A cracking day!!

Up early and away by 05:35 for the drive up the A3 which, unsurprisingly, was quiet although, as with all journeys, there's at least one d***h*** keen on tail-gating - in this case 'white van man' who I encouraged past me. Where do they get their licences from? Santa?

Anyway, arrived soon after 06:00 and walked around to the ha-ha to find CP with guest AM going through first actinic Skinner. 

On to the second trap, an MV Robinson, and finally up to Hercules to the MV Skinner.

A good number and variety of moths kept us busy until 08:45. Dotted Clay was unusual and my first here; can't find my macro book that I keep as a list so I'm not sure if this was a lifer; I've certainly never caught one.

The weather was perfect albeit the chilliest I've been in weeks and wonderfully quiet apart from the three of us and mewing Buzzards. Unlike all the other events I've attended, and probably the three in the calendar for August, this was by far and away the most enjoyable because of lack of people(!) and the great company of CP an AM. A real pleasure.

To round off the morning I was the first to arrive at CPE soon after opening and had a lovely fresh cooked 'full English' and coffee outside in the shade with no other people and just Goldcrest and Siskin calls. By the time I'd finished the outdoor seating was mostly full.

A few photos to come.

Moths of interest (nc = not caught at no3/8, nm = new moth)

Mocha (nc) some finely marked individuals

Dotted Clay (nc, nm?) New for GWH gardens

Garden Pebble (Common but I've only recorded 3 at no8 the last four years ago)

Barred Hooktip (nc)

Black-headed Conch (nc nm)

Chequered Grass Moth (nc, nm)

Comfrey Ermine  (nc)

Dark Triangle Button (nc, nm)

Fern (nc)

Honeysuckle Moth (nc, nm)

Latticed Heath (nc)

Least Yellow Underwing (nc,  1 at this site four years ago)

Red Twin-spot Carpet (nc)

Scarce Bordered Straw (nc, nm?)

Small Mottled Willow (nc)

Small Rivulet (nc)

Straw Underwing (nc)

Waved Umber ( only 1 caught at no8 last August)

Breakfast at SC

Having got in early for the alarm maintenance appointment, the battery message issue seemed to have gone away so I cancelled the call and headed to SC for coffee and the usual breakfast of Avocado, Scrambled Egg and baby tomatoes on sourdough. Yum!

The 'cafe garden' was busy with inverts, multiple V. zonaria, and other small hovers, multiple Phasia hemiptera , a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, various bumblebees and my first Stomorhina lunata of the year. Further around another HHM and plenty of Common Blues but sadly no Silver-washed Fritillaries.

The big patch of Buddleia had probably a dozen HHM and annoyingly several were very photogenic- sadly I'd only gone out with 8x30s and TG7. Definitely wished I'd had the G9i and Oly 90 macro. Still, next time maybe.

The very short informal worn path from carpark to the top meadow had a couple of nice Bee Wolfs which again posed well but no use to the TG7. I think they were a 'site tick'. 

Only birds were heard-only Firecrest, Marsh Tit, Bullfinch and Swallows.

Pulborough Vol Day

A very hot day with all the brooks bone dry and well populated with JCBs, vehicles etc. Some ditches being cleared and islands being landscaped ready for rain, winter wildfowl and next year's ground-nesters. The upshot being..... birdless.

Ian, paying more attention that Pete and I, located a Clouded Yellow helice variety, something I'd not seen before and Redstart Corner was full of Wasp Spiders, mostly female but with one obvious male and the predominant prey - Gatekeepers.

Another Clouded Yellow, Brown Hawker and little else. 

After a pasty in the tea-garden shade we both decided on heading off.

Apparently Spotted Flycatchers were in the usual spot adjacent to the old wooded play/learning area.

No pics.

Where are all the insects?

Today, after the usual  three-monthly blood test, an hour at QECP  was pretty fruitless. Two Firecrest, one or more heard-only Marsh Tits, three Holly Blues and a single red-eyed damselfly species on the pond; just too far away to ID.

Yesterday,  locally, an influx of Red Admirals was joined by a single Clouded Yellow blown across the field from flower to flower and never close enough for a photo; a site tick!

On the pond a couple of blue damsels but without zoom lens nor binoculars they could have been Azure or Common.

Pretty much no other insects either day even on Ragwort, Umbellifers and Hemp Agrimony. A few bumblebees on Thyme.

Only local birds were roosting/preening Little Egret and a fishing Grey Heron.

Moths at home

First moth trap of the summer and only second of the year. Deafening fox noise in the early hours but luckily it/they showed no interest in the trap and most of the mains cable was inside the garage well out of chew range!

The downside of attending moth events elsewhere with lots of individuals of many species is the expectation of such at home only to find that there's little to disturb the ten year average of just 23 moths per catch!

Today's  catch was 33/17 and not too surprising with last night being the coolest and windiest for a long time with even a few spots of rain at 07:00.

Three Jersey Tigers and one Garden Tiger were the most obvious; I was surprised that there weren't any Elephant Hawkmoths.

Cabbage, Turnip, Toadflax Brocade (only the third here), Tree Lichen Beauty, Cydia amplana (2nd) and Cloaked Minor were best-of-the-rest.

No Swift calls so presumably most will have left for the journey south.

Friday - more moths with Ed and Zoe

Arrived, as before, with half an hour for a Harbourside coffee and some time with about ten recently returned Turnstones mostly still tortoiseshell coloured.

A dozen of us enjoyed two traps full of moths. Nothing new but plenty of the usual crowd pleasers. Waiting for the full list in the days to come. A Sawfly, Hemichroa australis was the best of the interlopers.

Dewick's Plusia was new for me and Bordered Straw and Drinker were species I've never caught; Four-spotted Footman is a species I've only had once in the garden trap.

The east side produced a GWE with Little Egret close by and a Sparrowhawk escorted away by twenty or more irate Common Terns. A juvenile Sparrowhawk was calling from the scrub behind walkway pond and a few Willow Warblers were calling. Very quiet for insects but Volucella inanis was NfY and another Leptura quadrifasciata 'jumped ship' just before I could press the shutter and finally, below, a Long-winged Conehead.

On the west side a brief chat with first Mark, then Tony and finally David - with four or five Common Common Sandpipers and one Spotted Redshank plus some very tiny Common Terns chicks. Two of this years Marsh Harriers were distant.

I finally managed some nice views of Norfolk Hawker just to the west of MSH but with only the OMTG7 pictures were out of the question.

Others had a couple of drake Common Scoter offshore.

Local stuff - mostly pretty absent!!

The only things thriving locally are reeds, Achillea (a very drought-resilient plant all over the field) and Orthoptera with many grasshoppers in the longer dried grass. So far I've only had Lesser Marsh but I'm sure other species are there. 'Butterfly Alley' is done for the year and the Ragwort has all gone to seed. A Cetti's in the pond side vegetation and a couple of audible Willow Warblers, a few Swallows, a day-roosting Little Egret and a fishing heron were it for birdlife.

A couple of female Volucella zonaria were on Hemp Agrimony.

Most of the dawn to dusk gull noise is down to Herring Gulls and their offspring but last night's calls felt different and, lo and behold, a medium sized raptor gliding away southwards at 2015 hrs was neither buzzard nor kite and, despite having five pairs of binoculars in the house, none were to hand. Dammit! I guess Marsh Harrier was the likeliest culprit.