Bill's Birding

Tits... and a few Ducks

2012-01-15T23:46:00.000Z

As expected, January has kicked up few opportunities for any kind of wildlife excursions, and coupled with the next few weeks being completely filled up with exams, driving tests and work reviews, the outlook for the rest of the month looks even bleaker.

Unfortunately, time doesn't allow me to chase rare spuggies around Hampshire, but I did managed to slip in a brief visit to Bushy Park early yesterday morning with the camera, for a brief walk about.

The woodlands were alive with roaming tit flocks, consisting mainly of extremely inquisitive Long-tailed tits...

Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers, one of the more rarer associates with tit flocks, are often sighted in the Park, but alas none showed amongst the Treecreepers and Goldcrests that were also tagging along.

Close but no cigar...

Plenty of activity also around Heron Pond...

In the absence of the less common wintering Gadwall and Shoveler, both Pochards were putting on a show...

Top 10

2011-12-14T22:25:00.002Z

In my most humble of opinions, 2011 hasn't been a very good year for moths. Putting aside a brief period of mouth-watering migration moth activity back in early October, resident moths have been way down in numbers. In the garden alone, over 20 usually 'common' species simply never put in an appearance, and those that did decide to show their antennae, turned up only in ones or twos in most cases.

Despite this, the garden produced a healthy total of around 350 species, and I've just about managed to cut it down to make a little 'Top 10' for this year's garden moths...

10) One of the more stunning species to be on the wing in early spring, and fortunatly, one of the commonest, this Oak Beauty made me go back for a second glance when I caught it in early March...

9) Many-plume moth has about the same rarity status as a Blue tit, and so most moth-ers simply ignore it when going through a trap. On a cold morning in April, my trap was completely empty, apart from this fella. Not wanting to accept defeat I took a few shots of it for the record, and only then did the delicate individual feathered plumes really become visible...

8) No other moth can depict the colours of Autumn as well as the Barred Sallow. Despite this one not being in the best of shape, you can't help but admire the shades of pink, brown, orange and yellow that allow it to merge in with the dying leaves during its daytime roost. And just as you thought it couldn't get any better, it also happens to be a garden tick. Get in...

7) The name was enough to get this moth into the top 10, but the fact that its pretty rare is always a nice bonus. Just 10 years ago, Hoary Footman was confined to the sea cliffs of the South west coastline, but more recently, has taken to the London area by storm, with a recent upsurge of moths into Surrey. 4 were seen in the garden this year, one in July; two in August and one in September.

6) The Old Lady is up there with one of those animals that you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. Its built like a tank, and is the closest your going to get to the David Haye of the moth world. When I saw the silouette of the one below pelting towards me at 30mph, it did make me start to question my hobby for a few brief seconds before the moth impacted with my face. Still failing to see the resemblance between a moth and an elderly woman.

5) One of the rarer moths I've caught was this Small Ranunculus, a species that has been subject to massive population fluctuations in Britain. For 60 years, it was believed to be extinct, until a pair turned up in Kent in 1997, and a subsequent population established itself around the Thames. Since then, its managed to spread northwards, and so it was only going to be a matter of time before one turned up in the garden.

4) The prize for the most numerous moth of 2011 goes to this little bugger; or as its more scientifically known, Cameraria ohridella, the infamous Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner. In total, almost 1000 were caught from May-September, twice the number of all other species combined. As in hinted in the name, the caterpillar of the species mines the leaves of Horse Chestnut, causing them to lose their leaves early, and leaving the tree (no puns intended) more succeptible to disease. Originally sighted in Britain in 2003, you'll be lucky to find a tree that isn't infested with the moths, and the increase in numbers caught in the garden this year only reflect a national problem. Nuke 'em all, I say.

3) Oak Processionary is another controversal character in the moth world, and like the above leaf miner, is believed to have been accidently imported when a batch of mainland European oak containing the toxic hair releasing caterpillar of the species, was delivered to a housing estate in Kew. The male depicted below is the second garden record, after I caught the first back on 7th August, and tried (very unfunnily) to make a joke out of the whole situation. Luckily, its not spreading as fast as the Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner, and is still relatively unknown in Britain. The males of the species have been known to migrate, so the jury is still out on whether this one is from Kew or Germany (although I secretly want it to be the latter)...

