Egretta garzetta

Remember when Little Egrets were actually rare birds in the UK? And then seeing them more regularly and further inland started being normal, and then they started breeding in small colonies, and then they're everywhere like small pointy white sticks wherever you look .......

Whilst I was being ferried about by Nichola we headed through what used to be Whetstone village (but is now just the middle of a sprawling sub-urban metropolis called Whetstone). Being a passenger means you notice things, like small pointy white sticks looking out of place high up in a tree above Whetstone Brook. As it was still there when we drove back past, I insisted that Nichola ought to bring me back in a few mins with my camera. It was still there, though trying to get anything like a half-decent shot was not easy with crappy lighting and obtrusive twigs in the wrong places. I got it looking both ways. I expect Great White and Cattle Egret, Squacco Heron and Little Bittern in the brook during the next decade.

'Pointy White Stick' in 'Whetstone Village'

Not much excitement in last night's moth trap, but there was a total of 7 Small Quakers. It feels like I usually only see one or two of these in the garden each year, so I checked back. Five or less in all years except 2010 (7 individuals) and 2012 (13 individuals with the highest garden count of 5 on 23/3/2012). I've had 12 so far this year.

Small Quaker - 22/03/2019

Agonopterix alstromeriana - 22/03/2019

Agonopterix heracliana/cilliela agg. - 22/03/2019

Alive and Kicking

Yay, I survived. Home just in time to enthusiastically get the moth trap on before fatigue and reality hit me hard this morning. Still, better to be sore and alive than possibly be not feeling anything.

Not much to shout about in said trap, but a knackered Acleris cristana and these two were NFY.

Shoulder Stripe - 21/03/2019

Diurnea fagella - 21/03/2019

Here's some pertinent 80's classics ......

Overdue - Chamomile Shark

I started an occasional thread a while back looking at moth species that I'd recorded in the garden, but hadn't seen here for over 10 years. Of course as time has gone on, a few of these have re-appeared (Sprawler, Garden Tiger, Seraphim, Small Phoenix, December Moth off the top of my head) whilst a few more have slipped into the overdue category.

One that is now overdue is Chamomile Shark. I have two garden records of singles, 26/04/2004 and 28/04/2007. The larvae feed on the flowers of Chamomile, Corn Chamomile, Stinking Chamomile, Feverfew and Scentless Mayweed. I guess my garden records could related to whatever someone on the estate is growing, though Scentless Mayweed is surely present locally.

Chamomile Shark - Whetstone 26/04/2004

Same individual showing fore and hindwing cilia detail

Chamomile Shark - 28/04/2007

Whilst I'm rehashing old themes, here's another. This week I have mainly been listening to classic pre-Dare Human League. Reproduction and Travelogue are both great albums. Don't get me wrong, there are some great tracks on Dare - it's just that 'Don't You Want Me' is not one of them.

I'm in for surgery tomorrow, so all being well there will be short interlude in blogging. If you've not heard from me by this time next week it didn't all go well .......

Ripping off the Olive Branch

Yesterday I nipped into one of our garden centers in south Leics. Whilst mooching about with Nichola, I noticed some olive trees and had a moment of de ja vu. I looked them over and sure enough found clear evidence of larval feeding with spinnings and frass. It was then that I remembered that I'd seen the same feeding damage in the same place last year and completely forgot to follow up in any way. When I got home, a quick check online and a browse through photos on my phone and I got a bit closer.

Here's a snap from yesterday:

Larval feeding signs on Olive Tree (Olea europaea)

This feeding damage was actually quite high up on a well established (and very expensive) tree. There was no way I could serruptitiously rip off the olive branch. At least not on this visit! The older photos I found were from 14/07/2018. These were on smaller and more accessible plants, but given that I wasn't sure what to look for I didn't acquire any samples. Here's a selection:

I'm absolutely convinced that this feeding damage is lepidopteran. There's really not much that is likely to be feeding on olive in this country, and the two prime contenders are both adventive species recently added to the UK list. Neither has been recorded in VC55: Prays oleae (new to UK in 2009) and Zelleria oleastrella (new to UK in 2006). There is a chance that it could be from a native polyphageous species, but what is more likely!

Either way, I am now better clued up on olive-feeding species and will be watching this place over the coming weeks to nail the ID.

Earlier in the week I had another look at local Holm Oaks, with the specific aim of finding mines of Stigmella suberivora. I found some, all vacated, on a couple of trees:

This leaf has a vacated S. suberivora mine, and two tenanted Ectoedemia heringella mines. They are similar except that the heringella mines are more convoluted at the start and around half the size (this E. heringella mine is about finished).

