The fifth wave intensifies

The blistering and stifling heat continues but by the looks of the forecast it's getting cooler on Sunday. Therefore I went all in again with four moth traps out in the garden and did my best to keep an eye out during the day for inverts. It was a busy work day so I probably missed some bits but there were a lot of hirundines around, approx 200 Sand Martin, 100 Swallow and 30 House Martin and at one point they all balled up with the arrival of an adult Hobby. There was also 3 Yellow Wagtail over.

The moth traps were very interesting and diverse (again over 100 species) which seems a bit surprising considering the prolonged drought conditions everywhere. There was also plenty of butterflies with Small Whites, Large White, Painted Lady, Peacocks, Red Admiral, about 6 Holly Blues, a Brown Argus and a Small Copper in our garden meadow. Hopefully the oasis we've created has got something to do with the sustained abundance.

Highlights in the moth trap included a nice selection of migrants with Small Marbled, Marbled Green, 2 Saltmarsh Knot-horn, 8 Vestal, 15 Rush Veneer, 4 Dark Sword Grass, 1 Rusty Acorn Piercer, 16 Portland Ribbon Wave, 2 Diamond-backs, 5 Rusty-dots, 2 Scarce Bordered Straw, 2 Silver-Y and about 40 Small Mottled Willow. Derek in Bracklesham is getting over 100 Small Mottled Willows recently and up to 200-300 last week and is only a few miles away.  

There was also some interesting dispersives including Clouded Buff again, a record 7 Rosy Knot-horns, Rosy Wave, 4 Yellow Belles, 5 Roseate Marbles and several coleophoras which I have retained for dissection- presumably also off the Downs considering the supporting cast. Also a Vine moth which if confirmed is a new for site. Now on 499 for the year. 

The government phone alert went off this evening warning of extreme fire risk in the area. There's some rain in the forecast for next week so fingers crossed the thirsty land gets some respite soon. 

Adult Hobby over the garden

Green Silver Lines- always a treat to see. The Clouded Buff was in the trap too adding a nice bit of colour this morning.

Vine moth candidate- if confirmed a first for site

Rosy Knot-horn- a nice influx of one of my favourite moths, a species which triggered a passion for leps

Roseate Marble- five of these 

Small Marbled

Marbled Green

Aethes sp- retained for dissection 

The apps were confident this is Golden-rod Pug but Colin isn't having it without dissection and I didn't keep it- one that got away sadly

Great Silver Diving Beetle- absolute monster. Presumably it's pond dried up and it's looking for water. It's amazing to observe how inverts are dispersing widely in response to the extreme conditions and migrants are moving in - literally population distribution and migration ecology evolution occurring in real time. 

A day at the lodge

It was another blistering day. The temperature got up to 30 C this afternoon so I decided to spend the day tidying up the garden and getting a bit of paperwork done. I was in London working yesterday but managed to get back in time to view the eclipse. What with the blistering heat, regional wildfires, all the doomsters on the internet and now an eclipse- it's all rather biblical out there.  

102 species in the moth traps last night so clearly this heatwave is boosting moth diversity. Highlights included Large Thorn and Flounced Rustics which were NFYs with a nice selection of migrants including another Silver-spotted Veneer and a Scarce Bordered Straw. There were 5 Rosy Knot-horns and a cracking Clouded Buff (by day in the grass) so looks like moths are dispersing from the chalk grasslands. Still stuck on 699 species for all time but the year list has climbed to 495 (which is about 20 less than this time last year). 

Did a bit more on looking for garden inverts today with a few new interesting species. Latest obs HERE. Now on 388 species on this front. 

The garden birdlife has been pretty elusive and quiet- laying low in the heat presumably. A group of 4 Teal, a Greenshank and a Yellow Wagtail over were the highlights today HERE.

Teal over the garden 

Clouded Buff- a nice moth to have flying around in the meadow during the day. Also a few Silver-Ys in the meadows. 