2) One of the undoubled highlights of the year was spending a June afternoon in the garden pretending to be a virgin female Clearwing. Just about bordering on the lines of what is generally considered socially acceptable, it did provided me with a rare opportunity to view these secretive moths. As well as the Yellow-legged Clearwings which came to the pheromones in force, a lone Orange-tailed Clearwing also crashed the party- one of the scarcer of the family usuall only found on chalk downland...

1) There was never any competition for the moth that would top the table. This moth is the very definition of a rare immigrant, with only a few records beginning to emerge in the early part of the 21st century, and all originating from the across the Channel. When I caught it on 29th August, I knew it was something special, but I wasn't quite ready for the county recorder to tell me that I'd caught the first record of Jersey Mocha for Surrey. Almost made the 7am check through the trap worthwhile.

I've added a photo montage of even more of this year's highlights in a link on the right hand side of the page.

Anyone Lost a Trolley?

2011-12-09T23:33:00.002Z

Treated myself to an early Christmas present with this Great Northern Diver at Staines Reservoir back in mid-week. One of the bleakest places to watch birds in Britain, but it does throw up some goodun's now and then. Great Northern Divers are an expected winter resident at the reservoir most years, but I've never bothered to go and have a look for them before.

And don't you just hate it when you lose your trolley whilst taking it out for a brief stroll?

Jack All

2011-12-06T17:53:00.000Z

Jack All...

... Just about sums up my wildlife encounters in the past few weeks. A first visit to the London Wetland Centre this year is the only half bloggable thing I've done for ages, with a Bittern and a Jack Snipe provided a little compensation for the admission fee to the reserve.

The latter of which showed particularly well; for your own benefit, don't bother looking for it, you'll never find it...

Elsewhere on the reserve, and you know your in London when these things start showing up. When they're not competing with me for food, or releasing their load on me, I actually quite like Pigeons- dare I say they can look quite smart at times...

They're so unpredictable, and you never know what they will do next- a Pigeon staring at water...

Over in the captive section, this Hawaiian Goose decided to add a step-ladder to its Christmas list...

And the Chiloe Wigeons added a bit of colour on an early winter's morning...

Why Dogs Can Be Good

2011-11-25T00:17:00.002Z

I've never been a huge fan of uncontrollable dogs chasing after wildlife, but if it means we'll have our lives more frequently enlightened by such hilarious videos as this one, I might have to consider getting a dog...

Some unknown legend then went on to create the Jurassic Park and Lion King edit. Absolute comedy genius...

He may have made the world a slightly better place by chasing those deer, but if I ever see Benton down my local patch trying to scare away my birds, I'll 'ave him.

Something Different

2011-11-09T22:12:00.002Z

Paid a visit to Bushy Park yesterday to catch up with things now that the moths are finally disappearing. I was hoping in particular to catch up with the deer rutt that's currently in full swing, but the boys didn't seem to be in the mood for gauging each others brains out, and the light was so poor that most photos just came out in a blur.

Now, I'm going to own up here and admit that I may sometimes make ~~substantial~~ slight edits to ~~all~~ some of my images if I feel the colour balance isn't quite right, or the image isn't quite sharp enough. However, whilst resizing yesterday shots, I discovered a pretty hefty new feature on the service I use* that allowed you turn your image black and white, but still retain colour on an area of your choice. Amazing, huh? Technology these days... whatever next?

I was so impressed, that I had to try it out for myself.

Witness, as Grey Herons become even greyer...

... and Stonechats suddenly become much easier to find...

*a website called Picnik, in case you were wondering. Totally recommended if your so rubbish with a camera that you feel the need come home and plaster up your images, thus compromising the very essence of taking a photograph... shame on you.

Summer Dreams

2011-11-08T17:19:00.002Z

This flew over the garden today, and represents my latest sighting of this (normally) summer migrant. It seems like only 7 months, 12 days and 5 hours ago that I saw my first one of the year zoom over the garden.

But what is it? ... I'll give you a clue, its not a moth.

I Don't Like Street Lights

2011-10-31T20:40:00.003Z

As Autumn moves on, you'll be glad to know that the constant hijacking by moths of this blog should be coming to an end.

... but for now, you'll have to endure some recent autumnal additions to the garden this past October...

