Captured!

I had my first attempt at ringing in my new garden today. It started well, with three birds in the net within 15 minutes, but that was the lot and I caught nothing else before finally giving up around lunchtime.

Great Tit: quizzical

Coal Tit: innocent

Blue Tit: "Grrrrr"

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

An unusual visitor

Don't get many of these in the garden. It appeared for just one morning only and promptly vanished. It makes the one we actually trapped and ringed in 2007 seem even more remarkable - Tree Sparrows are notoriously tricky to catch.

photo taken with Canon Powershot A640 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Feathered and Frosted

Feathered Thorn

Frosted Orange

Another low(er) catch, of 45 moths, but 13 species so a bit better than last time.

One was new for the garden list - Feathered Thorn. I didn't actually find it until the evening, when I went out to photograph some moths which had been in the fridge (it was too dark before work). Very kind of it to wait for me.

I will be quite happy if 8% of my catch every night is made up of Frosted Oranges.

Moth list follows...

Mmm... Frosted Orange

Today's catch was 51 moths - the same as last time - but only eight species this time. I think this is a new low! But there were a couple of new ones - Frosted Orange and Large Wainscot (its caterpillars feed on Common Reed).

Frosted Orange

Large Wainscot

Dawn was misty.

Moth list this way...

Flight fantastic

My lawnmowing today was interrupted by the arrival of a male Southern Hawker at the pond. It was quite breezy and he made repeated sorties across the water, trying to keep away a few Common Darters which wanted their place by the pool.

Now I've finally sussed out that autofocus is pretty useless on flying dragons, I had a much higher success rate. Yay!

I like the jaunty angle of the first one, but the slightly more blurred wings of the others.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Not a lot of moths

Large Thorn

Orange Sallow

The Snout

... only 51 moths, of 12 species, but three of those were new to the garden, so I suppose that's not too bad. And one of those - Large Thorn - is Nationally Scarce, so I'm quite pleased about that (check the distribution map).

I was kind of hoping to catch a Frosted Orange, like we did at Beeston on Sunday, but I got an Orange Sallow instead. It's pretty, but not quite as nice as the Frosted Orange. Maybe next time.

Up early again...

After waking up at 5.15 every morning since Saturday, I thought it wouldn't hurt to set the moth trap and get up early once more. The weather forecast was dry and cloudy - good for moths. And when I looked out of the window at 6am, there was a Barn Owl sitting on the beanpoles in the garden! So it was worth it.

The moths themselves weren't terribly spectacular this morning, but I suppose 190 moths of 20 species is not too shabby for September.

List follows...

Spider's web

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Too cold, too clear...

Brimstone Moth

Well, last night's moth trapping was unspectacular, with 57 moths caught. Square-spot Rustics, Large Yellow Underwings and Setaceous Hebrew Characters are starting to dominate proceedings.

Though I keep getting a trickle of other odds and sods too, so I shall persevere in the hope of catching something interesting.

Moth list follows...

An autumn's day... in August

Red Admiral

Common Darter

Common Darters mating

Migrant Hawker

Young fox in the garden

What happened to summer?

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Yawn...

Maiden's Blush

Not the best moth night ever - probably too windy and cold - with a catch of 86 moths of 20 species.

I am still getting worried about Square-spot Rustics (wondering if I am identifying them correctly), as they seem to be so variable. Some are really nicely marked, and others rather dull. They all seem to have gold-coloured eye/kidney markings though. Or I think they do...

Maiden's Blush was a garden tick, and quite nice. She's in the fridge waiting for a photo. Light Emerald was one of the prettier ones.

Moth list, if you want it...

Big Bertha

Red Underwing

This gigantic moth - a Red Underwing - was snoozing on the wall next to the trap when I turned up at just after 5.30 this morning.

Though it was really warm overnight, I didn't catch big numbers - c110 moths of 25 species. But there were some interesting ones nonetheless.

