SP5595ish - First Foray

Today dawned bright and early. For some I'm sure at least; for me there was no intention of getting up at the crack of dawn as an evening on large whiskies and the constraint of a bi-daily visit from the District Nurse meant I was going nowhere early anyway. By the time I looked out into the garden, it was evident that the clear cold skies that prevailed into the night at the end of 2020 had been replaced by dank grey clag. I whiled away some time watching the garden feeders, and after the nurse had been I got ready to head out for a walk down the lane. I was not intending too go all out crawling through the undergrowth - I can't anyway as I'm still a physically restricted with regards to bending over (getting my boots on and laced up without help was a milestone!). I had my bins, P900, phone and dictaphone.

It remained steadfastly grey, in fact the conditions only worsened whilst I was out for a couple of hours. Before hitting the lane, I'd already picked up a fair number of plants heading out of the estate including some obvious escapes: Mahonia, Lesser Periwinkle, Sowbread, Buddleija, Spotted Medick and these ....

Purple Toadflax

Spotted Dead-nettle

Italian Lords-and-Ladies

In total I managed to record a modest 46 vascular plants. This includes trees, plants identifiable from their leaves or fruit and a handful of flowering plants. I clearly saw a lot more than 46 species; there are plenty to come as they develop and I can spend more time focussing on them.

I completely ignored any invertebrate life. Between the garden and walking about I saw 25 bird species and 1 mammal (the resident garden Squirrels). There were no avian surprises, and the light was shocking but that didn't stop me pointing the camera at a few to garner some rubbish photos.

Common Buzzard

Fieldfare - at least 60 feeding across a couple of fields

Redwing - only around 10 of these with Fieldfare

Common Gull - with camera pointing through a hedge giving the weird vignetting effect

With 4 fungi, 2 lichens and a moss noted, I've ended up on 79sp. - not bad for a couple of hours in dull and uninspiring conditions. By the time I was heading back up the lane to home a steady drizzle had set in.

Wasted

When it comes to mothing, there are various highly productive habitats that are more than worth visiting. Ancient woodland, moorland, coastal scrub and dunes, fenland and boggy marshes, reedbeds, chalk downs, limestone grasslands, industrial wasteland .... Eh?

Yes - industrial wasteland. In fact, transitional habitats and generally unloved bits of derelict land can be brilliant places for wildlife and inverts generally, and of course moths. One of my favourite sites locally over the last few years is an old quarry, which became landfill, got capped and is now just completely wild.

And so, just before dusk last night I met up with Adrian on the now derelict and abandoned site of an old factory. Adrian had checked it out a week or so ago, netted a Small Ranunculus whilst there and noted some relatively intersting plants from a VC55 mothing perspective. The site was a bloody eyesore, and bloody brilliant. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was actually part of a war torn city ....

Concrete slabs, heaps of rubble and crap, but the key to our interest was the masses of buddleia, mullein, mugwort, willowherbs, and most importantly, wormwood. The intention was to have a good look around, casually net anything flying, and run a trap for an hour or so whilst we did that.

Despite the generally casual approach, we managed to net/trap c20 species including a few nice micros like Catoptria falsella, Epiblema foenella and Eucosma conterminana. No sign of the hoped for Wormwood, though it will certainly be worth a return visit or two to check for larvae which is the best way to record this species. Also a fair bit of Great Lettuce on the site which is not doubt hosting Small Ranunculus.

Great Mullein

Too late for any Mullein larvae, though plenty of evidence that they are on site

Wormwood - fancy an Absinthe

Purple Toadflax

Tall Meliot

Common Evening Primrose