Misterton Marsh

Nipped down to Misterton Marsh this afternoon for a potter about. It's not a site that I've visited many times, and certainly not with any regularity. A handful of moth trapping nights, a few attempts with clearwing lures and a couple of walks around is probably it.

As soon as I pulled up, I noticed that there were several teneral Common Darters on the fence trying to catch some rays between cloudy interludes.

Common Darter

I also noted a load of mines on willow that looked interesting. I collected a few leaves to check out, and once I got them home I established that every single one was tenanted .. and that the culprit was neither lepidopteran, dipteran or hymenopteran. So these are the first coleopteran mines I've knowingly seen. They are one of the Isochnus spp. weevils that can't be identified in the larval stage or by the mine, but having posted them onto a local beetle group it turms out that the VC recorder independently found the same mines on the same small group of trees a couple of years ago and sucessfully reared them through, so almost cerainly the same species.

Larval mines of Isochnus sequensi (probably)

Whilst looks for mines, I also found Alder Tongue. Lots of it.

Otherwise I swept and potted a few bits, and collected a few mines from beech, norway maple and elm for another day. Here's a few general shots from around the site, not really a marsh but there are plenty of alders, willows, rushes and loads of willowherb. And some buzzing HV cables carried over the site on a pylon run.

Mixed bag of inverts

Managed to get out for a very local and short-notice mothing session on Wednesday night with Adrian Russell and Graham Calow, over at Fosse Meadows. Graham had spoken to the warden who was very keen to get some records and simply handed over a key - excellent! Pretty good range of species too, with the most interesting species being these two scarce micros (for VC55)

Ypsolopha horridella

Nemapogon clematella

Hoping to get out for some local recording tomorrow, with a colony of Beautiful Yellow Underwings recently discovered in the county being the priority. I might even be arsed to try and add Glossy Ibis to my county list.

Here's a few more bits from Woodwalton last weekend in the meantime .....

Cimbex connatus - a massive sawfly larva with a massive dangleberry

Note the lasck of black edging to the blue dorsal stripe that would be present on Cimbex femoratus

Ruddy Darter

Common Darter

Four-spot Orb Weaver (Araneus quadratus)

Invisible Spider (Drapetisca socialis)

Dip

On Friday night at the LROS meeting, John Hague asked me what my plans were for Sunday. 'Nothing much, why?' was my response, but it should have been 'A bit of gardening, sorting out a TV aerial and definitely not going on an out-of-county twitch'. And so it was that I counted myself in to a twitch to Spurn if the Isabelline Wheatear was still around on Saturday. I was not available on Saturday and neither was John - but the bird remained on view all day. So with positive news up until dusk, we left John's at 6am yesterday and arrived at Spurn after it was properly light and just in time to find out 'no sign so far this morning'. Arse, feck, bastard, bugger.

Back in the day when I used to twitch much more regularly than the current once a year or so, dipping was part and parcel of the 'game' although I was remarkably lucky and suffered very few momentous dips. Often I either came away happy, or was dipping with the whole twitching community (eg October 2000 Siberian Blue Robin at Minsmere). The only dip that really grated was driving up to Scotland overnight in June 1997 and spending c6 hours in the pissing rain looking at nothing, only to receive a pager message a few hours later on the way home that 'Roller still at Lochaber Loch'. The last bitter out-of-county dipping experience for me was back in October 2002 when I was already in the throws of giving up twitching. That was in bloody Yorks as well (White-throated Sparrow at Flamborough).

Anyway, back to Spurn. We duly ignored the negative info. and set about looking for the wheatear. In the process, we saw very little (lots of very distant waders, a few close in Knot, a Grey plover, some Redwings and a Wren .......). we certainly didn't see any rare exciting passerines. This was made all the more galling by the continued presence of another Izzy Whitearse in Wales. Bastard!

After walking and searching for a good while, we gave it up and headed off to grab a bite. With everything closed locally, we decided to head back the other side of Hull to eat and then go to Blacktoft Sands. At least we'd see something on the day out, and be within distance in the unlikely event that the Wheatear popped up again.

Click for big - typical view from a Blacktoft hide

Click for big - Shelduck Shoveler Island

I do like Blacktoft, and it provided some pleasing birding spectacles though nothing unexpected. 1000s of Golden Pover were constantly filling the skies, and we got superb views as a decent number of them fed in a field adjacent to the reserve along with masses of Lapwings . Sadly no sign of the recently present Common Crane though. We also had a few various-sized skeins of Pink-feet heading over in all directions (including some going back and forth for some reason), c200 being the biggest group.

Click for big - all those dots are Goldies and Lapwings

Click for big - aimlessly wandering Pink-feet

We stayed for the raptor roost, picking up anywhere between a conservative 10 and 13 Marsh Harriers including one or two superb full adult males. Also one, possibly two, ringtail Hen Harriers including a very close fly-by. But sadly no owls, no Merlin and no Bittern.

Click for big and spot the Marsh Harrier

Perhaps the least expected things we saw all day were a couple of Red Admirals and at least 6 Common Darters soaking up the late afternoon sun .....

Dipping was a pain, and Blacktoft was maybe not as great as it could have been, but the day out was still a whole lot better than gardening and sorting out a TV aerial!

Feeding Tree Sparrows

Feeding Shelduck

Incidentally, 'Isabelline' is a colour and though the etymology is inconclusive the theories about it's origin appear to relate to piss-stained underwear .......

