Wednesday 13 December 2023

Up for air

It's been a very busy few days moving out of the Old Vic and setting up in our temporary rental property. The rental place overlooks Cuttlebrook Nature Reserve in Thame but I still haven't had a chance to explore. Large numbers of Fieldfares flying around the reserve viewed from the garden, Redwings, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush and Grey Wagtail are already on the new patch list. I've got the bird feeders up and there's been a few Tits so far. 

I've also had the moth trap out already and had December and Winter moth. The weather has been terrible so I've stolen an idea from Dave from Upper Thames Moths and have the actinic light up in the window of the conservatory to avoid the rain and wet egg boxes, with the moths landing on the outside window and wall. 

In other news, the Beddington Farmlands restoration amendment public consultation starts today. More from Inside Croydon here and a specific website has been set up for the consultation by Valencia here. In between moving I've had to rush through the documents and contributed some comments etc. 

Also we've got the results in for the Corvo Moorhen DNA which as suspected was a European Moorhen here and supports the work and the preliminary results that we are doing on the field identification. The mDNA (COI and cytb genes) put it firmly in the European clade (see tree below based on COI- click on it first and then zoom in) . Thanks very much to Martin Collinson for the quick turn around with this. 

Corvo Moorhen DNA results (click on and then enlarge) 
The new garden- not expecting much in here! Already missing the Old Vic. 
Winter moth 

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