13 May 2015 - Dew Moths at Abbotscliffe, East Kent

Up early to head for the Folkestone area in search of Dew Moth - the weather seemed perfect, still and sunny. The first Dew Moths seen fluttering over the cliff edge, occasionally flying straight up to and then round me - some travelling further inland and going over the nearby crops.

Easily counted a minimum of 30 Dew Moth - a great way to see a new moth spp and thanks to Ian Roberts of 'Folkestone & Hythe birds' fame for his generous time spent helping guide me in the right time and place.

Several new butterflies for the year - all in all, a nice start to the day and arrived back in the office in time for coffee...

Dew Moth

Dew Moth

Dew Moth

Dew Moth

Dew Moth

Dew Moth

Wall

Dingy Skipper

Mother Shipton

Small Heath

Painted Lady

Soldier Beetle spp

Cercopis vulnerata - a smart froghopper!

spid spp

22/4/15 - 10/5/15, Bryher, Isles of Scilly to Somerset to Norfolk

Time precludes me from writing a full account of three recent which have done so very well in getting themselves on to my UK life list.

First up was the Great Blue Heron - a Tuesday night twitch, sleep in the car (Otter at Marazion first thing), Scillonian out to the islands (complete with Hoopoe a long way out at sea), all followed by jet boats and beach landings - marvellous!


Great Blue Heron, Bryher, Isles of Scilly. Photograph by the Indie Birder

Seconds for Britain (the Great Blue Heron) as great, but grip-backs are even better. This stonking Hudsonian Godwit was a greater performer in Somerset. And I thought I'd have to look at one (eventually) at three miles range on some distant tidal flat - not a bit of it!



Hudsonian Godwit, Somerset. Photograph by Carl Bovis.

The final bird in the amzing spring run of 2015 (so far..!) was the cracking little Citril Finch in the west end of Holkham Pines. Only seven years since the Fair Isle bird - yet another amazing grip-back!


Citril Finch, Holkham Pine, Norfolk.Pphotograph by Penny Clarke

10 April 2015 - Kent

Spent two and a half hours trapping in East Kent - first session of the season. Target was Barred Tooth-striped (following success at the same site last year), which duly appeared for the assembled audience (well, both of us). A respectable 145 moths of 20 species.

Barred Tooth-striped

Mottled Grey

Water Carpet

Acleris cristana

Acleris cristana

Diamond-backed Moth (2 caught)

Herald Moth

11 April 2015 - Leybourne Lakes Country Park

A wander round the country park with family (Jenny, Max, Marc and Yasmine) produced a Swallow in addition to Slow Worms and Water Vole - nice.

Water Vole

Hoverfly spp - I think...

Slow Worm

Slow Worm - a longer, smiller, faster one

Slow Worm

10 April 2015 - Pulborough Brooks RSPB

I enjoyed Wednesday's visit to this fine reserve so much that I thought I'd go back and have another look... News of the Scarce Tortoiseshell showing on Thursday afternoon meant it had to show today, didn't it? Even Captian Slow and his wife saw the ruddy (OK, orangey) thing!

Alas, our quarry had other ideas... Some (but not much) consolation was had by an Adder and a distant Osprey.

Adder (male? - it was tres skinny)

House Sparrow

Another Small Tortoiseshell

8 April 2015 - Pulborough Brooks RSPB

The lure of a three-hour Scarce Tortoiseshell yesterday was to great... This morning I found myself staring at butterflies in West Sussex, hoping to see yesterday's mega. Alas, this most pleasant of trips failed to produce the birdie - or butterfly for that matter...

Bee Fly spp on Primroses

Peacock - complete with blade of grass in the wrong place

Small Tortoiseshell - common today and certainly not scarce at all...

Small Tortoiseshell - sans body hair

11 Jan 2015 - Chilham, Kent

Managed to escape this afternoon and pop to Chilham to see the Great Grey Shrike - always great to see these fantastic birds. This one caught a large rodent spp, just after narrowly missing being hit by a car, and took it to its larder where is was hung up and and then revisited several times over the next hour.

No pics - kept assuming it would come closer, which it never did!

4 Jan 2015 - Stream dipping in East Malling

Did some steam dipping with Max - when we caught this wee chap, European Bullhead (Cottus gobio). A brilliant little thing - not sure if they are common, but they seem to be widespread. If nothing else, they look a lot better than you average Stickleback!

European Bullhead, 4//1/15, East Malling, Kent

European Bullhead, 4/1/15, East Malling, Kent

December 2014 - BadgerWatch

Have been trying a few bits of video from the camera trap. Think the results are a wee bit better than the stills taken with the same camera. Both viseos taken in early December.

26 December 2014 - Foxy video for Christmas...

Collected in the camera trap to see what had caught itself on the camera trap. Not quite BBC eh..?

 

6 December 2014 - Emsworth, Hants - Sea Slaters

Visited the east Hampshire coast - an obvious (?) place to look for Ligia oceanica, the sea slater. Up to 30 millimetres in length, it is one of the largest oniscid isopods - or marine woodlouse, if you prefer!

Never seen these chaps before - huge (ish) - and certainly worth the whole effort of turning one rock over.

Sea Slater, 6/12/14, Emsworth, Hants

15 Nov 2914 - Tree climbing badger...

I'd have expected some scent marking from a badger, which would result in other males having a good wiff - but this chap (or chap-ess) seems to be really going for it. Is there another explanation?

Badger

Tree climbing badger

13 Nov 2013 - camera trap results

2nd set of results from camera trap revealed Badgers, Fox, Grey Squirrel and Blackbirds - how come Simon King always comes up trumps with a flippin Tiger or some previously unknown species of rodent-marsupial-bat?

Of the 10+ badger pictures I got, this is the only one head on - but I do have an extensive photographic collection of Badgers' arses!

Fox

Fox again

and again...

And a badger

10 Nov 2014 - Camera trap

Tried out Adrian Harris' camera trap over the past two evenings near a badger set. First night (Saturday) was wet and the camera set too high - the result was two pictures of grey squirrels investigating the badger sets.


Grey Squirrel - well, a bit of one

Following a repositioning of the trap - lower and pointing down an animal track - bingo! A nice badger trying to show us his best side.


Badger

The system needs a little further refinement, but I think there's a start of something interesting.

9 Nov 2014 - Reculver Towers, Kent

Popped up to north Kent this afternoon to pay homage to the male Desert Wheatear.

A later than hoped-for arrival (me, not the bird) helped 'warm' our quarry in the fading light. Still, the Wheatear was ultra-confiding for the first two minutes of my stay - then it moved from its favoured rock and never returned!

A Black Redstart with newly replaced tertials on the right wing was an interesting start to the visit.


Black Redstart with asymetric moult in the tertials

Desert Wheatear

Desert Wheatear

1 Nov 2014 - Brotton, Cleveland

On 23 October 2009, I was on a pelagic off the Queensland coast of Australia, enjoying a few shearwaters, turtles and Humpback Whales - little did I know that back home my fellow crew were enjoying a First for Great Britain & Ireland in the form of an Eastern-crowned Warbler. The comments from Adam Whitehouse, on my blog post for that day (see here), were amusing at the time and even more amusing today.

That six month trip to Australia and New Zealand, cost me Sandhill Crane and Eastern-crowned Warbler - though I only live and work 20 minutes from the Tufted Puffin, I'm (nearly) certain I wouldn't have got to it in time... I unblocked the Sandhill Crane on 23 Sept 2011 in Aberdeenshire, but still the Warbler niggled me...

Fast forward to Thursday and news broke of an Eastern-crowned Warbler at Brotton, Cleveland - I wanted to see it, but... The 'But' was that it had been Max's 6th birthday on the 29 Oct - and we'd arranged for a woodland camping party for him on 31st - so no Thursday night travelling. With further family events planned for the weekend and a busy few days at work, I wasn't going to be able to travel north - until one very sickly sounding sister phoned to apologise, most profusely, that she'd have to cancel her visit - bloody marvellous!! Ten minutes later and I was on the M20 and on my way.

The drive to Cleveland was thankfully uneventful, but with clear skies I must admit I was feeling less than positive about my chances... Dossing in the car, I was on site and up at first light, trying to get the gen and working out where best to stand. Two groups formed - I positioned myself between them. I saw some movement in the further group so decided to head that way. Sure enough, they'd got the bird - sat there quietly in a Sycamore, snapping at the occasional insect. Clean white underparts, no tertial markings, single wingbar, pale underside to the lower mandible, it then tilted its head forward to reveal a central crown stripe. Nice! Job done.

Given such excellent first views, I kicked myself for not even thinking about the camera on my shoulder - but possibly that's the best way to do things. When later I did try and fire a shot, I realised that there was a fault somewhere with my camera. Particular thanks then to Tony Dixon for allowing me to reproduce his excellent images of today's gem - though quite how he manages to achieve such images by digi-binning, I have no idea!

Eastern-crowned Warbler, copyright Tony Dixon

Eastern-crowned Warbler, copyright Tony Dixon

Eastern-crowned Warbler, copyright Tony Dixon

What next? Tufted Puffin?