Dark Chestnut kicks off the mothing year

Last night I ran the MV trap for the first full night this year. The only 2 moths I've ever trapped in February are a Dark Chestnut (14/2/ 2013 ) and a Pale Brindled Beauty (19/22014).
It was a pretty cool night but lurking by the bulb this morning was my second ever Dark Chestnut, on exactly the same date as 2013. Hardly eye candy, but welcome nontheless
March 2013 was a bitterly unmothable month, with only Dotted Border recorded. March 2014 was positively balmy and I bagged 18 species. Hopefully the trapping of Dark Chestnut is not an omen, rather a chance to better the 2014 tally, which was my highest to date.

Ramshorn Gall. A nice find.

My main aim today was to photograph some male Hazel catkins, also know as 'Lambs tails'. The sun came out as I did and it was positively balmy around midday. A bonus was that the female catkins were just coming out also, so when I discovered these, and the fact the sun was shining, all was well with the world.

♂ Hazel Catkin

♀ Hazel Catkin

 I decided to walk the woodland edge, just incase a Butterfly decided to waken and stretch its wings.
On reaching an Oak that I had previously discovered Purple Hairstreak eggs on in late 2013, I decided to give the lower branches a bit of a onceover.
I was delighted to find a couple of woodied Ramshorn galls. These are very distinctive, and created by the gall wasp Andricus aries.

Ramshorn Gall. VC37

This is only the second record for North Worcestershire, and the fourth ever for the whole of the county. A species that is spreading gradually from its initial area in SE England. The Galls are worth keeping an eye out for.

Dipper on the Doorstep !

January is all about walking off  the Christmas excesses and re- starting the only bird list I really keep, The Patch yearlist. Egged on by Brett Westwood's latest radio broadcasts, I have walked the patch with grim determination this month.
Surprisingly, the first month of the year often seems to  yield a really good new patch bird, more so in fact than many migration months of late. January 2014 saw Woodcock and Merlin.
Whats always interesting is seeing how years compare. A real lack of finch flocks and no Siskins or Redpolls so far this year has also mean't no Bullfinch or Brambling being recorded. The Great Crested Grebes have disappeared, but I've had record Goosander numbers, a peak count of 30 on the 12th.
I rediscovered the Stonechat on the 11th, first seen on new years eve, and gratefully snaffled it onto the year list.
Despite adding nothing new for the year on my final two walks, and despite the many missing usuals, I had still managed to steal a march on last years total of 54.
On the 17th, I finally added a Great Black Backed Gull to my patch life list, One from the local large flock harbouring the Iceland Gull no doubt. Unfortunately, the Icelandic fella has yet to be seen crossing the patch boundary.
On the 18th, a second lifer for the patch, and probably the best bird I have ever found on it, a Dipper on the stream that rises near Belbroughton and enters The Stour near Wilden. Watched with astonishment for five minutes hopping on and off a log in the water before calling and flying over my head and going downstream.
 Final January total 56. ( with a yearly average of c 80ish birds, I'm well into the business end of the list now ! )
Below, the dawn of another year on the patch.

Snowdrops

Its been a battle of the elements so far this year, heavy rain, freezing fog and strong winds. Nothing has deterred me from getting out and about though .The biggest reward has been discovering the New Years eve Stonechat is still about, spotted on the 11th, pushing my patch year list past the half century mark.

Despite covering the area where I usually find good early Snowdrops, I somehow forgot to check until today, and lo and behold it looked like they they had been out waiting for me for a few days. Still, it beats last years first find by a whole week. Good to see !

Stonechat reward rounds off a top patch year

Its always nice to see mammals on the patch, unfortunately often the only way to record them is when they have perished, and this, literally is what had happened to this Common Shrew that I found one frosty morning. I placed him on a post for a photo,

Although I had a couple of sightings of Fox on the patch at the start of the year, I had not had a sniff of one since. On the 28th I spotted a foxy fella in the paddocks, and on the 29th, I went a huntin' for my first patch record shot.
I got more than I bargained for in the end, as I actually flushed a Hare that Mr Fox had obviously been stalking for lunch, and appeared a few seconds after the Hare had bolted, giving me a dirty look as he skulked off.

