Greenleighton jewels

It has been a long time since my last post...... Moving house, change of computer, surveys and busy at work. etc..........Sorry...........

A small band of AWG members had a great day out with Paul Hewitt from the National Trust at Wallington or should I say the Greenleighton area.  The Greenleighton quarry was resplendent in its yellow and purples of Cat's ear, Mouse-eared hawkweed, Common bird's foot-trefoil and Common spotted orchid as well as a range of other  plants.  The small numbers meant that we could all jump into off-road vehicles and travel out to the 'Moss' where we found lots of Round-leaved sundew, Bog Rosemary and Bog asphodel. At least two Large heath butterflies were a real treat.  There were also Meadow browns, Small heath and Green-veined white butterflies and at least two pairs of Curlew.

Finally a trip to Rothley lakes also created a stir with the shear beauty of the site.  You would not know that the landscape had been designed with some input from Capability Brown.  Wildlife highlights included four species of dragonfly / damselfly; Four-spot chaser, Common blue damselfly, Blue-tailed damselfly and Large red damselfly.  Interesting plants included Skullcap, Enchanter's nightshade and good numbers of Common spotted orchids and Amphibious bistort.  Birds included good numbers of Little grebe and Nuthatch and Goldcrest.  Once again thanks go to Paul and the The National Trust for being an excellent host.

Howick National Moth Night 2014

Well, on Saturday night, Sunday morning a reasonable turn out were faced with mixed results on the moth front. Possibly the coolest July night for donkey's years couldn't have been predicted. This dropped the catch to a meagre amount, that for some of us was very disappointing. When we left on Saturday night, it was only 8 degrees, dropping even further to 4 degrees at dawn, forcing the local lepidoptera to have a lie in for a day. The previous evening I managed to catch 295 moths of 80 species in one trap. On the event night we had 88 moths of 35 species in 5 traps.

Despite the challenges all visitors in the morning seemed to enjoy the species on offer, and we all enjoyed the session and a good laugh.

Three pics above courtesy of John Rutter

Wildlife highlights seen were 13 Garden Tiger moths, 3 Poplar Hawkmoths, Peppered Moth, Elephant Hawkmoth, 5 Drinker moths and a single Clouded Brindle ( a rare species in the county), plus Hedgehog and several Pipistrelle bats over the traps.

Two escaping cows, made things a little more 'interesting' as they jumped a wall and ran up the road next to the trap site...

There might be  a change in format for the 2015 Moth Night...

Elephant Hawkmoth

Peppered Moth

Clouded Brindle

PricklePig

Garden list addition

After a lovely day at Greenleighton Quarry looking at Flowers and Butterflies it was back to the garden for something new. As we stood watching young Chiffchaffs and Blue Tits our attention was drawn to a small red tailed bird on the window ledge only a couple of feet away, it was a female Redstart, soon she was joined by a second female. What happened next was unusual ,in that they both then proceeded to feed a speckled looking juvenile Redstart which had appeared on the gravel. Over the last few days we have seen glimpses of a Redstart in the garden but never more than one, so this behaviour was a real bonus. 

Little Breeders!

Tree Sparrows have been visiting our garden feeders regularly for the last four or five years, but until last week we hadn't had any definitive evidence that they've bred.  The photo is very poor - taken through none-too-clean double glazing - but at least it's proof.

Nocturnal activities

On a warm, dry evening with a light breeze we headed off to Holburn Moss, once we had settled down in shelter of the trees with good views across the moss we picked up the yaffling call of Green Woodpecker amongst the screeching calls of gulls on the wetter area. As the midges began to build we finally picked up the distinctive churring call of a Nightjar on the fenceline , this was then joined by the calls of another bird nearer the middle of the Moss. After a brief search we picked it out sitting on the top of a small tree,  a few minutes later it decided to fly and we were able to see its long narrow wings and it's distinctive flight.The time was 11.00pm so we headed home and spent a further 2 hours moth trapping, which we had set up earlier, this too was productive, catching a good number of moths including a Small Magpie and our second Elephant Hawk Moth of the year.

Elephant....

Small Magpie...

A trip down south

As it was the last day of our holidays we decided on a trip to Wykeham  Forest near Scarborough, we arrived at 10.15 about 15 minutes later than we had hoped due to traffic, note the time it is important.
On reaching the raptor watch point we were soon viewing a low flying Honey Buzzard, this was soon followed by several Goshawks some of them at quite close range as they circled ,swooped and dived at great speed , territory marking with their white lower tail coverts spread. The morning raced by with Common Buzzards putting in an appearance along with more views of Goshawk, meanwhile Tree Pipits sang from the surrounding branches.
After a brief lunch break we walked along the road into the forest in the direction of the tree nursery and were soon hearing the soft purring calls of Turtle Dove, a species which is under real threat but seems to be fairly reliable at Wykeham.
Back to the view point but very little to see, the clear sunny morning turning into a sultry, hazy afternoon,but a Green Woodpecker was heard from the valley below.
Finally why was it important to remember our arrival time?, well at 10.03 , 11 minutes before we got there some lucky observers were treated to a fly over White Tailed Eagle, isn't traffic annoying!  

Insects galore

With the warm, humid days of spring upon us the activity in the insect world seems to be increasing on a daily basis. A late night due to a spot of moth trapping brought the bonus of 5 new moths for our garden including Scorched Wing and Spectacle( and yes it does look like it is wearing spectacles).

Scorched Wing

A walk around Branton Ponds next morning produced the day shift and our first Damselfly of the year in the form of Common Blue.

Common Blue Damselfly

What was even more interesting was a Scorpion Fly(probably Panorpa communis) which is in the same group of insects as Lacewings, apparently the male at mating time is sometimes killed by the female, so to placate her he brings her a small ball of spit which to Scorpion flies is the same as a bunch of roses or a box of chocs, who says romance is dead.

Scorpion Fly