Barred Sallow; a classic yellow, orange and brown autumnal moth

Black Rustic, such an unflattering name for quite a smart moth

Blair's Shoulder-knot

Hoary Footman

Just 10 years ago, this species was confined to a few coastal locations in the South-west, but more recently has seen an expansion in its range into many south London gardens. It appears to be thriving here, with 6 moths caught in 2011. This tatty example on 3rd October must have been part of a smaller 2nd generation, that flies later in the Autumn, after the summer generation.

Red-line Quaker

Just as it looked like October moth trapping was going to end on a high, I came home the other night to find that the whole of our road had been installed with new extra bright white street light, replacing the standard orange light. This is very annoying, and every moth trappers worst nightmare (along with blowing ballasts, and a trap full of Hornets). Light pollution is bad enough around here, and the garden is now lit up like a bloody Christmas tree, so its doesn't take an expert to work out whats probably going to happen to my catches next year.*

Anyway, I'm off to catch me a Death's Head Hawk-moth to mark this seasonal occasion.

*if you happen to have a few days worth of free time on your hands with nothing better to do, and you don't know what artificial light; including moth traps, can do to insect populations, then this and this article make for a ~~long, boring~~ good read ).

Larkin' About

2011-10-28T11:16:00.005+01:00

Larkin' About

I've just realised that I haven't mentioned the word 'bird' on this blog in 4 ~~moths~~ months, ironic considering the name of this blog is 'Bill's Birding'.

Anyway, I twitched bird today- a Shorelark. It's a very special Shorelark as a matter of fact, being the first Shorelark to be seen in Surrey since the late 1980s. Whilst they are usually to be expected along the East and coast in late autumn, one bird had decided to make Queen Elizabeth II reservoir its temporary hang out for the last couple of days, and yesterday morning I took a chance and decided to head down to try and break my birding drought.

It was an extremely early start at half 9 in the morning, but after two cups of tea and a tube of Smarties, the hardcore twitcher inside of me managed to drag my body out of the house, onto a bike, to a train station, onto a train, off a train, over a fence (gates are for lazy permit holders), past guard dogs and finally up a hill to a large pond...

They may need new guard dogs after what I did to them...

The bird was a bugger to find, prefering to feed low down in the reservoir gunk as far away from any human as possible, and the slightest sign of aggression from one of the millions of Pied Wagtails also present would send it shooting off to the other side of the reservoir. Eventually I pinned it down metres away from where I had first entered the reservoir, but not before I'd completed a 2 mile lap around the bloody place in search of the bird.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year material right there...

This seems to be a recurring problem when I'm with birds...

On the contrary, I was fighting off swarms of these...

and these...

One of the reservoir's regulars, Dave Harris, also found a bonus Short-eared Owl whilst we were waiting for the Lark. It showed brilliantly, for passengers on the planes taking off from Heathrow a few miles away...

Je ne parle pas français

2011-10-26T19:53:00.003+01:00

... but I do know a Merveille du Jour when I see one.

Few others can match this species for looks. I've caught one before in the garden; around about this time last year, but that still hadn't prepared me for the shear sublime nature of its plumage when I caught this moth last night.

Possibly one of the best things to come from France since Stella Artois...

What with the moth trap not likely to go out on too many more occasions this year as we head further and further into the autumn, and with nothing to do this afternoon (except for 2 Biology dissertations and a Sociology write-up which can wait until the night before their due in), I decided to do what any bored teenager does and put the data from this year's moth trapping to good use, to find out how this year faired in terms of species diversity of the moths in my garden...

The small dip in numbers in March is due to the fact that I only trapped 4 times that month, and the complete failure of a month in June has probably got something to do with the completely s@!t start to summer we experienced in terms of weather. This is only my second year of trapping, so I can't exactly compare these records to previous years. However, the general consesus is that its been a pretty crap year for moths, with many commoner species simply not appearing.

Now, what to do tomorrow? There's a Shorelark just down the road, but that would mean getting out on my bike and experiencing what they call exercise, so I probably won't do that.

Childcare

2011-10-11T20:45:00.002+01:00

Why the lack of blog posts, you ask?

Well, I've been dedicating my time to other things, namely child-rearing. To be honest its pretty simple really, despite what others would tell you. Just put them in a cage and feed them leaves every now and again.