The patch year couldn't have ended better.On New Years Eve, on the last few steps of my last circuit of the year, I spotted a Stonechat, a patch lifer ! (Distant record shot below).
A fitting end to the year, I felt like the patch was giving me a final reward for all the hours I've tramped around it over the last 12 months.

Looking forward to finding more natural history of interest out and about in 2015 . Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year !

Autumn Highlights

The regularity of postings has diminished, but I've not finished blogging. Quite simply, there are not enough hours to live, work and play ..and blog. So I hope you will keep dropping by and appreciate quality rather than quantity.
Here are the highlights from my patch since the last posting....

Moths.  Small Scallop, Maidens Blush and Heart and Dart were all seen in the last 2 weeks of July.The first two of these were especially pleasing as they are species that I have never managed to trap in my garden, patch macro moth lifers are quite an event !

Maidens Blush

Small Scallop

Birds. Its been a slightly odd year to date. I have added several patch lifers this year, but the year list so far is one behind 2013 still. Kestrel, Grey Wagtail and Little Grebe are still very possible, as is Mandarin, and Wigeon. The Little Owl was still about last week, but autumn passage threw up little of note except for a Spotted Flycatcher on 23rd August. Hobby made the list with sightings on July 24th and August 2nd.
The big sighting since the last post was finally getting a Peregrine Falcon on the patch, at last ! It swooped down to take a Pigeon and I managed a record shot of it dining on its prey.

Dinner with a Patch Lifer

Butterflies. 20 species recorded this year. Numbers generally good, but 2 species not recorded at all were Small Copper and Holly Blue this year. If this was due to the excessively wet winter I don't know, but I would have expected to see them, along with a Painted Lady since the last post, but sadly not. A Red Admiral was the last butterfly I saw on 1st November.

Fungi A poor autumn for fungi ( to be honest my best sightings are usually from now onwards anyway ) but the excessively dry Autumn seemed to scupper the fungi, and didn't do much for the general flora either.  A couple of hundred yards just off my recording area, I did find some nice specimens of Amethyst Deceiver and Fly Agaric ( header pic ) around October 20th. One that did make an impact on the patch was this nice Chicken of The Woods, a patch lifer.

Chicken of the Woods

Dragonflies. A good year with Brown Hawker, Common Darter, Southern Hawker , Migrant Hawker and Banded Demoiselle ( first since 2012 ) being added, taking the patch year total to 13 species, which is as many as I could hope for. Large Red is really the only other I missed out on adding ( Small Red Eye and Scarce Chaser are future possibilities if their spread continues ) I have had Large Red it in my garden in 2012, so I live in hope that next year will be the year.


Other Inverts.   Thick -legged Hoverfly was a newbie, as was the hoverer Syrphus ribesii.I spent quite a few hours trying to photograph Hornets in the late Autumn sun, and generally observing them. I think they are one of my favourite inverts.

Thick Legs 

Finally, I managed a picture of a Hornet !

Galls. I feel I've underachieved with these this year, was expecting a few more, but nonetheless I was very pleased to record Robins Pincushion in a couple of locations.

Pretty Gall, Robins Pincushion

I have plenty of work to do over the remaining year to try and put a year list together and go through my pictures to try and ID a good number of Inverts and Flora. It's what dark nights are for. I will aim to pull it all together and post a final patch listing blog around Christmas. In the meantime, watch this space for a round up of a fantastic garden moth year...... Thank you for reading.

Purple Hairstreak Time

With Everything being a bit earlier this year I've been on the lookout for Purple Hairstreaks on the patch recently. Starting with the trees on which I have recorded them previously, I came across the first one's on the warm sunny evening of July 10th.They are small and elusive, easily missed among the leaves of an Oak, but often in the afternoon or evening they get more showy flitting between leaves, usually in the upper half of the tree.And once you get your eye in you seem to pick up more and more.
My closest encounter came around midday on the 12th July, which was very warm and humid.

Purple Hairstreak 12/07/2014

So far  I have found a total of 6 trees in which the species has been flying, with 2-4 individuals in each. I also found another tree with egg on it in December, but have to get round to checking that for adults ..with so many potential sites on the patch it will be interesting to study exactly how abundant this species is, assuming the weather prevails.