What the Victorians did for us.

After a few dank and slightly chilly nights, it was back to torchlight searches of ivy last night. Tony and I started out at 8.40pm and in three-quarters of an hour we had found 12 species on the ivy bank in Alton Hall Lane. Among those were two new ones for the village ivy list - Small Dusty Wave and Light-brown Apple Moth, plus a couple of migrants - White-point and a Dark Sword-grass.

Dark Sword-grass (T.Fox)

We moved on to Lower Street which had come up trumps last year. First up was an L-album Wainscot. The first record in Suffolk was at Landguard in 2000, but it is now well established across the county (inverts never seem to take long). Other new moths on ivy for me at this spot were Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Lunar Underwing and best of all, a Pearly Underwing. This is a moth I have never seen before, but the minute I clapped on that white mohican I knew what it was. Twenty-five minutes in this spot also brought us 12 species.

Pearly Underwing (T.Fox)

As I dropped Tony off, our evening list stood at 19, so I thought it rude not to have another quick check of of favourite spot. This was soon justified with the addition of four species, taking our evening haul to 23 species. The cumulative village ivy list now stands at 40 species.

Interestingly, Tony ran his 21st century trap overnight and recorded 19 species. So some times it pays to do things the old-fashioned way. I can't say that I wasn't a little jealous of this one he caught though....

Orange Sallow (T.Fox)

The Ivy League

The success of the ivy session last night was enhanced this morning when Tony (@tonyandsandy) sent through images of a Flounced Rustic and a Turnip that he had bagged earlier on in the evening and had been resting in the fridge. My thanks also to @mrshentz and @stewchat for confirming that the micro taken off ivy last night was Agonopterix arenella. So in just one hour we had found 16 species of moth on just one 20 metre stretch of ivy.

Last month, my twitter feed was alive posts about ragwort and the plethora of invertebrates associated with this plant. Hear, hear of course. You hear very little about the similar benefits that ivy holds.

If you are reading this and have an interest in wildlife, why not set yourself the challenge of getting out in your locale over the next six weeks to see how many species of moths you can find on ivy. When you have, be sure to submit your findings to your County Recorder.

In terms of wildlife-watching this is a hidden gem and it is something that is available to everyone.

Ivy - season two starts here

It was a splendid autumn afternoon down this way - warm, with mellowing tones. As dusk fell, there was not a breath of wind and the afternoon warmth lingered through. That could only mean one thing - checking ivy for moths.

As I hoped, much of the ivy down Alton Hall Lane which receives a good soaking of afternoon sun was in flower and in no time, beady pairs of orange eyes became apparent. The 'textbook' suggests that when checking ivy, it is best to use coloured light as moths will drop off in an attempt at self-preservation. In my experience, a good white light is absolutely fine. A head torch is very useful as it allows you to work with a net or pot . Moths are so intent on nectaring that you could almost pick them off with your fingers. Please don't though. Position a pot or net below in case the insect does decide to drop and just tap.

In just one hour along a 20 metre stretch, we recorded 14 species. Square-spot Rustic was the most abundant with over 20 individuals. New moths to the Stutton ivy list (standing at 25 from 2012) were Brimstone, Light Emerald, Double-striped Pug, Vine's Rustic, Emmelina monodactyla, Common Wainscot, Snout and a micro that is currently residing in the fridge.

Final scores were:

Large Yellow Underwing - 6

Lesser Yellow Underwing - 4

Square-spot Rustic - 20+

Vine's Rustic - 2

Light Emerald - 1

Brimstone - 1

Snout - 2

Emmelina monodactyla - 3

Angle Shades - 3

Common Wainscot - 1

Setaceous Hebrew Character - 1

White-point - 2

that micro - 2

A promising start to the ivy season then, which should run through to the back end of October. All things permitting, I hope to get somewhere between 30-40 species.  I don't expect to find anything earth-shatteringly rare, but that isn't the point. I am mad on wildlife, so it provides me with a fix, but more importantly it highlights how valuable this much maligned plant is as a nectar source for invertebrates as winters draws near.

What you staring at?

Large Emerald (by Tony Fox)

Apologies for all two and half regular readers for the three month sabbatical, but we have been having a baby. Pleased to report that she is hitting the 12 hour nights already. Well done Mum. x

Last night, the vice-Chairman of S.M.O.G. and I were invited to a private meadow/woodland fringe site across the border in Tattingstone to set their two MV lights. With such great weather recently hopes were high this morning for the trap rounds.

