that endeavour I did find a Downland Conch, close enough for me!

After two great days mothing in Sussex, on the 28th we decided to see what we could find at Wanstead.  It was quite slow going to begin with, but we did eventually get Firethorn Leaf-miner, Pseudargyrotoza Conwagana, Dichrorampha plumbagana, Homoeosoma sinuella (If you properly read all those names you deserve a medal), and best of all a Eucosma metzneriana! A recent colonist of the UK, the first record for Britain was only in 1977.  I'm not quite sure what its status is in Wanstead.
So yes, I feel that's a decent start...

Thanks to everyone who's helped with ID's!

Patching, It's More Than a Hobby

Today the patch was, to put it simply, good. No, I jest not, it was genuinely good.
 A morning visit around 9am, had nothing out of  the ordinary, save the first Cygnet of the year. While walking through the old pitch and putt however, I heard a call I'd long awaited in the park, and looking up - as I'd clearly forgotten to do for so many springs and autumns previously- there it was, a Swallow! Patch lifer... I know, how!?  It's simply incredible it took so long. Still, all the more rewarding after a couple of years of looking.
 A little gleeful after the Swallow, and wanting to see if there were any more Cygnets, we headed back in the afternoon. Alas no sign of Cygnets, nor the female Swan, so they most likely were hidden on the island.
 Heading home after photographing some Geese and their Goslings, I picked up on a small falcon bombing past the boating lake.  Hobby! I grabbed a few record shots before it flew off distantly to the West.  Wow.  Another patch lifer, and a great one at that!  I must say, I was pretty ecstatic, an incredible day on the patch. There's something I never though I'd say!

Cuckoo Clocked

I, as I'm sure is the case for most people, have heard Cuckoo's cuckooing.  Not many times, but, given that I spend most of my birding time on a London patch where a Swallow would be a mega, no surprises there. I'd not, however, ever seen one.  I resolved (as I do every spring) that this would be the year that would change, the year I finally saw one. With several birds being regularly reported at Two-Tree Island, it seemed only right to head down there this morning.
 The Cuckoos had been on the east side of the island, and having arrived there it didn't take more than fifteen minutes before a Cuckoo could - just - be heard over the buffeting wind. This was then quickly followed up by a flash of long-tailed pointy-winged grey as the Cuckoo flew off.  We walked back a way in the direction it had flown, to try and re-find it. And after a few minutes of scanning, I picked it up in a hawthorn opposing one of the hides.  Yes, finally!  At long last I could put a bird to the song.  Or however that expression goes.
  It was a male Cuckoo, and he gave fantastic views, singing on and off. He was soon joined by a female who flew in ever so briefly, before the pair departed.  Not for long though, as they both then proceeded to show well intermittently over the next two hours.  Beautiful birds, much better views than I was expecting...

There was even a third Cuckoo singing over the west side!

 Worth the wait? Yeah... suppose so.

May the 'fourth' be With You?

Today something happened.  Something I didn't know to be possible.  Something I thought only to be true in dreams, crazy dreams.  Seawatching... without a ridiculously early start.  Not even relatively early, I didn't leave until after midday.  I know this may be hard to believe, but I assure you it's true!
 After midday you see, was when the south-easterlies were supposed to kick in.  An supposedly that's what's needed for a good seawatch.
 I got to Splash Point for 13:00, and immediately had three Little Terns pointed out!  Of course, by Little Terns I do mean black blobs with pointy wings - it may be a different time of day but this is still seawatching after all. Still, things were looking promising, fingers were crossed for a good movement of Pomarine's!
 A handful of Sandwich Tern, a 1cy Med Gull and some Common Scoter soon followed, but no Poms, and things soon slowed down to barely a steady passage of birds past.  Hmm, surely when the wind really started so would the bird movement.  Logic right?  And so, the wind picked up, but the passage didn't.  After four hours all that was seen of note was a moderately close Arctic Skua, a couple of specks that were Bonxie's and a few Red-throated Diver. A Porpoise too, but I don't think that had anything to do with the wind movements...
 At 17:00 I had to call it and head home.  Where were the Poms? I don't know. Five passed Dungeness, but apparently avoided Splash.  So although it was enjoyable -especially not having to put on an alarm for 4:50am- it was a pretty quiet seawatch.  Today, the force was not with me.

