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!

 



 

Whimbrel

Another afternoon stint on the patch today with more showers pushing through from the south-west. The hirundine flock on Alton Water was still in excess of 500, with Swallows and House Martins to the fore and just the odd Sand Martin. I didn't notice any swifts.

Once the rain had cleared, I biked down to Holbrook Bay in search of Whimbrel.

 



The bay is a reliable spring spot on the estuary for this species. At high tide they can often be found probing the sheepfields just inside the borrowdyke which are overlooked by the Royal Hospital School.

Sure enough, the first scan of the field and one was doing just that. Over the next hour two spent their time commuting between field and estuary, allowing me to expand my album of abject record shots.

Out in the bay a flock of 300+ Dark-bellied Brent Geese were still shuffling around the entrance to Holbrook marina, whilst in the main channel, 50 Great Crested Grebes and seven Red-breasted Mergansers were loafing.

Passage.

When it comes to finding passage migrants, the Stutton part of Alton Water is hard work. Is it that it is sandwiched between the Stour and Orwell estuaries; the fact that it is chock-full of walkers, cyclists, dog-walkers (flagrantly breaching the 'Dogs on lead' bye-law) and boats, or perhaps there is a lack of suitable habitat. I am sure all three play a part to some degree.

With Black Terns starting to appear across the south-east and grumbly, heavy showers coming in from the south-west, I wasn't going to let all of what I said above put me off having a look at the first available opportunity this afternoon.

A quick scan from the end of Alton Hall Lane just before 3pm and it was clear that something was up. A small swarm of 500 hirundines was buzzing over the water. The Swallows were keeping low, whilst the House Martins seemed to favour a higher flight path. In amongst them were a couple of Swifts and Sand Martins. Foolishly, I had opted for binoculars and camera, leaving the telescope behind. After just two weeks, I am now finding it difficult to go anywhere without the camera. It was going to be no use for scanning through what was quite a distant flock in search of something more unusual. The rain soon came and I sought shelter in Larchwood Hide staring at nothing in particular. Once it had passed it was back up to the marina, where the number of swifts had increased to over 30 and I was fortunate to bump in to a couple of cracking Yellow Wagtails that permitted a close approach.

Above me on the dam was a tight flock of 120 House Martins, sounding rather pleased with themselves. When I looked at the grass slope, what I thought was smoke turned out to be a major emergence of midges. In the picture below, it is the grey smudge running diagonally down the slope above the short, wooden railing.

 

On the dam itself was one of two Common Sandpipers around the east end of the reservoir.

 

 

I didn't see any Black Terns, but you might have guessed that by now.