The Old Vicarage- a few migrant moths

The warm airflow that is set to keep up for the next week or so is causing a wave of moth migration across the south coast which is reaching inland too as I had a few migrants here in the garden on the Oxon/Bucks border. Just singles of Rusty-dot Pearl and Silver Y with Angle Shades (a possible migrant) and a few local/seasonal 'new for years' too including Feathered Thorn and Scarce Umber. Also Mottled Umber and Winter moth recorded for the first time this winter (but also recorded in early part of the year too). This spell of warm airflow (sweeping up from the Sahara on occasions) could make the next couple of weeks of lockdown a bit more interesting. I've had 419 species of moth here this year but disappointedly no rare migrants- hoping for a late result! 

Did a couple of hours on Oakley Airfield this morning. The Golden Plover flock has gone (only a handful up there now) presumably relocated to Otmoor where there are over 3000 now. Also had a single Lapwing on the airfield, a Brambling over, good numbers of Meadow Pipit, a Stonechat, 3 Corn Bunting and 70 Fieldfare overhead. Ebird list HERE. 

Feathered Thorn 

Rusty-dot Pearl 

Brick

Scarce Umber- this species, Mottled Umber and Winter Moth were on the house white walls rather than in the Robinson's trap.

STORM DAMAGE

 Beech- infected with Meripilus Giganteus- look out for large (massive) fronds in late autumn at the base of the tree . Its a cryptic disease so the canopy looks healthy while the roots are turnign to cork and the tree can fall at any time. If present fell the tree asap.

 Horse Chestnut with another hidden disease- apart from the ubiquitous leaf miner the tree look relatively healthy- but look below (hollow inside and decayed wood at base)

 This Maidenhair Tree snapped out at the top- with permission from the tree officer will try and save this by cable bracing it and reducing some of the canopy

 Despite the conditons the moth trap still produced- Mottled Umber was new for the year (left to right: 'winter moth', Mottled Umber and Angle Shades)

Magnolia seed pods- noticed this amongst the carnage

I was up at five keeping my eye on the storm. No birds from the window this morning and no news coming in from Roger by the lake or anyone else in London.

Spent the day on emergency calls out- we had it pretty bad round here- lots of trees down- mostly ones that had various diseases (cryptic in some cases).

Done another hour on the farmlands at dusk but still no sign of any sea birds. 

December moths

There's been a few mild evenings recently which have brought some moths to the trap including December moths (up to 4). Mottled Umbers (up to 5), Light Brown Apple Moths, Eudonia angustea, Winter moths and a Satellite. 

I went over the farmlands yesterday to look through the gulls. Sorry to say it looks like tipping is drawing to a close (as the incinerator becomes fully operational) and there were only a couple of hundred gulls there- the end of an era. 

Been a lot of paperwork recently about the farmlands- planning applications and gearing up for a legal challenge next year. Looks like it is going to be a long winter of planning and putting together campaign and legal case material. I suppose now the gulls have gone nothing to distract me and even more reason to work towards getting the new habitats created and all our bird/wildlife group objectives met because the birding is going to get very tough now the gulls are history and the reserve development remains stuck in limbo. 

 A nice selection of Mottled Umbers showing some of the variation (also a Winter Moth bottom left) 

 Satellite 

 Mottled Umber (above and below)- striking specimens 

Eudonia angustea- this narrow winged 'scop' is pretty distinctive 

The Old Vic update - Lazlo

Seems like we have finally found a solution for the Cockerel, Lazlo . After he almost pecked our prize hen to death we had to isolate him and was then deciding whether to turn him into a Sunday roast or keep him as he is such a good looking bird and we might want to breed from him later. Housing the hens has been expensive to make sure we have a predator proof large compound but hopefully in time they will pay for themselves with eggs and compost (and provide insurance against money becoming worthless or supply line disruptions - and in our first year indeed there are now currently egg shortages). So we needed to come up with a cheap solution for the Cockerel (a potential financial liability) so he has been in the old dog kennel for a few weeks imprinting on his new home before we were going to try and free range him (saves money on feed etc). However what with bird flu restrictions (mad that in order to control bird flu, poultry farmers have to contain birds inside in more crowded and inhumane conditions which is why bird flu evolved in the first place) we couldn't let him range round the whole garden and potential village so with a bit of cheap fencing we've got a cheap fix (£14! instead of over £200 for electric fencing or £300 for complete predator proof enclosure) . He escaped within the first morning (we think because one of our drunk family members fell onto the fence) but Isabelle (the pub chef who lives in the coach house) caught him effortlessly (she was raised on a Portuguese farm) and we put him back into his new run. He had made his way over to the hens so if he does escape again it should be easy to find him.  