Small Tortoiseshell, Common Darter

Very few butterflies in my garden this year - don't know why particularly, but the crap weather in August co-incided with the main flowering period for the garden buddleia which doesn't help! This is one of two knocking about this morning.

Not long after posting the above, this Common Darter briefly settled on the garden fence. Not a garden tick, but certainly not frequent. Shame it was on the wrong fence with the sun behind it ..

A few odd bits ....

I've had a busy few days at work after taking a long weekend off and haven't had a chance to catch up. Not too much excitement in the moth traps anyway but I'll summarise that separately. Instead here's a few odd bits from the weekend and a visit to Conkers on Monday.

I'll start with some very common birds, which are pretty much I can get close to and have seen recently..

juv Moorhen

Coot

Mallard - doing what dabbling ducks do

I've ordered and been waiting for a new photographic toy which will hopefully turn up at the weekend or Monday latest - hopefully I'll be able to get closer to smaller and more interesting birds then!


Nichola found this mass of Buff-tip caterpillars gregariously hanging off of an Oak sapling fairly low down. First time I've seen these so I was very pleased.

Here's a few other random insects ..

Small Heath

Common Blue

Common Darter

Meadow Grasshopper

Finally, a couple from the garden ..

Slender Groundhopper - or at least I think it is

Sarcophaga carnaria - a Flesh Fly

Invis-migging, and a bit of light birding

Up and out early this morning to meet up with The Drunkbirder at Burrough Hill in the hope of some visible migration. Burrough Hill is over in the east of Leicestershire, and was an iron age hill-fort. It has clear un-interrupted views making it a great site for vis-migging - provided there are any birds passing over that is. Sun-rise at Burrough Hill View to the south View across to the south-west We watched from 07:00 - 08:00. A handful of Yellowhammers and a couple of dozen Meadow Pipits were the highlights, along with a few alba Wagtails and a small flock of Linnets wizzing about all the time. Maybe too breezy, probably too clear, definitely a disappointment. From there, I set off to have a quick look around the Egleton Reserve at Rutland Water. I made straight for Lagoon 4, passing a singing Chiffchaff outside the visitors centre on the way. Lagoon 4 Lagoon 4 Aside from loads of Black-headed Gulls and Lapwings, and a few Shelduck, there were c20 Golden Plovers, 7 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plover, 1 Snipe, 1 Egyptian Goose and a flyover female Sparrowhawk. Even better, there was no-one else about that early. I had a very half-arsed hand-held attempt at digi-scoping Lapwings: Lapwing One of the Black-headed Gulls was attempting to drown itself: Emo Gull Lagoon 3 next - except that it has dried up and the lagoon is not there!? Arid wasteland More likely to find Bustards than Bitterns Scanning across the deeper water revealed plenty of Gadwall, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Great Crested Grebe, a Grey Heron and a couple of Little Egrets right at the back. People were just started to reach these hides as I left. This included one complete twat who appeared unable to hold a conversation with his mate as they approached the hide without bellowing - I asked him if he could maybe talk a bit louder. A quick look in Lagoon 2 revealed another Little Egret, but not much else. Is this: A) an evocative and well composed silhouette portrait of one of our daintiest herons feeding in the shallows, or B) a shit image of an out of range Little Egret photographed looking into the sun .... Quite a few late dragons knocking about, which were all (I think) Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters. Common Darter And another Also a few butterflies, including a brief Painted Lady. By now the usual Sunday Rutland Water crowd consisting of wealthy elderly dudes and complete knobheads was arriving in droves - time to go. As I walked out, I heard the following that would have made the 'Things That Wankers Say' column on the former Llama website: 'and I saw a Lark which was rare - I knew it was rare because I did not recognise it. That's the yardstick you see, if I don't recognise it then it must be rare ..' Alternatively, the lark was common and he is just shit at identifying anything. Anyway, at this point I was intending to join Adrian Russell looking for leaf-mines at Launde Park Wood - but that was knocked on the head as Adrian was busy. I was also getting peckish, and was mindful that a couple of hours later I needed to get back to Leicester to sort out my Mum after a hospital stay. So, I decided to have a quick look along the north-eastern shore of Eyebrook Reservoir. When I got there, it was also very low and really highlighted how little rain we've had for weeks. New Islands The inflow margin is bigger and further out than usual With all that exposed mud, I felt there had to be some waders knocking about. There was - loads of Lapwings but feck all else. There was also a big mass of smaller gulls - I studiously checked through them and found that there were all Black-headed or Common. The Greylag Geese provided a bit of entertainment as they bickered constantly, with small splinter groups joining or heading off every few minutes. I left Eyebrook via the back roads, and headed back to Leicester. Mum sorted, I nipped to the Soar Valley area to look and listen for a couple of Cetti's. One of these had a very odd range of calls and the song was not quite right - maybe a first-year bird practising. The other was classic. Both were stubbornly hidden in dense sallow scrub. I ended with a quick look around Watermead Park South. More dragons and butterflies, including Comma. As ever, the main car park area was overrun with twats feeding the burgeoning population of tame Mute Swans, Canadas and hybrid geese with too much bread. When will the Council be coming with that gun? Unnatural Parentage This Crows mother was its fathers sister .. With that, I headed home - just in time for a message that a Pec Sand was at the south-western end of Eyebrook - arse!