Holly Blue- a few of these along the edges. Also Small, Large and Green-viened Whites, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Comma and a couple of Painted Ladys around.

Large Thorn

Silver-spotted Veneer- unrecorded here previous to this year and this must be the sixth or seventh now

Dog's Tooth- a bit of a garden speciality

This Common Sedge-sawfly was the highlight on the invert hunts

Common Furrow Bee. There are hundreds of bees in the garden at the moment but mainly very small presumed Lasioglossum sp. on the wild carrot. This Common Furrow Bee stood out as being relatively large. 

Blackberry seasons means plenty of Blackberry crumble. Holly is also using the Elderberries this year for crumble and syrups. Good times. 

Managed to get a nice view of the partial eclipse yesterday evening by using Kyle's welding mask but the phone camera failed to pick up any detail. View from the garden frontage looking west. 

The lodge in the heatwave (above and below)

Back to the patch and the fifth wave

It was a bit topsy turvy coming back from the holiday rain and cool temperatures in Scotland to the hot and dry conditions back home, exaggerated by the beginning of the fifth heat wave this summer. It really has been an extreme summer this year with several serious wildfires and droughts across the country. Our local area is on an extreme fire risk warning. 

Thanks to Kath and Kyle our plants and pets were kept alive while away (apart from our Mexican Red Knee that mysteriously died despite having all it should need). I got on with watering everything as soon as I got back yesterday.

So yesterday afternoon was spent just catching up in the garden. It was quite lively on the bird front HERE with a nice flock of mixed hirundines on the front garden phone wires and one or two juvenile Sparrowhawks playing cat and mouse with them. 

This morning I headed over to East Side and walked to the Spit and back and then went over to Mill Lane and Ferry HERE. 74 species of over 2500 individuals. Mill Lane Marsh has dried out but fortunately the RSPB have partly flooded Ferry again. Highlights included an influx of autumn wildfowl with 18 Teal, 3 Shoveler and 8 Gadwall, huge numbers of Med Gulls (I estimated 1500), 9 Yellow Wagtails in White's Creek and my first 2 Wheatears of the autumn. A nice little selection of waders on the rising side with 14 species including 4 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 7 Whimbrel and 6 Knot. An adult Peregrine was out hunting over the spit at high tide. Oystercatcher numbers have gone up to nearly 90 HERE where as Black-tailed Godwit has dropped right off HERE. 

The moth traps were quite lively with 90 species inlcuding 8 Portland Ribbon Wave and 2 Blair's Mocha which have been scarce this year so far.  Also a few NFYs, now on 494 for the year and a Delplanqueia dilutella/inscriptella - a first for site. Straw Underwings have appeared now too. Other 'migrant' species included two Cydia amplana, four Silver-Y, four Rusty-dots, 2 Dark Sword Grass, a single Diamond-back and Vestal, two Delicates, about 25 Small Mottled Willow, 9 Rush Veneer, six European Corn Borer and a handful of White-points.  Derek over in Bracklesham has had extremely high numbers of Small Mottled Willow over the last week- no obvious increase round here. Also a couple of Yellow Belles. 

Seems like more butterflies around (Common Blues and Brown Argus are in the garden meadow) and there was a Ruddy Darter in the garden yesterday too. 

Sand Martin( above) and Swallow and Sand and House Martins on the front wires

Sand and House Martins

Juvenile Sparrowhawk

Whimbrel- a few more of these today

Autumn ducks- Gadwall and Shoveler (above) and Teal (below). Oddly the Teal were out on the sea/harbour entrance. 

Wheatear- my first of the autumn . There was a small influx today on the Peninsula with 3 at the bill, 2 at Norton, one on the wall and the 2 on the spit.  Despite the clear blue skies and high pressure there was a brisk south east wind today which could have held up migrants. As usual all the local bird news HERE. 