Bryan has been out shooting pheasants in the local shoot (Mark Avery won't be happy) so we've been getting free game meat lately so I've been trying some new recipes. Still getting through the pumpkins too (got about 10 of them still) so what with eggs, pumpkins and pheasants there is still plenty of home produce to live off even in the winter. We do supplement our self sufficiency with Burger King and Starbucks and local farm shops and markets just to prove our anti-Capitalism is only a protest against the share and indices and reward systems of the global market. The stocks and shares I bought recently were in Sustainable Forestry, Renewable Energy, Water Companies and also Whizzair (that fly me to Bulgaria) so again the system change we would like to advocate is evolution and transition and smart engagement (but genuine transition and not global establishment bullshit and leftist propaganda) and the avoidance of extremism and simple narratives (there is nothing simple about the complex system we all have to survive in)- I suspect real system change can only come from grassroots projects that create that new system themselves and then grow and connect together. 

Still a few moths, good numbers of Redwings and Fieldfares around the garden and the Sheep Field. Making good progress on the digitisation of old notebooks etc, Holly is making good progress with the indoor refurbishments, Jacob is Joseph in his school's nativity play and Isaac has got two new teeth- so all going well. 

Lazlo- the murderous cockerel 

£14 solution

I noticed in Vegan/vegetarian propaganda that there is often the case made that animals are fed food that could be fed to humans which makes the whole meat and diary industry inefficient. However that's not our experience with these chickens. We mainly feed them off garden weeds or mini-farm surplus. They love to eat the chick weed, goosefoots and other weeds that we have to remove from the raised beds, they eat willow leaves from the tree pruning that we have to do or storm damage branches, we throw them worms when digging the beds and they also eat kitchen waste (non-salted or cooked). Indeed we do supplement that with laying pellets but not much (and presumably the laying pellets are also made with industry waste that is not fit for human consumption?).  Indeed some meat and diary practises especially heavily industrialised practises are unsustainable but that's not always the case.  

Still getting the odd migrant- a smart Silver-Y

Scarce Umber (above) and Mottled Umber (below) 

Thanks very much to Peter Hall, this moth has been confirmed (following dissection) as Grey Birch Button, Acleris logiana. My first dissection result, which is exciting. I don't generally like lethal identification methods and really for a certain area once a species pair or group probability has been ascertained then I'm quite happy going with the most probable species for ongoing monitoring purposes (and review the process periodically to check for status changes). However logiana/kochiella were equally likely - so once I've recorded both of them (as a result of dissection) it seems to make sense to use extrapolative means to record them afterwards.   

Incredible photo of female genitalia (Peter Hall)

Did a bit more tidying up in the mini-farm but still keeping the vegetation between the beds for the chickens

Pumpkin curried soup (above) and Pheasant and Pumpkin stew (below)- so delicious. If we ever get our own farm/ reserve some of these recipes will go into the cafe. The dream is to have a field to fork cafe that only serves recipes from the wild/ farm. Slowly getting our menu together. 

Digitising notebooks has been interesting- here is an extract from my birding notes from 1987- amazing how good Beddington used to be for waders. This extract was from July 1987 during a period of Northeast winds. Getting all this data onto Ebird is a good idea as presumably in the future these big data systems will govern global systems and will be used to for example to build global recovery networks for waders. 

Went to Cotswold Wildlife Park at the weekend. After dipping the Six banded Armadillo in the past on numerous occasions, it was good to get a photo of Jacob with it

Deep Winter Moths at Beddington Farmlands

Caught a couple 'new for years' in the moth trap this week including Pale Brindled Beauty and Winter Shade. There is a very cold spell starting tomorrow so presumably the moths will dry up for a bit but as we go further into February it won't be long before the Quakers and the 'early Spring' moths appear. In tribute to winter drawing to a close here's a few winter hardy souls in the moth world that are on the wing through the deepest dark nights of the deepest part of winter in this part of the world. 

December moth- looks well prepared for winter with it's thick winter coat

Agonopoterix alstromeriana - a bit of a Beddington speciality , there were up to three in the trap this week . Also known as the Hemlock moth or Brown-spot Flat-body

Winter Shade, Tortricodes alternella 

New Zealand Light Brown Apple Moth- I don't think this chooses to be on the wing in mid-winter. An adventive moth that has colonised the UK after being accidently introduced through food trade from New Zealand. Seems to survive well even though it's switched hemispheres knackering it's life cycle synchronisation. 

Beautiful Plume- amazes me that something this fragile can survive the mid-winter nights 

Spring Usher- there was only one previous record of Spring Usher for Beddington Farmlands before this winter but this year we've had a run of them. A seemingly very variable species SEE HERE

Pale Brindled Beauty

Narrow-winged Grey, Eudonia angustea

A member of the Acleris family that I can't identify and are in fact mainly identified by dissection. A few of these are also on the wing in mid-winter.

