Not Mothing in Not Dorset!

So, yeah. Left Dorset for a few days. Spent 4 days walking the coast path, and yeah, was moth-trap less for those four days. Weird that, camping out, relying on campsite toilets and daytime wanderings to find moths.
Anyhow, all days were easy walkings, with the 2nd day being the longest, with 8 hours walking. Lovely weather for most of the time, not too hot, and not too cold. Misty on the third day, which restricted the views (shame really), but other than that was ok.

View in general direction to Dartmouth, we were walking away from Dartmouth here.

As ever, there were the traditional eels on poles as well, just to keep your morals up.

 

And some more coast path photos.

Birdlife was thin on the ground, but Cirl Buntings were a first for me. Unfortunately not close enough for a pic. Best of the rest were Gannet, Stonechat, and Yellowhammer, all pretty common stuff, but nice to see.

Stonechat - Somewhere somewhen on the fourth day.

Now, for my favourites, Lepidoptera. Fantastic numbers of butterflies, with the highlight for me being a Dark Green Fritillary, which, despite being fairly common, was a lifer! Also, good numbers of more common species, such as Grayling, Gatekeeper and Comma.

Moths were still about, with Grass Rivulet and Drinker being the best of the campsite goodies, but away from campsite it was slightly better. Total list was 68 species identified, plus some pyralids and tortrix species to identify. Highlights were Hoary Footman on the macro front, and micros were Aristotelia brizella, Sparganothis pilleriana, and Mecyna asinalis. I missed my moth trap though.. :-/

Back home now. And warm.

The Local Patch Conundrum

Title says itself really.. Ok, this post is about local patches. All birders should have a local patch, might be where they walk their dog, somewhere on the way home from work, or just a nearby area where you do a lot of birding. Now, my problem is, I don't actually have one. Ok, ok, we'll start on what's kind of one - Radipole Lake.

Radipole is by no doubt the reserve I visit most often, with regular visits during the Winter and Summer.. but what about Autumn or Spring? Why is there a lack of birding done there during the months of March, April, May, October and November??? This year, I visited the site many times in January and February, few times in March, and then not until June till I went back! What madness is this!! 2 months with no birding done on my local patch?! Surely that's not my local patch then? If not, where is?

Next choice is Ferrybridge, which brings with it Portland Harbour and Chesil Beach. But again, same problem as before, many visits in Summer (though that's usually looking for insects), and many visits during Winter (looking over Portland harbour mostly, for those wintering ducks and divers(and grebes, but ducks, divers and grebes doesn't have the same ring to it as ducks and divers)). So again, little birding done in the Spring and Autumn months.

Portland Harbour - Local Patch?

So, why the lack of birding within the short, but often full of birds, months? Well, it's just not "local patch birding". I do bird in those months, but elsewhere. This Spring, including Tadnoll, Portland and Alner's Gorse, but these have been only occasional visits, often with a moth trap as well (but not on Portland, that was to see Ring Ouzels).

This still leaves me with the same problem as I started with. Where, if at all, is my local patch?? I have been a birder all my life, but only in the last 3 or 4 years have I become a 'proper' birder (and in 2012 that lessened slightly as it was my second mothing year). But if I am a "proper" birder, I should have a local patch surely? So, do I wander about claiming that Radipole Lake is my local patch, or shall I go for Chesil Beach? Or pop something completely new and say that Morden Bog or such is my "new" local patch? (if you can have a new something of something you never had (in hindsight, this seems odd, as an hour or so drive doesn't seem like 'local' to me (I suppose it's more local than a 2 day drive to the Highlands of Scotland, or the 7 hour plane journey to somewhere far away (roughly 7 hours plane distance))).

Morden Bog - Rather early. My brand "new" local patch?!

In writing this blog, it made me realise - I have hardly any photos of reserves! I had the one of Portland Harbour from Jan 2012, and Morden 2013, and that's it.. none others. From all other places, I have photos of birds, bugs and beasties, but not landscape (only landscapes are of coastlines, mountains and holidays)

Morden & Morris!!

A little late for a new post, but new weather is fantastic.
Anyhow, last Saturday night, we went to Morden Bog to look for Reed Leopard, but no luck on the Leopard, but did manage some nice moths! (including a normal Leopard Moth)
The total list for Morden Bog on the 6th July was 90 species of around 550 moths, most of which were True Lover's Knot, but the highlights include Small Grass Emerald, Dotted Border Wave, 2 Purple-bordered Gold, 2 Horse Chestnut, Lilac Beauty, Lobster Moth, 2 Red-necked Footmen, 17 Clouded Buff, and 4 Donacaula mucronellus. Some decent species, many I havn't seen before.

Lobster Moth

Great Diving Beetle, one of three highlighted species of beetles in out traps, also several male Glow-worms and Arhopalus rusticus

Purple-bordered Gold - Not in the traps, but 2 were found on the morning while checking traps

D. mucronellus, a rare micro, one of 4 specimens.

 

 

Anyhow, not a great deal since then, but decent mothing in the garden, with several new for gardens (incl. Grapholita lobarzewskii, Argyresthia dilectella, Small Yellow Wave) which has been good.

Anyhow, last night didn't have traps out, instead had a 3/4 hour drive away from my garden, to look for Morris's Wainscot. This proved far more successful than I thought it would be, with 11 Morris's netted within the hour which we stayed there for. There were more, I'm sure, but they avoided my net by flying away from me, and not towards me. Other netted highlights were Annulet and Oncocera semirubella, which were good.

Morris's Wainscot - A fairly rare rarity.

Blast from the Past - Part 1

Ok, we're going back to a time when my mothing interest had only just started, so I wasn't too bothered about missing a week in the Spring. A time when I'd only had my camera 4 short months. A time, long ago, in 2011.

The reason I'm giving you a blast from my past is because I'm lazy. My photos of anything interesting from the last week are on my camera, so here you go, April 2011.

It undoubtedly started with an early morning, I know it ended with a late night, so I will presume it started with one. A group trip to Iceland, was the trip, with several friends. Airport at some point, I'm sure, and the cooped up on a plane. Below are two pics from the trip there.

English Countryside. Lots of fields.

A random Scottish Island. In Scotland.

 

 

The first place we visited was the Blue Lagoon. Now, if you ever get the chance to go there, take it! It's damn warm, and a spectacular place to be, and a good laugh with your friends! Just to show you the colour, here's a pic.

Here it is. It did smell slightly, particularly the white sludge at the bottom (which is supposedly good for you!)



 

The second place we visited was Pingvellir, which is where the two plates (Eurasian and North American) and pulling apart. This shows extremely well here as there is a large gorge running down the centre. Birdlife was good on Iceland, with Redwings being the most frequent, but also a Gyrfalcon, Merlin, Whooper Swans, Golden Plover, Puffin, Fulmar ect.

This is the rift, You can see the people chilling out at the bottom, just to give you a scale.

Some Ropey larva for those geologists.

And some mountains..

 

 

 

I will get round to the rest sooner or later (which involved Geysirs and Gullfoss), when, I don't know (I love how I plan so far ahead!).