24 February, 2011

Last Night...

Last Night...

I did a whole post on the bloody things last night, so I guess I've got to tell you what moths I caught last night then, don't I.
With temperatures at a very comfortable 9C and with lots of cloud cover, I caught 17 moths of 5 species to the 15w Actinic...
3 Twin-spotted Quaker, 8 Common Quaker, 2 Hebrew Character, 2 March Moth and 2 Tortricodes alternella

The Twin-spotted Quakers were a big surprise because they don't usually emerge until March, and I certainly wasn't expecting three of them. Here are the three Twin-spotted Quakers; note the variation in the number and shape of the 'spots' on each moth...




Possibly my favourite spring moth so far, the very smart looking Hebrew Character...



The Hebrew character on the Hebrew Character...


Eurgh, lots of bugs...


Take a look at the Surrey Moths and Butterflies Blog where you can find plenty more of this kind of stuff.

23 February, 2011

Mothing Isn't a Hobby Anymore...

Mothing Isn't a Hobby Anymore...

... it's a full blown addiction. I've been putting the moth trap out in the garden on a number of occasions this year, and the scary thing is that I don't think I need to remember to do it; its become lodged in my mind as something that I can do without thinking, along with sleeping and some other things.

If you don't know how a moth trap works, basically the moths are attracted to a light, become confused, and in their confusion fall into a catchment box from which you can then observe the moths, and let them go again.

Most of the time I've put the trap out this year, I've got absolutely loads of nothing. However, on a few occasions, with the right weather, believe it or not, a few hardy moths do actually decide to show themselves. Unlike birding, I take the listing side of mothing quite seriously, and I don't really know why. I guess it could have something to do with the shear range of species waiting to be seen, and the fact that last year I saw more moths in the garden, than I have birds in my life.

Here, have some moths I found in the garden so far this year (14 moths of 7 species to be a bit more precise)...

Early Moth- very originally named...


March Moth- again, very originally named...


Hebrew Character...


Tortricodes alternella...


Common Quaker...


I think you can guess that the trap is out tonight.

03 February, 2011

Filling the Gaps

Filling the Gaps...




The sunset from Bushy Park on Sunday, just to 'fill in' some gaps on the blog. I was freezing my ass off to get these shots for you, but at least the sun is setting a bit later in the evening, as opposed to 3 in the afternoon on those depressing January days. Snowdrops and crocuses appearing already... Spring is nigh, and couldn't have come any nigher.

01 February, 2011

Pink-footed Surprise

Pink-footed Surprise


It has almost become a yearly ritual for me to go and see Goosanders at Painshill Park, that use the highly originally named lake; 'The Lake' as their wintering grounds. A year ago on Sunday, I managed 4 males and 1 female at the site, so I decided to take a trip down there on Satuday to see whether they had stuck to the same lake this year.

I wasn't disappointed, and a female G-sander soon showed itself in the exact same spot were I had left the birds last year. She was followed by a very smart looking male, and I enjoyed rubbish, distant views of the birds as they went everywhere we didn't.

Further down the path, I suddenly found myself staring at what looked like a smaller than average Greylag, with a flock of normal sized Greylag Geese. As I got closer, the bird moved into the water, and it became apparent that it was in fact a Pink-footed Goose. This isn't the usual species you'd expect to find in Surrey, but at first it didn't occur to me as anything other than a part of the park's collection, put there to confuse and temporarily excite birdwatchers. Then I realised there had been a relatively well twitched Pink-footed Goose of unknown origin in flooded fields a few miles away back on the 18th January. Many of the top Surrey listers had visited the fields and ticked off the bird, and I was getting anxious. Would I have to complete a dreaded rarity form? How would I describe a Pink-footed Goose? .... Goose like? Pink? With feet? It was all getting too much for me.

I watched the bird for a little while, but it tended to stay out in the middle and far edges of the lake furthest from us, so we moved on with a few images on the memory card to have a proper look at back in the warmth...



Spirits were dampened shortly after a number of gun shots went off an adjacent field, and I noticed a Greylag Goose running, and attempting to get off the ground, without succeeding. It was running quite fast, and had clearly been shot in the wing, stopping it from going airborne. The bird scrambled down a bank, across the river separating the surrounding fields from Painshill, and up the bank into the undergrowth of Painshill Park. The hunter appeared shortly afterwards looking for his 'kill', but after searching for a bit, he couldn't, and was never going to find it, so walked off. We found the bird in an inaccessible area of undergrowth just above the bank, in shock, shivering and clearly in pain, and tried to force it out onto the path and into the lake where it had the better chance of being noticed, to no avail.

The dying bird, hiding in the undergrowth. What is the point in shooting this for fun?

 

I understand that shooting is a well practised upper class past time, and this man could obviously not shoot the bird in the Park. When done responsibly, hunting can also sometimes benefit bird populations. However, with the recent scrutiny of the subject on BirdForum, it really does bring into question the morals of this 'sport'. I'm sure that, in the same way that there are abusers in the twitching business, it is only a minority few giving the majority of hunters a bad name- not that I agree with what they are doing in the first place. Sadly, we couldn't save this little guy from its fate.

Back at home, and after a bit of research, and contacting one of the Surrey county recorders, it turned out that I had relocated the Pink-footed Goose last seen in the area a few weeks back. The problem is that the origin of unusual or scarce wildfowl is often debatable, with so many birds kept in collections around the country. The jury is still out on the Pink-footed Goose, let's just hope its not shot. It would have made a great 26th addition to my year list, but I'm not doing one, so it won't. So there.