Scotland Road Trip Day Five

Another interesting night in the moth trap at the Invernahavon Campsite with a few more target species. 

We spent most of the day at the Landmark Adventure Park with the kids before heavy rain started so we went for a drive to Loch Garton and then a bit of charity shop shopping at Aviemore before returning to the cabin. 

A few photo highlights below.

Roe Deer at the Landmark Adventure Park Pine forest area. Also had Crested Tit there which was a year tick (now on 905 for the world year list). There's a few bird year ticks I need round here but not getting anytime for birding in between rain and family stuff unfortunately. The main targets up here for me are all moths anyway.

Cousin German- lifer

Haworth's Minor (above and below)- lifer

Dark Marbled Carpet- lifer

Welsh Wave- lifer

Northern Spinach- lifer. At the Landmark park in the heather and bilberry

Scottish Annulet- lifer

Probably a Crinian Ear- the default ear in these parts.

Clouded-bordered Brindle

Antler moths (presumed female above and male below). Nice to see these daily. 

Black-marked Tortrix .Epinotia ramella

Views over the Abernethy forest (above and below) with the Cairngorms in the background 

Scotland Road Trip Days Two to Four

Catching up with the blog as it's raining hard outside here at Invernahavon Camp Site near Newtonmore in the Cairngorms National Park. There's still a heatwave back down south (it was near 30 C yesterday back home) but its around 17 C max here during the day with overcast skies and rain. It is a bit of a relief from the constant heat and blue skies this summer but if it's too wet here it could scupper our plans for the week. Fortunately the nearby wild fire is under control. 

So we arrived at our cabin yesterday (3rd August) afternoon after the drive north. On Sunday (2nd) we left my sister's house around 9am and following a few coffee stops arrived at Stirling in the evening. It was quite a horrific travel day of motorways, service stations and then a night at the Stirling city centre Travelodge. After the kids were settled I took a short walk along the River Forth but the public footpath was a hang out for the local 'yout'. 

The following morning we took the kids to Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling before completing another 2 hour drive north to arrive at the our campsite for the week. 

Today we spent at the Newtonmore Folk Museum with haggis for lunch at the Newtonmore Diner (a Trucker's stop). Not much to report on the bird front- what looked like a Hen Harrier flew over the campsite this evening has been the highlight.  I had two moth traps on last night outside the cabin in rather damp conditions but had an interesting haul with several lifers.   

Antler moth (above and below). The most numerous moth in the trap.

Lempke's Gold spot. A lifer. The blunt ended dorsal apical wedge and the rounded white patches are the main features from Gold Spot. A lifer.

Female Anamolous- incredible moth, the name is spot on

Plain Clay

Suspected- lifer

Triple-spotted Clay- lifer

Beech-green Carpet- lifer

Dotted Clay according to Obsidentify- lots of variable Clays which Obsidentify say are all Dotted but some could be Ingrailed? 

Dotted Carpet- lifer

Dusky Brocade

Minor Shoulder Knot- a cracking specimen 

Golden Rod Pug- lifer

Juniper Pug- lifer

Stirling Castle and surround (below) 

Jacob at the Newtonemore Folk Museum

Our base for five nights- Invernahavon Camp Site 

Scotland Road Trip Day One - Long-tailed Shrike

We set off on our journey north today, heading to the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands. Our first stop was planned to be Worcester to visit my sister Angela and family. When I put the route into the sat nav I noticed it took us right past the Long-tailed Shrike site so after a bit of bribery we stopped off there. With three impatient travel companions I didn't have long but luckily the bird was obliging. My 14th Long-tailed Shrike this year after a trip to Thailand earlier on in the year but my first for the Western Palearctic so pleased that I finally got to see it after a lot of proscrastination. 

I've packed the Lepiled and Heath trap for our trip but had the traps out last night for another attempt at trying to catch an Eastern Bordered Straw- again no luck on filling that 700 slot for the garden moth list but a nice couple of Striped Hawkmoths again.

