Jakarta

Currently still on the way to West Papua, we left on Thursday! Had a days birding in Jakarta, Java in Indonesia today while waiting for the next flight. We went out on a boat and explored the estuary environments of the River Angke. Ebird list HERE (including a photo of a Pacific Golden Plover which I would have strung for an American Golden if I saw it in Europe, also photos of Lesser Sand and Javan Plovers on Ebird list) and a few photo highlights below.

Adult Lesser Frigatebird (foreground) with Christmas Island Frigatebird

Adult male Christmas Island Frigatebird

Adult female Christmas Island Frigatebird

First summer (it's Spring here) Christmas Island Frigatebird

Adult Great Frigatebird- no white on underparts

Male Christmas Island Frigatebird- white largely confined to triangle marking on belly

Male Lesser Frigatebird- white extends from breast onto auxillaries

Black-naped Tern 

Crested Tern

Javan Pond Heron 

Sunda Teal (with Purple Heron) 

Sunda-Collared Dove- an endemic 

Milky Storks

Monitor Lizard- loads of these and some up to 2m long 

Long-tailed Macaque- also known as the Crab-eating Macaque. We found several groups along the vegetated shoreline. 

Goodbye to the Old Vic

Got a day quoting in London tomorrow and then back tomorrow night before back to London on Thursday morning to get the plane to West Papua. 

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. 

Big Night at the Old Vic

The Loxostege was back on the side of the trap this morning and this time I didn't @@@ it up. Also Convolvulus Hawkmoth (a long time coming) and a nice handful of migrants. More on the Upper Thames Blog HERE. 

Convolvulus Hawkmoth- worth waiting for ! A video HERE and below

Nailed it! Loxostege Sticticalis- maybe yesterday's one back at the same trap

Old Lady- a new for year

The 8th garden Vestal this year

A bit worn on the wing-tips  so presumably a bit of a struggle to get here. Beautiful patterns, presumably a male with this kind of detail (females are plainer) and also the large antennae in the top photo suggest a male too 

They keep coming

The new moths keep coming at the Old Vic. The site moth list is now on 590 (the target for this year was to get to 500 so totally killed that) and the year list is now 461. A frustrating morning today as there was a fine Diamond-spot Marble, Loxostege sticticalis on the side of the actinic trap which flew off as soon I got near it with the camera. I chased it across the garden and even tried to beat it out of an Oak that I thought it flew into but it was all in vain. Presumably a bit of local mega and sadly no evidence so effectively one that got away. That's twice that's happened now, a few weeks ago with an Acleris literana. I think I need to go for the pot rather than the camera in future if I see something decent on the side of the trap. 

Also recently an L-album Wainscot (only the third for Bucks I believe) and few other new for years including this year's first wonderful Clifden Nonpariel.

The diversity and numbers of moths in these village and suburban gardens is pretty incredible. The most species of moth I had at Beddington was 327 species in a year (however this was from a third floor window but in many ways that could have been an advantage). Although I've had the moth trap out here occasionally since around 2017 and more regularly since 2020 (during Covid) it's only been 2021 and 2022 that I've really put in some reasonable effort here (but still only three or four nights a week). Jonathan Newman hit 1000 species (all time) in his Peterborough suburban garden this week and Dave from the Bucks CMR team is well over 1000 species for his garden. Dave is on over 700 species for the year and Ben Sale is on 650 species for the year. It's not just diversity of species but numbers involved too- I can get over 500 individual moths in one night here. That is a lot of moths for less than an acre sized garden.  

One I made earlier, Diamond-spot Marble from Bulgaria earlier in the year (July) This was the most numerous species in July there. 

Clifden Nonpariel

Cypress Pug- a new for year 

Mouse moth- a new for year 

L-album Wainscot- a new for site

....and another Vestal, always good to see. This is the 6th one this year.

London shift

Did the last two nights at my mum's house with the moth trap. Looks like the 5th site for Beet moth in Surrey. By the sounds of it this species has gone from a coastal species on the south coast (A Sea Beet  specialist in Shingle Habitat which appears to have switched it's food plant to agricultural produce ) to rapidly invading a lot of the south of England well in land to London, Bucks and beyond within the last three weeks. Will be interesting to see whether or not this results in a permanent colonisation or is just a temporary invasion/ mass dispersal event.

Not a lot else in the trap - a few local specialists like L-album Wainscot, Ruddy Streak and still got one micro to identify.

Visited Park Down near Banstead Woods yesterday evening with Gillian- a bit late in the day and too windy but there were Silver-Spotted Skippers here a week or so ago.  We did have a Chalkhill Blue. 

Another Beet Moth 

Maybe Gypsonoma minutana

Beet moth invasion

I'd only recorded Beet moth, Scrobipalpa ocellatella a week or so ago for the first time and if I understand correctly it was only recorded in Bucks county for the first time recently too. However last night I had 72 in the trap so presumably an invasion occurring perhaps linked to the weather this summer? 