Now before you reach for the nearest phone to call Childline, perhaps I should point out that I am of course talking about Early Thorn caterpillars, and just in case anyone is unsure as to how a caterpillar turns into a pwetty butterfly, then observe...

A few days after hatching (15th August)...

About 20 days old...

Look at me, I'm a spiky thorn...

45 days old...

Look at me, I'm a twig...

Look at me, I'm a chrysalis...

Look at me, I'm a chrysalis inside a leaf...

60 days old...

A pwetty butterfly finally emerges (2nd generation adult Selenia dentaria to be more precise)...

A more detailed explanation of the complete process of metamorphosis can be found below...

UK400 Club

2011-09-26T19:02:00.003+01:00

Acleris schalleriana...

... Officially the 400th species of moth caught in the garden to date.

Am I cool now?

Rare, or are they?

2011-09-13T17:47:00.001+01:00

Rare, or are they?

If you were wondering why I haven't been posting in a while, it's because I've been staring at this photo constantly for the last two weeks, not believing I've caught this moth...

For the night dwelling moth-trappers amongst you, I'm sure this moth will need no introduction, but all other normal people, this is a Jersey Mocha; but not just any Jersey Mocha... only the first record of Jersey Mocha for Surrey. According to the literature, it's a rare immigrant to Britain, that occasionally gets blown off course, first being recorded here in 2003.

Having this one in the garden the other week suddenly made me wonder- really just how rare are these species we would class as rare vagrants? How many potentially 'new' species to Britain have simply gone under the radar? How many Jersey Mochas have passed through Surrey un-noticed before I caught this one in the garden? Thousands, I bet.

And the scene is the same with birds. If you ever need to know the best way to make a twitcher emotionally unstable in a matter of seconds, just remind them about the Canada Warbler that will be happily singing away in an unknown hedgerow, in an unknown part of the British countryside as you speak; or the Black Woodpecker, nibbling away at some anonymous Oak tree somewhere, never to be discovered.

So get out there and start looking... although preferably not in Surrey, and preferably not in the form of a moth trap. I don't like competition.

The Many Faces of Bookham Common

2011-08-19T14:31:00.001+01:00

The Many Faces of Bookham Common

Just in case you were starting to worry, the authorities didn't arrest me in the end for putting that Oak Processionary moth in the fridge. Thankfully, this meant I could get down to Bookham Common the other morning for the monthly field survey that takes place at this very well documented SSSI.

This month, the focus for the survey was on Grasshoppers and Bush Crickets, a group of insects that I've trodden on plenty of times whilst sweeping through fields in search of moths, but apart from that, haven't really ever given much attention to. By the end of the day, we had managed to biologically blitz our way through a healthy variety of hoppers, including these (although I take no credit for identifying them)...

Roesel's Bush-cricket...

Rufous Grasshopper, identified by the white tipped antennae, apparently...

Dark Bush-cricket...

Speckled Bush-cricket...

The main highlight of the day came when a member of the team started to lift up a large boulder along the side of the footpath (as you do) to reveal a neat female Great-crested Newt hiding under it. I've never seen one before, so it was nice to finally put a face to the animal that seems to have most conservation bodies worried out of their skin at just the mention of this little amphibians name...

We got back to the hut for lunch just in time to help Paul Wheeler (only one of the top moth recorders in Surrey) go through one of the moth traps he had set up in the woodland the previous night. The catch wasn't brilliant, but if its of any interest to anyone, the highlights did include the scarce and elusive Square-spotted Clay, a migrant White-point and some very nice Sharp-angled Carpet.

Square-spotted Clay...

White-point...

Out in the tall grasses, micro moths were easy enough to flush out. The pick of the bunch had to be this Agriphila sellasella, sporting a small ice-cream cone for a nose...

Breaking the Law

2011-08-07T23:39:00.001+01:00

Breaking the Law

Who would have thought that such a harmless hobby could get so out of hand? When I first started, I knew I was getting myself into a commitment that may ruin my life (and my sleep pattern) for ever, but I never thought it would tip me over the edge so soon. At first I managed to keep it to a minimum, but it wasn't long before I became hooked on it all. Night after night, I'd be out there, lurking in the shadows with them until the early hours, but it seems that last night everything just went too far. They made me do it, they did. Those damned moths made me do it! An Oak Processionary moth to be precise, and last night I broke the law by putting it in fridge.