Huge numbers of Med Gulls were out on the Spit 

The Pagham Harbour Common Seals have peaked at 10 individuals (9 here and one by the harbour entrance) 

Delplanqueia dilutella/inscriptella- retained for critical examination. Either species would be a first for the garden. 

Rosy Knot-horn- NFY at last  

According to I-Nat AI this is Common Groundhopper. Latest pan species observations from the garden HERE

It must be August not just because Wheatears have returned, hirundines are gathering on the wires and the first autumn ducks have arrived but also because there is an abundance of food ready for harvst in the garden now

Scotland Road Trip Days Nine and Ten

The last two days of our trip were basically driving back home with a few stops. After leaving Blyth and Jacob's first full English breakfast with black pudding, we had a quick stop at Heddon-on-the-wall to see Hadrian's Wall for Jacob's school photo and then we headed to Bakewell in the Peak District for the rest of the day and sleep over. We had lunch and a stroll round Bakewell and a drive round the moor in the hope of Red Grouse but it was very busy with tourists.

Today we woke up early and headed back to Holly's old home in Worminghall to visit her parent's grave and then completed the last couple of hours of the journey home back to Sidlesham. 

A great little trip. Sadly very little in the way of proper natural history stuff on the way home but if we do Scotland again I would do a longer stop over around Holy Island and the Farne Islands and the Lakes too. Kentish Glory is an April moth so could be the focus of a longer easter trip. 

Our route

The Peak District (above and below) 

Hadrian's Wall at Heddon-on-the-wall 

Scotland Road Trip Day Eight

Sadly our journey south began today. We left the Highlands and stopped off for lunch and a city walk in Edinburgh before heading south for our overnight at Blyth. Blyth is a stark contrast to the wild Highlands and is actually a pretty grim place but we found some good fish and chips at Coastline restaurant at South Beach and the beach is okay. We ended up here because it was one of the few affordable places to stay over night last minute.

The moth traps were unfortunately dissappointing at Invernahavon on the last night as the wind was really strong. Final lep tally for the trip was 87 species HERE with no new last night lifers. There were actually quite a few confusing moths too (see photos). 

One of the most interesting aspects about the moths this week was the incredible diversity of several of the commoner species. Check out the variation on these July Highflyers HERE and the Dotted Clays HERE. The Lesser Yellow Underwings were also remarkably variable HERE.  Also the Dark Marbled Carpets were really variable HERE. 

I managed to get a lot of my target moth species but didn't get the mountain carpets because of a lack of access to high altitude due to the wildfires. I also didn't get Exile. So a few major misses but a good excuse to try more mountain areas for moths. Also a lot of Scotland's best moths like Kentish Glory and the special underwings are not flying this time of year so definitely thinking of some more trips.

Targeting moths is the most suitable semi-serious natural history exploring when on family holiday as it's something that works passively over many hours at night and just involves processing them before everyone else is even awake and a quick set up when everyone has gone to bed. Trying to target some of the Caledonian bird and mammal species with a young family is more of less impossible and I've seen everything here before anyway. 

Tomorrow we head to the Peak District on our slow journey back south for another overnight. 

Neglected Rustic- quite a few of these although I'm not entirely sure this one isn't a Square-spot Rustic lookalike. Here's a link to one I'm more confident of HERE. 

Twin-spot Carpet. Male (above) and female (below)

The apps say this is Dark Brocade but not sure if it's that or a Common Rustic agg

Rufous Minor is a likely Marbled minor agg candidate in the area and this one fits the bill but presumably requires critical examination to confirm

Ground-moss Grey, Eudonia truncicolella- the most numerous 'scop'. 

The apps say this is Garden Dart but not sure if its a melanic Turnip- it had a pale hindwing

Another shot of the incredible Invernahavon valley this morning

Edinburgh Castle 

View from our hotel window, The Commissioners Quay Inn in Blyth. It's a sea view but quite a stark one