Also new for year was a Small Ranunculus and also another Dark Sword Grass.

Not much else happening round here, 31 species on the garden bird survey this morning, Ebird list here. Main change has been a couple of flocks of House Martins and Swallows that must be gathering in the village somewhere. Up to 35 House Martins and 18 Swallows. Grey Wagtails are regular again after a long break through the summer. The first Raven in months yesterday. The tit flock is mainly Blue Tit this year (about 20) with lesser numbers of Long-tailed and Greats. Migrant wise it's just the odd Blackcap and Chiffchaff and the occasional Yellow Wagtails calling overhead. Stuck on 76 species for the year HERE. 

Been using the Obsidentify app to record beetles, flies, bugs and spiders etc in the garden and light trap. The Old Vic pan species list is now on 1153, the all time moth list is 588 and moth year list is 456.  

The dog keeps killing our garden fledglings- it's had three Song Thrush this year, another one yesterday. Also another Woodpigeon yesterday. If it wasn't for Bird Flu around this year I'd eat these with our garden vegetables (did that in the past with Woodpigeons).   

Beet moths (above and below). Most of those dark spots on the below image are Beet moths. 

Small Ranunculus 

Feathered Gothic - a stunner . Three of these last night. 

Last few days

Been a busy few days, did a couple of days in London working, visited the farmlands and went to see a show with Fran in Central London, more family days out this weekend (Black Country Museum, a break from a nature themed attraction) and trying to keep up with everything at the Old Vic. Spent all day today doing stuff round here, starting with moths and quick bird survey, cleaning and filling the feeders , then had to prune the pumpkin plants, dig out a load of potatoes, harvest carrots and tomatoes, muck out the chickens, clean the aquariums and also move the small aquarium from Jacob's room to the office ahead of Jacob starting year 2 school next week. 

Mark Constantine called last week with the exciting news that Roy Dennis and Co are looking into the possibility of a high profile bird  reintroduction project in London . We shared some ideas and I’ve put out feelers for feedback too. Fingers crossed this develops further with the possibility of Beddington being involved . 

Less than two weeks before the trip to West Papua so still preparing for that . The Azores pelagic ended yesterday - sounds like a good success (see my Twitter for reposts ).  Basically all good on all fronts . 

The mini-farm, in our attempt to keep the whole thing 'chaining', Bryan has put in a load of broad beans that are beginning to grow. Still got Sweet corn and Pumpkins to come and loads more Tomatoes, Cabbages,  Green Peppers and Potatoes, Runner beans, Apples and Pears and Carrots. This year in addition to the above we've had Beetroot, Sugar snap peas, Broad Beans, Early Potatoes, Plums, Strawberries, Raspberries and Gooseberries (a bad year for them), Lettuce, Rocket, Garlic and Onions. Can't wait for the Chickens to start laying eggs (should be November).  

The prize potato harvested today

Pruned the Pumpkin plants today- we've got about 10 of these this year (from over 20 plants) so not a great year (we did put them in quite late) but some of the first food we've grown from our own seeds from the previous year

Not sure if our cockerel is a pedigree Light Sussex with brown areas appeared recently around the nape and scapulars. Still a good looking bird though and after a bit of practising over the last two or three weeks it's now doing full on 6am cockadoodles. If the neighbours complain will have to eat it for xmas and just keep the hens for eggs. The tails feathers have grown now, an incredible rate of growth, born in early June and it's already nearly mature and the three hens we've got should start laying around six months (November) 

Literally shocked to see that this Yellow-bellied Toad is still alive and well in the Paludarium. We haven't seen it for about four months. Amazing that even a tiny microcosm habitat can have pretty big secrets. 

Another surprise in the Paludarium was this wax moth that has pupated from the wax worm grubs we feed the Common Frogs. It did well to get to adult stage (but was eaten soon after). Not quite a Bioactive system yet but one small step closer. 

Dark Spectacle- don't get too many of these 

A couple of these recently, Common Marbled Carpets (second brood presumably) 

I presume just a Square-spot Rustic variant. More of these appearing now. Still getting 250 moths a night but only of 40 or 50 species and mainly dominated by five or six species. Still getting good numbers of Rush Veneers but looks like moth migration has shifted back to being concentrated on coast during these low pressure systems, there's been huge number of migrants at places like Portland but no corresponding up tick here. The best migrant period here was during that sustained period of high pressure where we were disproportionally doing well here in relative terms to the coast (with not that much going on there). 

Feathered Gothic- new for year

The closest I can get to this is Ginger Button

A couple of gelechiids- the one above I think is Dark Groundling and the one below another Beet Moth (had three of these in what appears to have been an influx last night with numbers reported in other sites in the Upper Thames area) . Update 300822- nope they are both Beet Moths (thanks Stephen Palmer).