Heat wave intensifies at Little Oak Lodge

The heat wave continues and the garden entomology has exploded. There were 149 species of moths of around 450 indiviudals last night across the MV, twin-actinic and the Lepiled. If confirmed there were six new species for the garden and 44 year ticks in just one night- now on 299 for the year.

I've been keeping my eyes on the skies too with Common and Sandwich Tern overhead and a Red Kite this morning. 

Decided to just stay around the house and garden today and record the inverts. 

Sand Dart- a good one for the garden and a lifer! A very localised species in Sussex with a colony around East Head and another at Rye. Presumably a hot weather dispersive from East Head

Bright Wave- another very good one for a garden.

Roseate Marble- very nice indeed.

Dark Bordered Pearl

A very striking Silky Wainscot 

Brown-viened Wainscot

Scarce Ermine- only the second record for the garden. Other 'migrants' included Gem (below), a few Silver-Y, Rusty-dots and Diamond-backs and a Dark Sword Grass. 

Gypsonoma dealbana

Elegia similella

Slender Pug according to Obsidentify 

Painted Lady- a few of these flying around the garden. Also Meadow Brown, Large and Small Whites, Small/Essex Skipper, Red Admiral, Holly Blue and two or three Purple Hairstreaks in the oaks opposite

Isaac has got the right idea of how to keep cool

Birdwatch Article

 

Check out the July issue of Birdwatch for our article about our move down from London to the Selsey Peninsula and our Nature Positive Journey. 

Heat Wave

Temperatures were around 30 C today with a warm easterly airflow. As it was Monday I planned to be in the field as much as I could.

I started off doing the moths which unsurprisingly was a good catch in the hot conditions with 90 species of over 200 individuals and 38 year ticks in one night!. Now on 255 for the garden year and 649 all time so two all time garden ticks too. 

I put four pheromone lures out today, the Ni-lure overnight and I then swapped it for the Lunar Hornet Moth at dawn, then the Red-belted Clearwing lure and later the Currant Clearwing lure. I had Silver-Y to Ni, Lunar Hornet and Red-belted Clearwings to their respective lures but sadly no Currant Clearwings. 

I also did a garden birding session HERE, 35 species of nearly 100 individuals the highlights including a couple of Curlew over, recently fledged Barn Swallow families and after quite a long break Grey Wagtails are flying around the estate again.

After the school run I did a bit of invert and plant recording in the garden. Now on 256 species HERE

Before it got too hot I then checked out Ferry, Long Pool, the Tramway and Mill Lane , HERE with highlights including the autumn's first returning Green Sandpiper on Mill Lane, the chick fest on Ferry Pool, a Red Kite over and good numbers of post-breeding waders in the harbour.

After a break from the heat, I then went to Church Norton on the rising tide where the highlights were the pair of Roseate Terns and another chick fest of flegling gulls and Sandwich Terns HERE. There was also a bit of drama with the coastguards rescuing a family that got stuck on the islands on Pagham Lagoon and the RSPB were out with the drone doing a survey on the productivity rate of the gulls and terns in the colony. 

The heat wave is set to last for the rest of the week so will be interesting what else turns up in the moth trap. Unfortunately I'm in London tomorrow working but should have time in the morning to go through the moth traps to at least look for anything obvious. 

Avocets (above) of all shapes on sizes on Ferry. At least 30 young and over 25 adults in an amazing breeding success story following the recent re-landscaping works

Little Ringed Plovers of different shapes and sizes (above and below). A fully fledged juvenile (above) and an adult and very young chicks below.

Green Sandpiper- it's official autumn migration has commenced

The Roseate Tern pair at Church Norton (above in a Sandwich tern sandwich and below)

Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit. Nearly 40 Curlews, 100 Redshanks and 18 Lapwings out in the harbour today. Things are certainly beginning to move in. 

An interesting primary pattern on this presumed Common Tern showing dark streaks on the outer webs similar to a Forster's Tern. Presumably related to worn outer webs. 

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker in the garden

Marbled White- plenty of butterflies around Pagham Harbour today including Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Gatekeeper, Small/Essex Skipper, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Small White, Green-viened White and Painted Lady

The most interesting moth was this Pempelia sp- either Gorse or Heather Knot-horn. Waiting for confirmation from the CMR but Obsidentify says Heather Knot-horn which will be a lifer. 230626  update- the CMR he says yes to Heather Knot-horn. 

Holly says she keeps loosing the children in the garden meadow 

Simon and Niki's Wedding

Spent the weekend in West Yorkshire at the wedding of the Inglorious Bustards aka Simon and Niki.

A magical time had by all. Nice to meet some new birders and see some old friends and aquaintances. 

Congratulations to the bride and groom! 

Simon and Niki 

The birders present at the wedding

Great to see Tijan the birdman again. Last time we met was 25 years ago in Gambia (below). I had the pleasure of taking him out for his first English Curry. 

Hebden Bridge- Niki's home village and the wedding venue

Last few days

It's still pretty slow going but there's been a couple of bits of news over the last few days. On Tuesday I picked up the new ducks from Steve's and they are now settling in the garden and the other bit of good news is that the House Sparrows are using the garden office sparrow apartment boxes and we can hear young birds calling from them- so pleased with that. 

A garden birding session this morning produced 34 species of over 70 individuals HERE with highlights including Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Whitethroat still singing on territory and there's been a couple of juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers around too. 