What I also found was that of three trees checked, one was so heavily infested with E. heringella that it was hard to find anything else at all and there were barely any 'clear' leaves. Another was infested but no quite so heavily, and there were S. suberivora mines including the one above. The third tree appeared completely clear of E. heringella, with S. suberivora mines evident. But, the clear tree is virtually in the middle of the other two:

Tree A heavily infested, tree B clear, tree C infested. Doubtfully any Holm Oak inbetween.

Here's a couple from the garden last night to close:

Early Grey - 15/03/2019

Small Quaker - 15/03/2019

2019 Garden Moth Catchup

The garden traps have been out quite a bit more than I usually manage/bother in the first couple of months of the year, helped by being at home and February weather being generally excellent. Things have dropped off markedly over the last couple of windy wet weeks though. Mostly expected stuff, some a little earlier than usual, with one completely unexpected arrival ....

Rush Veneer - 28/02/2019

This turned up on the back of a pretty strong period of immigration into the UK, though far from the excitement that Crimson Speckled must have brought to a couple of recorders up and down the country. This is the earliest arrival on record for VC55.

So far the yearlist is up to 17 species, +4 in the larval stage and 2 leaf-mines. Here's all the macros:

Oak Beauty - 19/02/2019

Good to see this is now annual here.

Dotted Border - 14/02/2019

This has had a remarkably good year here.

Early Moth - 03/01/2019

15 of these to an outdoor light fitting with a 12W blacklight LED bulb up to mid-Feb.

Pale Brindled Beauty - 15/02/2019

March Moth - 12/02/2019

Red-green Carpet - 19/02/2019

Chestnut - 22/02/2019

Common Quaker - 17/02/2019

Clouded Drab - 22/02/2019

Satellite - 17/02/2019

Satellite - 16/02/2019

Dark Chestnut - 01/03/2019

Hebrew Character - 27/02/2019

Twin-spotted Quaker - 01/03/2019

To Blog or not to Blog

I had this here blog up since late 2007. As you can see over on the right there, I quickly got into a groove of posting all sorts of stuff; lots of updates on garden mothing, a few birdy interjections, stuff that I'd seen whilst out and about, references to music, the odd joke and a bit of irreverent (slanderous verging on criminal) nonsense about politics, royalty and religion. I blogged quite regularly for around five years. During 2013 I had a surge of activity that lead to me contributing to the 1000 in 1km Square and Garden Moth Challenge blogs. Also around that time, other social media was becoming more prominent for me, particularly Facebook and Twitter. I did set up an Instagram account but never used it and still haven't got round to figuring out how to delete it. I've never used Snapchat (Snatchflash), though I do use Whatsapp for work, family and phone friends. I have just about packed up using Twitter, and Facebook is starting to seriously get on my nerves with the targeted adverts and stuff - but both platforms are useful for particular interest groups and news so I doubt they'll be disappearing from my phone screen.

So over the last five or six years this blog has wavered between bouts of enthusiasm and prolonged periods of neglect. I did consider sacking it off completely, but actually I find it interesting to look back at stuff I've posted and it would be foolish to just delete it until or unless Google demand their space back or charge a fee .... like happened on Flickr.

In fact, it has been a very useful resource over the last couple of weeks. I've been at home for a long while so far this year in recovery from illness and hospitalisation in Jan and early Feb, and next week I've got some surgery coming. So to help fill the time and keep me busy, I've got around to doing something that I've ignored for years. My photographic library is a mess. I'm finally getting it more organised and moving everything from various archives and annual backups into structured folders by group/family/species/site and date. It will be worthwhile in the end, but it is a bit labourious and means cross checking to my Mapmate records, old e-mails  and - thankfully - for a lot of it I also have the blog to help. I've also found a couple of ID errors from years ago so it's also good from that perspective (like a dodgy Shaded Pug, and finding a new earliest VC55 record of Strophedra weirana). Cross-referencing the blog will be particularly helpful for non-lepidopteran orders.

Oddly, in the past I have also found the blog to be a useful motivator to get out and see stuff that I can post about. So the blog stays. I will continue to irregularly post whatever I like when I like, and I'm sure it will wax and wane.

Whilst I think about it, it's inevitable that over the 12 calendar years that this blog has existed that things change. I will have posted lots of links to Youtube videos and other websites/blogs that are no longer working. I also went through a spell of linking to my Flickr account, but as I'd stopped using Flickr and they wanted money to keep what I had on there, I deleted everything so there are a lot of blog posts from around 2011/2012 that have big grey boxes instead of photos. Soz.