As seems to be the theme this year, the range of species was good, but the volume of common species was poor. For example, there were only single specimens of Dark Arches and Turnip.

After two hours of checking, we came away with 75 species worked out and a bag full of pots for checking. For the rest of the morning it was a case of going through these and the list has topped out at 97 species (26 micros). I still consider myself a novice with micros, but I know that I left behind enough of what I consider the trickier species which would have taken the count over the three-figure mark.

Hawkmoths are thinning out now and were represented by just two Poplar Hawks. Best of the macros were Marbled White Spot, a tired looking Sharp-angled Carpet and a Bordered Beauty. The tiniest micro was the pick of the bunch, a smart little chap called Argyresthia bonnetella. You will have to look on UK Moths for a pic of that I am afraid.

Burnished Brass (by Tony Fox)

Moth roundup

Volume of moths have been low in the garden this week, but there has been a glimmer of quality. On Sunday just 24 moths of nine species bothered to show up, with early Spring species still dominating.

Emmelina monodactyla - 1
Streamer - 1
Clouded Drab - 6
Hebrew Character - 3
Early Grey - 3
Common Quaker - 7
Double-striped Pug - 1
Muslin Moth - 1
Twenty Plume Moth - 1

 

Muslin Moth

 

Streamer - the larva feed on Dog Rose

 

Twenty-plume Moth - a micro that when I first encountered years back had my thinking it was one of the pugs.

This morning, just 15 moths of seven species were on show and the two best ones only made it as far as the garden fence.

Hebrew Character - 5
Common Quaker - 2
Clouded Drab - 4
Early Thorn - 1
Scorched Carpet - 1
Powdered Quaker - 1
Early Grey - 1

Scorched Carpet - the larva feed on spindle

 

Here it is again - can you see it?

Early Thorn

 

The trap location

 

Powdered Quaker (honest)

Recent ramblings

Wild things have been fairly quite of late. Cold nights have meant that the moth trap has not had much of a show and afternoon jaunts around the village patch on the bike have been uneventful.

Under blue skies on Wednesday, I ventured from the dam at Alton Water down to Stutton Mill on the bike. The grassy slope of the dam only supported corvids, a couple of shelduck and an oystercatcher, but at least the view looking east towards Holbrook was pleasant.

 

The wood on the right of the picture supports a rookery and a scan of the more distant woods invariably produces a couple of thermalling Buzzards. I look forward to the day when the slope is littered with wheatears and whinchats jostle for space on the wire fence.

 

Getting from one side of the parish to the other only takes fifteen minutes by bike. The anticipation of a Curlew Sandpiper or Little Stint was soon expunged and I had to make do with scanning through a scraggy flock of 116 immature Common Gulls and taking poor shots of Dark-bellied Brent Geese.

 

 

This is the view from the western most point of Stutton. The railings in the foreground are a favoured Kingfisher perch in the winter.

 

 

 

I got my hopes up last night as the conditions looked ideal for moth-trapping. I set the MV in a local private garden that normally comes up trumps, but the haul was abject. Just 22 moths of eight species as follows:

 

Nut-tree Tussock - 3

Hebrew Character - 2

Common Quaker - 10

Early Thorn - 2

Early Grey - 2

Frosted Green - 1

Double-striped Pug - 1

Belted Beauty - 1

 

 





Frosted Green

 

 

 



 

 

 



Not a bad job really.

A tough day at work today. The marsh was heaving with Lapwing nests. In fact there were so many that many of my usual scanning points were unsuitable as they were too close to some of the nests. Can you see this one sitting just to the right of the dock?

As well as lapwings, I also bumped a couple of female Shoveler off their eggs. I only discovered these as I was marking nests and it made me wonder if they adopt the same strategy as Redshank. In a couple of weeks time, when I will be out checking Lapwing clutch sizes, invariably as I approach a nest, a redshank will burst from cover within ten metres or so. Lapwings make for excellent early-warning systems and missile defence.

 

A handsome male Lapwing.

 

 

A male Shoveler. No doubt a female is on eggs nearby.

 

 

I came off the marsh at lunch and spent an hour down at Mistley Walls. There were 110 winter-plumaged Bar-tailed Godwits coming up on the rising tide. There was a similar number of Knot in amongst them, with one or two of them showing their true 'Red' name. The 30-odd Black-tailed Godwit were all in summer-plumage.

 

As I was stood watching, a passer-by told me that there were three Mandarins at Mistley Quay. I thought this was a little odd, but it turned out he was right!