Due to the caterpillar's tendency to demolish any oak tree it can get its mouth around, and its ability to release extremely skin irritating microscopic hairs from its back, this species is very high on the list of species that many of the top environmental agencies in Britain want dead. Its not native, and although the adults do occasionally accidently come over from mainland Europe, the caterpillars of the species are thought to have arrived with a delivery of foreign oak trees into Kew Gardens. The moths are feared so much by the government, that there is even a law which makes it illegal to knowingly keep or store the moth.

I realised this a little too late after I carried out normal practise by putting the moth in the fridge (to calm it down ready for photography later of course- who do you think I am, a moth torturer?) and thus I have become a criminal.

All because of this ugly (but flippin' rare) little bugger...

I can only assume its a matter of time before the authorities will be onto me, and I wouldn't be suprised if MI5 don't already have their top covert Human Intelligence Agents watching me as I type this. I guess the best thing to do will be to go into hiding... preferably somewhere with a really good list of moths to boot. How about Portland? Or maybe Dungeness?

Hopefully I can keep you updated on my progress using these new internet connections they have on mobile cell phones nowadays, but I wouldn't hold out any hopes.

May my last words to you be this: don't start moth trapping.

An Assortment of Butter

2011-07-31T23:53:00.003+01:00

An Assortment of Butter

Let's end July with some butterflies, eh? Overall, the weather hasn't been great for them, but on the odd occasion I've found a few have been kicking about here and there.

I was particularly pleased to find this Pained Lady a few weeks back down the local Stoke's Field. Its a migrant species, and after it has a very good influx year in 2009, 2010 was arguably one of the worst years for the species, with very few people lucky enough to see one. Perhaps we can hope for a few more in August.

These little butterflies have been arriving en masse to the garden, Gatekeeper...

I photographed this one back in June, but haven't found the right time to post it, so here it is in all its glory. A Purple Hairstreak...

And finishing off with something that I don't really take any notice of when I'm out and about... a plant. This one is a Pyramidal Orchid, but I take no credit for identifying it, looks like a pink Dandelion to me. Unfortunatly, this wasn't in the garden, but at the chalk downland site Norbury Park.

It also happens to be the Big Butterfly Count at the moment, in which you simply note down any butterfly you see at a particular place, and send in your findings to this website. If you haven't already done it, have a go... or I'll get Big Daddy Attenborough on you, and he won't be happy.

Cheers Italy

2011-07-27T17:05:00.004+01:00

Cheers Italy

Whilst I re-consider the title of this blog to 'Bill's Mothing'- judging by the fact that I haven't done a bird post in two months- here is a rare moth which I caught at Norbury Park the other week. Its so rare that it was once considered endemic to Italy, but a few have started to turn up on the south coast of Britain in the past 10 years, confirming a tiny breeding population. Its called Metalampra italica...

Now if only we had Italy's weather at the moment, instead of their bloody moths.

The Only Way is Essex

2011-07-15T19:50:00.001+01:00

The Only Way is Essex...

One of the two butterflies below is an Essex Skipper, and the other is a Small Skipper, but can you tell which is which?

Very similar aren't they? And from most angles, it is very hard to seperate these two species.

I photographed both of them at the beginning of last week, at a newly discovered hot spot for these small butterflies on my local urban fringe site, Stoke's Field. Grasses, wildflowers, south facing slope- all the main ingredients for perfect Skippers habitat. If there was such thing as a heaven for Skippers, this is probably what it would look like...

Essex Skippers are the more localised version of the Small Skipper, the latter of which can be found just about anywhere, but how do you know when your Skipper is from Essex? Apart from the estury accent and the 'simple' fashion sense, the best way is to look head on at the tips of the antennae. From this view, there is no mistaking the two, with Essex Skipper having all black antennae tips...

And the Small Skipper with its orangey, browny, not-black antennae tips (don't mind the poor focusing, was taken in gale force winds on top of a hill, whilst lying down in mud)...

All Black antennae tips- Essex...

Orange antennae tips- Small...

Another 'orange' Skipper, the Large Skipper, is also flying about at this time of the year in large numbers, but can fairly easily be told apart from the above two by the slight chequered markings on the wings, and, of course, the larger size...