The moth trap has been pretty steady going with the year list climbing but way behind this time last year due to more time away this year and also poorer weather this summer. Only on 217 for the year and a devilish 666 moths and butterfly all time list (was on 647 at the beginning of the year).  A few photo highlights below. 

On 252 pan-species for the garden now after a few more additions this week HERE. 

Other than that it's just been getting through paperwork, the printer driving me nuts, attended a talk last night about the Land Settlement Association HERE and a bit of history of this house and the social experiment it was a product of, a bit of garden work (after the talk on the LSA been inspired to align our homesteading with some of the historical hortiultural approaches for this estate) and getting ready to go to Yorkshire tomorrow for Simon and Niki's wedding this weekend. 

Small Elephant and Elephant Hawkmoth. There's also been a Hummingbird Hawkmoth around. 

Bordered Straw- a little run of these lately

Orange-tailed Clearwing- a couple of these to the Red-belted Lure 

Saltern Grass-moth, Pediasia aridella

Small Mottled Willow- up to six of these a night recently

The new ducks (above) and rounding them up at Steve's (below) 

Trap?

Just a quick opinion/ thought dump post. I guess like some/many other people I'm noticing an increasingly tighter financial situation what with being driven over tax thresholds (with increasing tax percentages to boot) and rising living and business costs particularly higher borrowing rates. Basically the end result for me is tighter budgets to spend on birding and nature projects which is a bit worrying as it's the raison d'etre of what we do.  

Like everyone I presume I don't relish the idea of being trapped in a survival mode where you have to work just to pay bills and living costs with no extra funding for purposeful, meaningful or fullfilling pursuits. That's basically slavery, where you live to serve the system and simply pay tributes to another group of people through costs and taxes. 

Life has always been like this where the objective has always been to maintain at least some freedom and control over your own life while benefiting from contributing to a wider society through various obligations but it seems that in more recent years that a trap has been sprung which is driving more people into states of enslavement. To me it feels like a net being dragged in and there is a need to swim away from the mouth of the net before it closes. 

With global financial indices being at all time highs and violentally osscillating over the last few weeks in relation to long term conflict worries, AI risks and SpaceX IPO speculation there is a constant noise/chatter of the possibility of an unprecendented financial crash, one that reflects the current unprecendented overvaluation of global markets and equities. In theory we could be looking at the biggest pump and dump in history and if such an event does occur it will re-set the world as we know it , bringing in emergency restrictions of freedom, spending, asset control and takeover, pricing, digital currencies and digital identification, digital scoring systems and the establishment of global AI systems. In the name of personal safety and economic stability there is a fundamental risk to overall freedoms driving more and more people into the trap - a complete and suden closure of the net.  

There is a lot of opportunity in a global system re-set and re-boot particularly with regards to ecological recovery so such a thing could have some positive implications. However positioning oneself to benefit from the positive opportunities is an extremely hard thing to plan for especially in the peak choas tthat proceeds such fundamental change- that may or may not even come. 

It all feels like a bit of a trap, with no matter which way you turn, there doesn't seem to be a clear way out. It may not all be bad, but some of it certainly could be. A better planned global society seems like a good idea (with the help of AI), in theory it seems like a better idea than an unplanned society following the irrationality of the markets (that give us 'planned unplanned societies that benefit market players at the expense of ideological outcomes) but we all know the history of centrally planned systems where in an attempt at suppressing human nature to fit into ideological plans you end up awakening demons. How will AI and any post mega financial crash rescue mission get around that- who knows?  How will anyone of us get out of this trap if such a thing happens? I guess will have to find the way out once it is fully sprung ? 

The week back home

I'm not going to lie, coming back from the pure wilderness' of Bulgaria to the UK in the doldrums of a wet and windy mid-sunmer with guts ache that lasted a week is enough to question your life choices. So with debilitation and deeply embedded demotivation I haven't been able to muster up much energy to do anything over the last week.

I had the moth trap on a couple of times and today I finally managed to drag myself out into the field. Ebird list here HERE which was basically so bad that Ebird even glitched and tried to spice it up with a Caspian Gull that I didn't even input. It went out on the bird information services and it's not even really something you can accidentally input (as not on the main checklist options) so no idea what happened there- note to self to check every list I submit after I've submitted it for Eborg doing a 2001 David.

I've done a bit in the garden and got through a bit of reading and sorting out a couple of bits of work but it has indeed been a drag of a week. Back to work in London tomorrow- oh joy. A few photos below.

This is what I'm talking about. This is the highlight of the bloody week. Tufted Blackthorn Moth, Luquetia lobella. A moth lifer, now on 647 for the garden. 

It's that time of year where there are a few of these confusing larger dark jobs in the trap. Dusky Brocade (above) and Clouded Brindle (below). I accidentally forgot to turn the trap on last night, despite setting it up earlier in the evening- I was actually relieved I didn't have to go through another dissappointing catch. While I was away, the moth heavens opened on the south coast and delivered an unprecedented period of moth migration during a major heat wave with record numbers of Eastern Bordered Straws. Locally Mike had Druid and Eastern Bordered Straw and Derek had Eastern Bordered Straw so its very likely they were here too. I've had Bordered Straws several times this week which I'd normally be happy with. Can't win them all I suppose.  

After a week of sun and then a week of rain the garden went into overdrive. The back garden meadow has come up nicely with some more wildflowers this year coming up (below). I had about 4 Meadow Browns skipping around the meadow on Saturday with Small and Large White and Cinnabars too. There was Orange-tailed Clearwing in the lure. It was almost enough to lift my spirits a bit. I'm happy with the strawberries which are yielding a massive crop this year.