Grey Wagtails

Regular readers (if there are any) of this blog will probably know by now, that I'm a big fan of Grey Wagtails.  They've been an on and off photography project on my patch for well over a year now. And no, that's not just because there's nothing else to photograph in the park, that's almost, but not quite true.
 Over the autumn and early winter they spent about half the time too close for my lens to focus, then come January 1st they became elusive, I hadn't managed a passable shot since.  This seems to be their pattern, or at least it has been for the last two winters. But now, they're back, and with five fledglings!
On Friday, conveniently whilst looking for any Grey Wagtails, I found several fledglings around the Boating Lake and the Wash. The light was too high to really bother taking many images, so Saturday morning I got an earlier start. Naturally, it was cloudy. Still, beats the harsh midday sun.

 I headed back again in the afternoon, and found all five chicks lined up along the edge of the lake. While their parents were busy proving themselves amazing at fly-catching, with some incredible speed and agility! A pair of Pied Wagtails also joined them for this.  Probably the closest the park will get to a Flycatcher this year....

I would like to take this moment to apologise to my camera for the overuse of it's shutter - Sorry!  But a superb day out photographing.

Wood You Believe It?

I do love Wanstead.  A migrant hot-spot within walking distance, what's not to love? Sure, it's probably one of the high causes as to why my patch produces oh so little, but I really can't complain. It's like a second patch almost, but with the twist that it's actually quite good.  Last year Wanstead got a Blyth's Reed Warbler, I got a Gadwall.  You see what I'm getting at?  Maybe I should just make a permanent transition of my patch... I'd probably end up missing the Squirrels.
 The routine morning check of Twitter showed once again that the dedicated Wanstead crew had another great find, a Wood Warbler.  A rare bird in London, and perhaps another site mega.  As soon as breakfast was eaten we were off.
 Half-an-hour later we arrived to the news it was still there, and to hear it a second or so later.  It seemed it would be that kind of a day. Turn up, see it, done. That joy was not to be. Try it more like this: turn up, hear it, search for ages, hear it again. Despite it tormenting singing with some regularity, it just didn't seem to fancy being seen. A Garden Warbler early on was our only consolation. It made one think fondly of finding a Cetti's Warbler.
 After three hours of canopy staring, it's trill finally began to come from lower down.  After a slightly tense few minutes where it managed to hide in a small patch of branches a small bird flew to the left into an Oak, where it finally showed, revealing that stunning yellowness of a Wood Warbler! Whoo, what a weight off the shoulders!  It showed for a good thirty or so seconds, so I managed to grab a couple of record shots before it disappeared.  Incredible bird, worth the wait.  It probably would have been quicker to go to Wales...

Scotland (Part Two)