It's been 8 days since I last put the trap out, and it feels like things have changed in that time... There were no Orange Swifts back then, and Setaceous Hebrew Characters seem to be on the rise.

Poplar Hawkmoth

Square-spotted Clay - the second for the garden and quite fresh-looking 

Orange Swift

Small Blood-vein - garden tick

Hornet - one of four around the trap

Boring moth list follows...

And number 98...

This takes the biscuit, really. Getting ready to go to work, I was gazing out of the window over the garden and into the field of unharvested oilseed rape behind it.

Goldfinches, Greenfinches and a few Linnets have been nibbling on the pods lately, so when I saw a bird fly over and perch on the top I wasn't surprised.

Still, something made me look at it in the scope, and it was a chat! There was still mist on part of the outside of the window so my view was blurred. It took me a few seconds to be sure it was a Whinchat and not a Stonechat, but it didn't matter, to be honest - either would have been a garden tick (not that it's all about listing...).

What a lovely bird. It even had the decency to fly into the garden and sit on a shrub right outside the window! Sadly I was too slow off the mark to get the camera and scope aligned for a photo.

But I'm still astonished. This garden is ridiculously good, but pond aside, it's not really anything to do with me. Perhaps it lies on some bird-attracting ley lines...

Whinchat!

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Gahhhhhhh!

Hornets have a fearsome reputation, so I was mildly perturbed when I put my hand into the moth trap, got out an egg box (which is what you provide for the moths to hide in), and found this whopper resting on the underside.

Fortunately it was very docile, perhaps being a bit cold, and seemed more interested in the cardboard than the moths - or my hand.

Hornet

It wasn't a bad night, moth-wise, with c110 moths of about 30 species. This Sallow Kitten was one of the prettiest, and I caught Broad-bordered, Lesser Broad-bordered, Least and Lesser Yellow Underwings. No Large though!

Sallow Kitten

The moth list...

A moth with a plan

Square-spotted Clay

Not many moths at all today, but one was pretty good. It goes by the unassuming name of Square-spotted Clay, and it's brown and not at all spectacular. But it's a moth with a plan, its own Biodiversity Action Plan. It eve has its own Butterfly Conservation PDF and there's lots of info about it on ARKive.

I'm quite pleased with that. Thanks to everyone who I annoyed with questions about its identity.

The moth list...

Trapping and ringing

Today we combined bird ringing with moth trapping. The moths went first, with the trap left on overnight. I got up early and blocked up their escape routes, then went back to bed. Next, Del and Jacqui came round and we put up a couple of nets to catch some birds. 

Conditions were really a bit too breezy to be much good, but we caught

• Great Tit, 14 - all juveniles
• Blue Tit, 4
• Greenfinch, 4 (3 juvs, 1 adult male)
• Dunnock, 3

and three Swallow nestlings

Baby Swallow

Inbetween net rounds we went through the moth catch (it didn't take long - only c60 moths of 25 species).

The Olive - first for the garden

Yellow Shell

Flame Shoulder

Bordered Pug - another first for the garden

Not much of a moth list today.

Down by the pond

Common Darter

Emerald Damselfly

Pyrausta moth

It's been a good day for wildlife in and around the garden today. Darren found loads of Common Blues just next door. I saw a Spotted Flycatcher sitting on our washing line post, right outside the kitchen window (I was in the bathroom at the time). Darren saw a female Southern Hawker cruising around the pond (which I missed). I saw a Brown Argus perching on a waterlily bloom (what a photo that could have been!) but by the time I'd fetched the camera, it had gone.

An Emerald damselfly has been around the pond - is it the same one from a couple of weeks ago? I hadn't seen it again until today, but I'm sure I miss most of the pond action while I'm at work.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Rhapsody in Blue

Common Blue (and hoverfly friend)

I've got the Common Blues

Brown Argus

and another sneaky Brown Argus (I think)

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM