A couple of days at the Lodge

Matt came over yesterday and we spent the day doing the garden and as usual discussing the head of the snake of the western world as you do in between pruning the 'crops' and managing the meadows . With the world seemingly hurtling towards 'World Wars Episode 3 -The Empire strikes without provocation again'  part of the ideology behind the nature centric self sufficiency-type lifestyle is to feel a little bit more non-complaint and sheltered from systemic upheavels. I find it helpful for the old mental health believing (a bit at least) that if there were supply line failures and shortages or a real pandemic we could more or less surive it out on an acre of land with the seeds and starting blocks of self sufficiency (a crop seed bank and a few rabbits, ducks and geese which could scale up) and enough to look at and study to pass the time. There's more chance of escalating cost of living challenges than anything too extreme and a bit of self sufficiency and being embedded into nature more helps with that too and basically it's a pleasant lifestyle for the family so it kind of ticks every box from a nice jolly right the way to apocalypse. Certainly enjoying it here.

Lots of new additions to the moth list and also the pan-species list in the current heatwave. Dissappointingly no more scarce moth migrants but fingers crossed for some more action this weekend. Derek had a Small Marbled nearby at Bracklesham yesterday and Sarah had another Striped Hawkmoth at Selsey so they aren't far away. 

Not much at all on the bird front. I found a dead Goldfinch fledgling proving that Goldfinches are breeding in the garden. The Whitethroats, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs are still singing occasionally but I haven't heard the Cuckoo in a couple of days. I could hear Redshank calling from Ferry Pool a couple of days ago. 

I'm still more or less stuck here as still catching up with paperwork, sorting out VAT etc and been reviewing a paper on Nearctic vagrants and tropical cyclone activity today and still need to crack on with the Corvo 20 year review for Dutch Birding. Caught up with some reading today too - Atropos, British Birds and Birdwatch mag- a good article in Birdwatch by Thomas Miller on Baltic Gull identification.   

The back garden meadow/play area with new mown paths to the play ground and swimming pool for the boys. We've mowed a circuit round the edge for Jacob to ride his bike round and they can run through the connected paths to the trampoline, swings and slide and pool. If they want to kick balls around we've got a mowed area in the side garden. The meadow is full of bees, Meadow Browns and the odd Large Skipper and Small and Green-viened White with Comma and Peacock on the edges. Isaac got stung by a bee a couple of days ago- part of the territory and I'm sure he will learn to leave them alone now.

The three sisters guild in the centre raised bed is coming on well- sweetcorns with a pumpkin understorey and sugar snap peas climbing up the sweetcorns all working sybiotically together with the peas fixing nitrogen in the soil, the corn providing the framework and the pumpkins providing the shade to keep the soil moist. A lot of the new potatoes are ready now and we harvested a lot of the onions and now got them curing in the 'greenhouse' 

Two-banded Wasp Hoverfly. We are recording/monitoring all the birds, moths, butteflies and dragonflies and mammals but just doing a species inventory and casual recording for all other species- botany other entomology etc. This was a new one, now on 145 species on the i-Nat project HERE. In total with the leps and birds and these too we are nearly on 800 species for the garden.  

Red-belted Clearwing- three today attracted to their lure (MYO). I've tried AND lure and got the targeted Orange-tailed Clearing but failed with the Currant Clearwing lure after a couple of days trying. I've now got MOL out to see if any micro moths attracted to that and still got a few others to try. I ordered some more pheromones today too to target other species. 

Smoky-barred Marble, Lobesia absciana- a new for garden

Bittersweet Smudge (I think)

Dusky Brocade- my second attempt to get one of these on the garden list after Colin flagged up doubt on our dark morph candidate recently 

Clouded Brindle with those distinctive 'C' marks on the mid wing. Another garden tick- now on 505 moth species.