Chestnut

Mottled Umbers and Winter Moth (bottom left). Didn't actually get a Mottled Umber here this winter but this picture is from a previous January

Satellite- another one that appears in mid-winter, again not this year but a previous January 

Moths off the block

Caught my first adult moths of the year two nights ago at the Beddington trap. The first relatively mild evening in a few weeks. 

Spring Usher , update 170121- see comments, probably a Mottled Umber based on wing shape presumably. A very variable moth and the pattern on this seems similar to Spring Usher variants. Update later on 170121- ok we are back to Spring Usher on this (see comments- thanks Stewart and Billy) . Here's a selection of other Mottled Umbers from the blog showing those discal spots HERE.

Light Brown Apple moth (above) and Winter moth (below). Update 170121- see comments below (thanks Edward!) . Probably a melanic Spring Usher (below). Update late 170121- a general agreement that yes it's a melanic Spring Usher. 

I've learnt moths, the 'fools-way' (internet swarm learning) where I take photos, compare to on line resources like what's flying tonight pages (where identification is also based on probability based on time of year and location) and if stuck seek advice from the internet community and try and memorise the results. Its certainly the fastest way to learn but prone to leakage!  I learnt birds the proper-way, digesting volumes and volumes of books and journals and teaching myself with the help of tutors/local birders. So have I ruled out an acleris sp for the above micro or other aggregate species with the macro below? I better get my books out :-) Update 170121  - I got my books out (which were at Holly's) and post edited accordingly (thanks all for comments too).     

Little Oak Lodge Weekend

As usual it's been a weekend of family trips (Reindeers and Pet Shops this time) and hanging around the house and the garden. The garden vis mig is now a few drips but there has been a bit of interest with waders presumably moving between Chichester and Pagham Harbour with over 450 Golden Plover and 150 Lapwing going over today. The highlight of the morning garden watches was a Coal Tit this morning putting the garden bird list on 95. 43 species in or from the garden yesterday HERE.

Despite it getting down to about 5 C at night, it was quite cloudy so I put the moth traps on and made sure I put the actinic on as that light spectrum can be better for moths in the winter. Sure enough the actinic out performed the MV and I actually had a couple of first for the gardens despite my low expectations.

Golden Plovers (above) and Lapwings (below) going over the garden. The garden clearly seems like a flight line between the harbours as I've had a nice little selection of waders and ducks going over now.

Italian Bark Moth, Metalampra italica- a very unseasonal new for garden. 

I'm going for Blastobasis vittata- if correct will be a NFG and a lifer I think. 181124 update- confirmed at correct (Thanks Derek). Garden moth list now on 406. No migrants on Saturday morning but this morning there were several Rusty-dots , an Angle Shades, Diamond-backed and a Pale Mottled Willow. 

December moth- only the third one so far this winter. Also had Mottled Umber this weekend. 

Coal Tit calling - best call is at approx 10 seconds. Sounds like a Ring-necked Parakeet at the end but I didn't notice it at the time (I'm programmed to ignore them since living in London). Could be something from Kyle's aviary though. I saw a parakeet flying over the garden a couple of weeks ago but couldn't confirm it as Ring-necked and not an escape so will keep my eyes open as there has been one around the Peninsula. 

With winter approaching there will be more time to work on our mini-zoo and the pets and animals that live with us at Little Oak Lodge. In our old house we had 100 species in our mini-zoo and mini-farm  HERE but during the move we had to scale down (as we had to rent somewhere for six months too) so we rehoused and gave a lot away. Today we visited Ridgeway Exoctics in Lee-on-the-Solent which seem to be best exotic animal retailer in the area. Just window shopping today but we did get a few more plants to fill out the gaps in the female Panther Chameleon terrarium (above). Looking forward to getting more animals over this winter. Would be great to get captive bred animals which are of conservation concern to do our bit for protecting species. 

The Moth Tunnel

Heralds- I counted 39 hibernating

Buttoned Snout 

Spider sp? (debating id on i-spot) 

Orb Spider Metellina merianae 

The tunnel- an irrigation pipe under the railway 

Left to right: Scarce Umber and Mottled Umbers

 



Checked out the moth tunnel yesterday and as it was relatively mild had the trap on last night. Got Scarce Umber and 2 Mottled Umbers (first record for Beddington) but no December Moth yet which is what I am after.

39 Heralds, the Buttoned Snout and a load of spiders in the tunnel. This hibernation colony was found by Derek Coleman about 10 years ago and 39 is a good year.