If all goes to plan we should get as far as Stirling by tomorrow evening. Taking a nice slow stroll up there and back. 

First-summer Long-tailed Shrike. Eastleach Martin, Gloucestershire/Oxfordshire border 

Striped Hawkmoths

The crew 

Quiet Times

The 'eternal' hot and dry conditions are presumably taking their toll with only 61 species in the moth trap last night and a Pagham Harbour count today produced little of interest and pretty low numbers with 75 species of approx 1700 indiviudals (although nearly 1000 of them were Med Gulls) HERE. There has been a surprise drop in most species of waders- maybe the saltmarsh is baking hard during the low tide periods? Ferry Pool is almost dry and Breach Pool is just a puddle too. Mill Lane Marsh is also drying out fast. 

There were 2 Great Egrets, the Glossy Ibis and 4 Spotted Redshanks on the Breach Pool first thing but everything had dispersed by 8am. As usual all the local news here: Selsey Birding Blog

Gareth J from Ebird has recently created a hotspot group around the Pagham Harbour Area hotspot resulting in a consolidation of all the scattered data from the various local hotspots. The bar chart data for the year is now pretty accurate HERE with some good trends shown in the associated graphs. A couple of examples below. Great idea Gareth! 

Fortunately we are off to Scotland tomorrow so hopefully something more interesting to report on this blog soon (although seems like we are heading into wild fires and cold temperatures in the Cairngorms!)

Willow Warbler- three or four around today on my travels. Certainly on the move now with up to 50 at Portland recently. 

Adult Yellow-legged Gull with Cormorant 

Med Gulls- about 950 roosting out on the islands before high tide

Curlew was one of the few waders that have increased in the harbour recently with 77 counted today. 

A surprise drop in Dunlin numbers after up to 160 a couple of weeks ago. Peak numbers are clearly mid winter with an apparant Spring passage (presumably birds wintering further south) , a mid summer dissappearance and then the auutmn migration. 

Bar-tailed Godwits have also dropped off after an early July presence- presumably early returning adults and non-breeding birds. Birds generally do not winter in Pagham Harbour but there was a good spring passage this year (and early spring and then a late spring movement of presumably birds from different populations) followed by a dissppearance and an autumn movement and now another drop in numbers. 

Small Rufous was about the most unusual thing in the moth trap. No movement on the moth numbers recently , still on 699 all time and 488 for the year. It's a bit boring at the moment so quite happy to be heading off tomorrow. 

Arundel WWT Day Trip

The heatwave continues with temperatures in the late 20 degrees today. The moth traps were surprisingly very quiet with low numbers of individuals and species. The few migrants included another Bordered Straw, a couple of Vestals, a few Rush Veneers, single Rusty-dot and a few Turnips. Oak Eggar and Garden Tiger was the best of the rest. 

I spent the morning doing a bit of work with Holly  on the Little Oak Tree and Garden Care website and google presence HERE as we seem to have dropped down on google search, so we did some SEO work.

In the afternoon we took the kids to Arundel WWT HERE. The water levels were surprisingly high with little wader habitat. Birding highlights were a couple of Peregrine, a Red Kite and a juvenile Shoveler. The most interesting thing was the odonata and a bit of pond dipping. 

Comma in the garden today. Also 3-4 Small Whites, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Holly Blue but no Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers etc. 

Another cracking Bordered Straw but still no sign of it's Eastern cousin. The 700th species of garden moth slot is still open for the take. 

Willow Emerald at Arundel

Small Red-eyes at Arundel. Also had a few Black-tailed Skimmers, Emperor, Brown Hawker, Common Bluetail and Common/Azure Blue Damselfly. Also had Common Darter back home in the garden. 

According to the I-nat AI this is Black Mining Bee - a new species for the garden if correct. Latest on the garden pan-species HERE

The Arundel WWT pond dipping produced Lesser and Greater Water Boatmen. Dragonfly nymhs, Pond mites, Leeches etc. Must do some pond dipping in our own garden pond to see what has now established after two years.