After successfully twitching the Harlequin duck  in Aberdeen, we drove down to Blairgowrie, where we'd be staying for the rest of the trip.  Having the next three days already planned out, my preparation was perhaps in vain.  Admittedly, being as we were, near to the highlands, I should have expected it. Weather - The spite of so many dreams.  Wind speeds exceeding 45mph and heavy snow forecasts meant travelling nearly one hundred miles through the Cairngorms was rather astray from the safe side.  So no Crested Tits, instead we explored an area near Amurlee for grouse.
It wasn't too far, and the drive did produce my first Grey Partridge for nearly three years, it was however, sadly, a rather flattened individual on the road.  If only it had looked before crossing.  The number of Pheasant I saw who had met similar unfortunate ends is just ridiculous, somewhere in the region of fifty I might guess? Crazy.
 Another mile or so further and I spotted three (thankfully) very un-flattened male Black Grouse in a sheep field off to my left!  They were fairly distant, but also pretty amazing, so I felt obligated to take a few photos. As the Black grouse began to slowly disperse into the rougher grass behind the field, a Red Grouse called from, umm, somewhere.  Somewhere distant. Although I don't believe it to be the same bird, after a few minutes I did find a Red Grouse, but far, far away.
 It was an excellent start to the morning, but I had my hopes up for some better views, so we continued on towards Amulree before taking a turn off down a road I'd read to be good for Grouse.  And as it turns out, it was. We drove it six times, and saw a further three Black grouse (including two females with their stunningly intricate plumage), about eight or nine Red Grouse, a Mustelid, either Stoat or a Weasel and a Short-eared Owl! And yes, the Grouse showed a lot better.

It snowed heavily on and off, and the Grouse appeared -or rather didn't- to go into hiding.  So we drove a little further along the main Amulree road, and saw a load more Black Grouse, including a group of nine males, taking the day count up to twenty-two! Exceedingly better than I had hoped for.
 The weather picked up briefly on the drive home, so we stopped by Loch of the Lowes, and straight away had the male Osprey from the hide!  He was on the nest, but then took off with a piece of fish and disappeared behind some trees.  An absolutely incredible morning, and all before midday!
 As part of the prize for winning the Junior Scottish Nature photographer of the Year in 2014, I had a day out photographing with professional nature photographer Lorne Gill. So on the 1st we met up with him, before heading north to Braemar to photograph more Grouse.  Lorne was a nice chap, and with his excellent local knowledge it was a successful day of photography.  We had another two female Black Grouse, numerous Red Grouse, Buzzards and even a few Red-legged Partridge. The Red Grouse showed well amongst the heather, but they just wouldn't sit up on the stone walls. No matter how nicely I asked.  Still, very beautiful birds up close!

After a fantastic few hours photographing the Grouse we decided to try and look for Mountain Hare and Ptarmigan at Glenshee Ski Centre.  The night before and most of this day had been heavy snow and strong winds, so we were doubtful we'd have any luck.  It was hard work getting up the mountain, in the first ten minutes you would overheat, and just a bit further on you felt as though your ears would fall off.  The snow was above my knees at point!  We got about two-thirds of the way up, and saw quite a few Mountain Hare scampering away in the distance, but beyond that, with the wind being what it was, it seemed perhaps foolish to try any further.  Getting down thankfully was a lot easier, and between us we only fell over a few times. So concluded another great day, and my last full day in Scotland.


Our train from Glasgow on the 2nd wasn't until half-past-four, so we had an hour spare in the morning, so.... we went looking for Grouse!  I'm sorry if you were looking for variety, but, Grouse are great.  Although this time it didn't seem like they would play ball, metaphorically speaking of course.  After driving up and back once along the road near Amurlee, we'd seen only a single hen Red Grouse, and no Black.  We pulled up for a while and got out to scan the moors, and did manage to find one or two distant male Red Grouse, and in the fields Lapwing were displaying, along with Skylark and Meadow Pipit.  A Red Grouse then flew across and landed just further back down the road.  Without much hope, I decided to walk back along and see if I could see anything.  As I approached I realised where the Grouse was, on a stone wall!  The wall was about sixty foot away, and I was a little worried it would fly the moment I left the road, but I used the heather as cover and crawled a bit closer.  The Red Grouse (a male) stayed, and continued strutting along the wall, and was soon joined by a female, who had been hiding in the grass to my left.  It wasn't quite as close as I would have liked, but I was buzzed to finally get the shot I'd been after for the last three days!  And in the final few minutes I had spare before heading back down to Glasgow.
 There ends my trip to Scotland, three lifers and a few hundred images, an awesome trip, I can't wait to go back now!
 If you have read this far, I honestly, honestly applaud you.  Give yourself a pat on the back!