Thursday 26 July 2018

Beddington Meltdown

With a local temperature of 35 C today and no rain for nearly two months, the summer of 2018 is shaping up to be one not to forget. It was only 4 months ago that we were scouring the farm for hard weather vagrants from the Beast of the East and now I've spent this week scouring the farm for continental dragonflies and drought dispersing butterflies and moths. Since this heatwave started we've had 18 potential new species of moth for the farmlands 


 The locally bred juvenile Peregrines have been performing recently 
 The juvenile Kestrels are also out 
 Brown Argus- a local scarcity 
Wainscot Neb, Monochroa palustrellus- a nationally scarce species and a first for the farmlands (thanks Martin Honey for id)
 Narrow-winged Pug- another first for the Farmlands (thanks Billy for id) 
 Gypsonoma minutana- another national scarce species and first for the farmlands. Thanks Billy!  
 Coleophora sp. possibly hemerobiella- another possible first for the farmlands (thanks Martin again) 
  Coptotriche marginea- the third record for the farmlands following records by Colin Plant and Derek Coleman. (Cheers Martin for id) 
 Caloptilia stigmatella
Another Juniper Webber
Small Seraphim with Pug sp 
 Small Ranunculus 
Canary Shouldered Thorn- a classic favourite 
Up to five Hedgehogs in the Obs garden recently and also sightings on Bedzed and elsewhere in the SINC. I put out some water tonight and some meal worms too as apparently de-hydrated Hedgehogs have been reported across the country.  While on the subject of mammals Tomos saw the Badger again last night- now the second sighting of this Beddington mega. Badger has only been reported from the farmlands before by hairs being found near some set activity so these recent sightings are the first actual sight records. 

3 comments:

Mia said...

Meaty cat or dog food is good for hedgehogs too!

Peter Alfrey said...

We put some cat food out last night, in a box with an entrance too small for cats- they just kicked the box over and ate it :-) Trying again tonight with a new plan.

Mia said...

Cunning types, those cats!!