Well now I've got that sorted out, there should be no excuses for anyone to mix up these two species ever again.

The author of this blog takes no responsibility for any mis-identifications of Essex or Small Skipper caused by reading this ~~highly erroneous~~ post.

Getting Horny with Clearwings

2011-07-05T23:35:00.000+01:00

Getting Horny With Clearwings...

Back in January, I decided to buy some moth pheromones. These are naturally emitted from wild female moths to attract a mate, and can be bought from various weird entomological websites on the internet as an alternative way to attract those species which don't readily come to moth traps.

Clearwings are one such group of moths which have pheromone lures tailor-made for them. These moths are unique amongst British moths in that they don't look like moths at all, with wings that look completely clear.

Each species of this spectacular family is nationally rare, day-flying, secretive and specific to a unique habitat, making them a nightmare to record. Since they were invented some 10 years ago, pheromones have become the main method of recording the presence of the males, which are attracted to the scent, believing a virgin female is nearby.

The lure- consisting of a tube impregnated with pheromones, and a small cotton bag...

Each species (there are 15 in Britain) has its own lure specifically made for them, and based on local habitat, I decided to go for a lure that attracts Yellow-legged Clearwing and Orange-tailed Clearwing- the former being found around old oak trees, and the latter on chalk downland. I had it all planned out. Once the time was right, in mid-June, I would take the lure down to Richmond Park, which is full of old Oak trees, to see if I could find a Yellow-legged Clearwing. I would then take the lure to Denbies Hillside, a chalk downland site, with plenty of chalk, to quickly scoop up Orange-tailed Clearwing, before coming home and writing about my findings to you on this blog. In reality, neither species was seen at either site, and hopes of finding these mysterious moths were low.

A few weeks back, on a sunny afternoon with a light breeze (perfect conditions for Clearwings), I optimistically took the lure out into the garden for a laugh (yes, I am easily amused), on the off chance that either species might have been hiding right in front of me all along. I wasn't expecting anything much, but almost as soon as I hung the lure up in the flower border, an Orange-tailed Clearwing appeared, followed 5 minutes later by a Yellow-legged Clearwing. Within 15 minutes, it had turned into a full on social gathering for the moths, which was a bit of a suprise considering the garden's lack of suitable habitat for both species; especially the Orange-tailed Clearwing, which very rarely strays from chalk soils.

Orange-tailed Clearwing...

An idea of size...

Yellow-legged Clearwing- a wasp mimic...

That distinctive clear-wing...

The lure in action...

With load of pumped up, hormonal male Clearwings about, I figured it was best to break things up before it all got out of control, so in the lures came, and as quickly as they appeared, the secretive little moths disappeared off into the undergrowth, to carry on their secretive lives.

Beware: Post Contains Very Cute Birds

2011-06-21T22:49:00.004+01:00

Beware: Post Contains Very Cute Birds

Surely it can't be three weeks since I last did a post? Blogger must be wrong? And surely we can't already be coming to the last week of June? I guess time flies when your not doing anything, and not doing anything is what I've been doing a lot of, so I haven't really had anything much to post on.

Over the last few weeks, there have been a few more fledgelings hanging around the garden, and the local Robins, who fledged this lot back in mid-May, have now managed to fledge another lot, meaning twice the amount of Robins kicking about in the garden, and twice the opportunity to get some photographs of them. I'd be lying if I said photographing garden Robins was even a little bit hard, and as long as you have some kind of incentive (such as delicious mealworms), they will not hesitate to come within a few metres, and I think I'm starting to earn this guy/gal's trust...

Wherever mum was, you could be sure that kids weren't far away...

It appeared that the Blue tits hadn't had the best year when only one fledgling visiting the garden with the adults back at the end of May.

It must have only flown the nest that morning, or the previous day, as it could barely fly, and I only noticed it had landed on the paving in front of the french windows after opening the door to let the cat in, and catching the slightest movement to the left of her as she pranced up to the door to say hello. There was a heart in mouth moment as she literally stepped over the bird, and I think its safe to say that at 17 years old, senior moments are getting the better of her!

Safely hidden in the Pyracantha bush...

And finally, a youngster from Bushy Park back on the 27th May, in the form of an Egyptian gosling that couldn't have chosen a more classic cuteness pose...

Everybody say ahhhhhhhhh... shoot the invasive species!

