A Week in Suffolk

I've just been down to Suffolk for a week's holiday, and in between visits to Southwold and Aldeburgh, and sitting on the beach in amazing 25 degree heat, I managed to see a few birds and increase the Year List, including a  new British Tick, in the form of a Collared Pratincole. Here's a terrible picture that I managed to get.

Collared Pratincole

 

Most of the birding, including the Pratincole,  took place at the superb RSPB Minsmere reserve, which was just 10 minutes drive from our cottage. I managed to see all of the year ticks except the Dartford Warbler and the Garden Warbler, at this site. Here's another poor shot, this time of the part breeding plumaged Curlew Sandpiper.

 

Curlew Sandpiper

 

Year List update:
153 – Red-legged Partridge

154 – Green Sandpiper
155- Curlew Sandpiper
156- Collared Pratincole
157 – Little Gull (20+ every day at Minsmere)
158 – Little Tern
159 – Sandwich Tern
160 – Arctic Tern (1)
161 – Dartford Warbler (Dunwich Heath)
162 – Garden Warbler (1 ringed at The Avenue, Chesterfield on 12th July)

As well as the birds I also managed to see a few butterflies and moths, so I'll add another post about those later.

Garden Moths- Hawk-moths are comimg!

Its been quite a while since I last blogged about  my moth trapping activities in my garden (click on the label Garden Moths for details of previous blogs).

Throughout June I put the trap out 6 times, and began to catch a much wider range of species. I won't list all the names, but instead here are a few photos of one particular family - the hawk moths.

The first moth to show is a Hummingbird Hawk-moth (link here). This species is a regular, but uncommon, annual immigrant to the UK, from southern Europe, and this was my first record in the garden. They aren't easy to photograph, but I managed to grab this shot.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

 

Another hawkmoth that appeared in the garden was the Poplar Hawkmoth (link here). I've had 2 so far this year, including this one that posed beautifully for some shots.

 

Poplar Hawk-moth

 

The third species of hawk-moth seen so far is the Lime Hawk-moth (link here). Just 1 record of this species so far, but a real beauty.

 

Lime Hawk-moth

 

The final species recorded so far is one that may people may have heard of, or perhaps, even seen- the Elephant Hawk-moth ( link here). This species first turned up at the weekend (along with a Poplar Hawk-moth), and I'm hoping to see a few more over the next couple of months.

Elephant Hawk-moth

Silver-studded Blue

Last week I posted a blog about a brilliant site in South Yorkshire where I had been lucky enough to see Dark Green Fritillary and Marbled White butterflies (see here). I went back to this site again this weekend to see if I could catch up with another species, one that I'd missed last week; the Silver-studded Blue (see Butterfly Conservation's website here for details about this species), and this time I got lucky!

Underwing

Upperwing

I managed to see this male butterfly. Unfortunately the photos aren't very sharp, but you can hopefully see the tick black borer of the upperwing, which helps separate it from the Common Blue Butterfly (see here).

As well as this new species, I also saw at least 10-15 Dark Green Fritillaries and 20+ Marbled Whites; including several mating pairs, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, Small Heath, 20+ Ringlets, Meadow Brown and a skipper species, most likely Large.

New Moth for Linacre

A quick half an hour at Linacre this morning gained me an addition to the moth list when I found this beauty perched in a tree in the ringing area. Its a Common Carpet, which, as the name suggests, is a common moth found in a range of habitats, throughout England. More information here.

Common Carpet (nearly in focus!)

 

 Whilst on site, I also spotted at least 10 Ringlets, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Speckled Wood, 1 male Common Blue Damselfly, 1 Meadow Brown and this Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle.

Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle

Lovely butterflies

The other day I was going through Twitter when I came across a picture of a Silver-studded Blue butterfly. This is a species I've not seen before, and the individual in question was reported at being in Lindrick Dale, near Worksop. After a few "tweets" I had found out the site and so, with half decent weather, I decided to have a drive over to see if I could see the species for myself. Unfortunately, I drew a blank, but whilst there, I did manage to spot another couple of very nice butterfly species that I've never seen  near home.

The first species was the Dark Green Fritillary. I've seen this species once before in Cornwall, but on this walk I managed to see about half a dozen individuals. More information about this species can be found on Butterfly Conservation's website here.

Dark Green Fritillary

 

 The second species was the Marbled White. I only saw 2 individuals, but I did manage to get some nice shots. Again, more info here.

Marbled White (upperwing)

 

Marbled White (underwing)

Other species spotted during the walk were: Small Tortoiseshell (1), Small Heath (1) and Ringlet (20+).

As I said at the start of this post, I drew a blank with the SS Blues, so I'll pop back again, and hopefully add some pictures of this species next time.

Kingfisher saves the day

I was out ringing yesterday morning with Sorby Breck RG  at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands in Chesterfield. We arrived at 05.15 and set up the usual nets with high expectations of  juvenile birds, especially warblers. Unfortunately, the forecast good weather didn't appear, and neither did the birds, with just 13 individuals caught.

Imagine our surprise, then, when, on one of the final net rounds, we spotted an electric blue rump sticking out of the nets! We all ran towards it shouting, "It's a Kingfisher!!!" - a first for the group at this locality, and a new bird for Stewart. The bird was duly extracted, ringed, aged and sexed (a 3J male, one born this year), and released.

Kingfisher

 

 

Bumper Nest box Year

This time last year I was writing about a very successful year for the Blue and Great Tits in the nest boxes at Linacre (see here). I'm very pleased, therefore, to be writing a very similar report again this year.

The first sign of activity in the tit boxes this year came on 15th April, when 2 eggs were found in one of the boxes. This was much earlier than last year, due to the mild conditions. We (Sorby Breck Ringing Group), continued to monitor the boxes over the next few weeks, and by the end of the season, we had recorded and ringed a new highest ever total of 232 pulli.

As last year, all the nesting attempts came from just 2 species; Blue and Great Tits. Great Tits managed to raise 11 broods, and a total of 72 pulli, while Blue Tits raised 19 broods of 160 pulli.

Again, like last year, all the nesting attempts, including a few failures at egg and young stage, will be reported to the BTO as part of their Nest Record Scheme.