Certainly going to miss the family and the homestead- shocking how domesticated I've become. I'm only going to West Papua because it was on my bucket list to see Birds of Paradise for my 50th birthday so I guess it's important to meet objectives even if some of the zeal has faded. Really looking forward to having adventures with the boys in future but I suppose better get this out of the way. By the sounds of it the birding is hard and the conditions are extreme in West Papua so it's going to be an ordeal. I'm going to be so home sick! Should get some comedy out of it.
Anyway the last couple of days here involved a wash out on Sunday and a blow out on Monday. The moth traps got drenched on Sunday night in torrential storms and blew the fuses on Monday night so not too much to report from the moth traps, Parsnip moth and Black Rustic new for year was about it.
A bit of vis mig over the garden (very rare to see anything migrating over here) on Sunday morning with about five Yellow Wags over. A couple of Chiffs in with the tit flock and the odd Blackcap about and still a few hirundines around. There was about 30 Goldfinch flying around a few days ago- the most in ages. Otherwise quite disappointing on the bird front considering there has been a lot of good migration action across the country in the north east winds recently.
Red Underwing sheltering from the storm under the guttering of the house
Parnsip Moth (above) and Birch Marble (below)
It's been a great year for migrant moths but unfortunately my hopeful Langmaid's Yellow Underwing was not to be. I sent it to Martin (the county CMR) and he set it and examined it properly and unfortunately it does not show the full suite of features for Langmaid's. I also got some feedback and saw some comments from Billy Dykes and Martin Honey who stressed that all the features were needed (not as easy as the internet might make out). The validity of the species is also not that popular amongst all moth experts some using the phrase 'needs to show all features currently associated with this newly described species). Here's my earlier post on this moth and why I should have made an effort to see the full underwing pattern HERE . The full suite of features includes the square off and dark underwing margin, plus a small orange spot surrounded by an all dark border (mine failed on that) plus generally darker overall and some other more subtle differences.
All good on the mini-farm. Just noticed we accidentally planted chillies in with the Peppers. Result.
Picked the rest of the potatoes today.
Its tomato and sweetcorn season.
September on the mini-farm. Certainly going to miss the daily rhythms of moths and birds and things growing and appearing and continuously surprising.
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