Welfare Mothers

When Neil Young wrote Welfare Mothers, I suspect he wasn't making reference to the lepidopterists of this world, so I hope you'll forgive the pun in today's title.

However, it has to be said that I have taken my first tentative steps into the vast and imposing waters of all things moth. I'm not quite ready to throw away the water wings and immerse myself fully just yet, but I expect it will happen at some point. At the moment, I'm content to stumble across them whilst on the hunt for birds, butterflies and dragonflies, as opposed to actively pursuing them.

Armed with the Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland, I've already bagged a few species and been able to identify them myself - something that gives me great pleasure. Throw in a few that I've chanced upon over the last few years, such as dark arches, and I've got the beginnings of a life list of sorts.

Today I found a new addition to this list, silver Y, which I observed at work. For once, the sun was shining and there were many butterflies on the wing - commas, painted ladies, gatekeepers and peacocks to name but a few.

Conditions were good for photos and, on the whole, the butterflies were playing ball too.



Silver Y moth



Small white



Peacock





Gatekeepers





Painted ladies

Finally, I think this is a green-veined white, but I still struggle with the white butterflies from time to time.



Green-veined white - or is it?

The wildlife at work has been nothing short of sensational over the past couple of months. Also on the wing today, a couple of southern hawkers, a brown hawker and a common darter. The green woodpeckers were out and about too.



Green woodpecker

I simply must get out on a neglected patch this week. I have Friday morning pencilled in for a stroll up to Weatheroak, where recent sightings include hobby and raven. I spotted a second local red kite just over a week ago near Shirley station, so I think that has to be another possibility, albeit a remote one.

As usual, a full report will follow in due course.

All Apologies

I don't know how many of you follow my tweets on the side of the blog, but lately they seem to be more concerned with Big Brother, the Ashes and digestive biscuits than they do birding. Sorry about that.

Okay, apologies over - back to the matter in hand ...

Only one picture today, and a bit of a macabre one at that. At work they have a number of lights posted in the ground and I've noticed that they attract the creepy crawlies.

However, once inside, it seems the wee beasties can't escape and the lights become littered with the poor blighters' bleached corpses.

As I say, a little grotesque, but interesting all the same.



Dead stuff

I'm not a fan of large spiders, dead or alive, so it took some courage to get close to that fellow on the left of the picture. Yikes - what a whopper!

It's not all doom and gloom, however - there's still plenty of thriving wildlife on site. Best spots this week include two southern hawkers, a brown hawker, some small tortoiseshells, red admirals, commas and a six-spot burnet.

The green woodpeckers remain very active too and can usually be located with a bit of patience and a good ear.

Bizarre moment of the week so far was a juvenile moorhen that did an excellent impression of a ruff. That caused a moment's panic, I can tell you!

I Love It When You Call

A quick round up from the past week. Firstly, the lesser whitethroat that I mentioned last time. Having returned from Devon, I went to pick up Barney from the cattery on Sunday morning and was pretty sure I could hear a lesser whitethroat singing near the Redditch Road, not far from Lower Bittell Reservoir.

What with it being a favourite bird of mine and not having seen one this year, I popped back down there on Monday morning. After a bit of searching, I finally tracked down the bird on the Old Birmingham Road.

After that, I paid a brief visit to Lower Bittell Reservoir. There I saw a linnet, yellowhammer and a green woodpecker, along with a ringlet butterfly and some common blue damselflies.

I've also seen the green woodpeckers at work a few times this week. There are also still plenty of butterflies on site, including this comma and small tortoiseshell that I snapped on Thursday.



Comma



Small tortoiseshell

Down By The Seaside

As promised, here are a selection of the highlights from Devon, plus a few pictures ...

Dawlish Warren

Various sorties down to the reserve during the week produced some good birds, including Arctic skua, sandwich tern, Mediterranean gull, common gull, dunlin, whitethroat, little egret, linnet, reed warbler, reed bunting, gannet, kittiwake, little grebe and stonechat. A tawny owl was seen in the small hours of Friday morning from the lodge in which we were staying.

I noticed some smaller terns amongst a group of sandwich terns on Saturday evening. They may have been roseate terns, but I did not have my scope and couldn't clinch identification with my bins.



Mediterranean gull amongst black-headed gulls

Butterflies seen included common blue, comma, small copper, meadow brown, red admiral, peacock, gatekeeper, large white, small skipper, large skipper, marbled white and speckled wood. A drinker moth was seen in the hide.



Small copper



Drinker moth

Blue-tailed damselflies seemed to be the predominant species on site. Confirmed dragonflies consisted of emperor dragonfly and common darter. Some probable broad-bodied chasers were seen, but never identified with absolute certainty.

Also, large numbers of six-spot burnet and many cinnabar moth caterpillars on site. Badgers were seen on three separate occasions from our lodge, as were some very large, but unidentified bats.



Cinnabar moth caterpillars

Other sites

A summer-plumaged Slavonian grebe was seen at Cockwood. Bowling Green Marsh held black-tailed godwits, redshank and a few dunlin, plus a black-tailed skimmer, many butterflies, including ringlet, large skipper and comma, and a yellow shell moth. The caterpillar of the grey dagger moth was seen in Topsham.



Black-tailed skimmer



Grey dagger moth caterpillar

At Aylesbeare and Woodbury Commons, linnet, meadow pipit, stonechat and Dartford warbler were the best of the birds on offer. Butterflies included small heath and grayling. Several keeled skimmers and a golden-ringed dragonfly were seen, along with azure and large red damselflies. A small tortoiseshell was seen at Exminster Marshes on Thursday.



Keeled skimmer



Large red damselfly



Azure damselfly



Grayling



Small heath

My first assignment having returned home is to have a look for a lesser whitethroat that I heard locally this morning. Not quite within walking distance, but a welcome opportunity to catch up with one of my favourite birds fairly close to home.

Flying In A Blue Dream

The weather was a bit mixed, but a week's vacation in Devon produced some excellent birds, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies, with common blue butterflies probably weighing in as my favourite spot of the trip.



Common blue

A selection of the other highlights, plus a few more pictures will follow soon ...

What A Difference A Day Makes

Not many words today, but a few pictures. Highlights at work were the first marbled whites and small skippers of the year. I think it's amazing that neither of these species were on site yesterday, but twenty-four hours later, here they are!

Hope to get better shots of the marbled whites tomorrow and Friday.

Also on site today, a brown hawker dragonfly, three species of damselfly and, perhaps best of all, a red kite spotted from the window after lunch. I cracked my head whilst rushing to get a proper look. Worth it, I think. Ouch!



Marbled white





Small skipper



Female common blue damselfly, I think