(only joking about that last bit)

Garden Mothing- What I've been catching

2011-05-30T23:04:00.001+01:00

Garden Mothing- What I've been catching...

Three days later, and without further ado, here are the results from three nights worth of garden moth trapping. Before I start, I must warn you, this is a seriously mothy post with lots of Latin, and lots of statistics; so don't be surprised if by the end of the post you can confidently identify a Striped Lynchis from a Water Betony, based exclusively on the external positing of the hindwing discal spot.

First off, the trapping location...

A pretty average suburban garden, with a large Pyracantha, Hawthorn tree (insect magnet), Buddhlia and Hazel tree providing the main moth attractions. In the borders, there are quite a few flowering plants, which prove popular with the Silver Y's, and have even attracted a Hummingbird Hawk-moth in the past, and there are two maturing apple trees, as well as a Crab Apple and two Silver birch hidden from view. The position where the trap is in the photo seems to be the most effective positioning. After two full years of trapping, the garden list currently stands at around 300 species, with around twice as many macro moths caught than micro moths.

Now for the technical stuff- a long light tube, a box of wood and two ladders holding up an old bed sheet...

The weather really helps when moth trapping. Generally, cloudy skies and high temperatures encourage more moths out on the wing than windy, clear and cold nights.

The night of the 27th was one of those windy, clear and cold nights, and as a result only 12 species were recorded. Here's the list:

10 Heart and Dart

3 Pale Mottled Willow

1 Angle Shades

1 Garden Carpet

2 Willow Beauty

1 Marbled Minor agg. (there are 3 species of Minor that can't be visually IDed, so need to be labelled together 'agg.')

1 Green Pug

1 Double-striped Pug

5 Epiphyas postvittana (Light Brown Apple Moth)

2 Argyresthia trifasciata

Angle Shades...

Heart and Dart- the most common moth in the garden at present...

The 28th was a much better night, and after strategically reconsidering a new position for the trap at the opposite end of the garden, I caught a total of 62 moths of 29 species:

1 Beautiful Hook-tip
1 Small Blood-vein
2 Maiden's Blush
1 Garden Carpet
1 Green Pug
1 Double-striped Pug
2 Freyer's Pug
1 Common Pug
11 Heart and Dart
3 Pale Mottled Willow
1 Light Brocade
1 Dark Arches
1 Large Yellow Underwing
1 Marbled Brown
1 White Ermine
3 Marbled Minor agg.
4 Willow Beauty
1 Treble-lines
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Pandemis cerasana
1 Tortrix viridana (Green Oak Tortrix)
1 Dipleurina lacustrata
1 Eudonia mercurella
1 Epiblema rosaecolana
1 Agapeta hamana
1 Zeiraphera isertana
15 Epiphyas postvittana (Light Brown Apple Moth)
1 Parornix anglicella
8 Aphomia sociella (Bee Moth)
1 Argyresthia spinosella

Beautiful Hook-tip...

Marbled Brown...

Light Brocade...

Agapeta hamana- reminds me of a banana for some reason...

Last night was another productive night of trapping, again with 29 species caught:

1 Blotched Emerald

2 Treble Brown Spot

1 Small Blood-vein

2 Common Marbled Carpet

1 Garden Carpet

1 Straw Dot

2 Freyer's Pug

3 Double-striped Pug

2 Green Pug

1 Common Pug

1 Maiden's Blush

4 Pale Mottled Willow

1 Knot Grass

13 Heart and Dart

6 Willow Beauty

5 Treble Lines

1 Marbled Minor agg.

1 Shuttle-shaped Dart

1 Brimstone

1 Marbled Brown

1 Aphelia paleana (Timothy Tortrix)

1 Ditula angustiorana (Red-barred Tortrix)

1 Aleimma loeflingiana

2 Archips podana (Large Fruit-tree Tortrix)

1 Tortrix viridana (Green Oak Tortrix)

1 Udea olivalis

13 Epiphyas postvittana

7 Aphomia sociella (Bee Moth)

1 Caloptilia alchimiella

Blotched Emerald- a personal favourite...

Freyer's Pug

Aleimma loeflingiana...

Green Oak Tortrix...

Udea olivalis...

Stay cool... everybody dusk

2011-05-27T23:52:00.002+01:00

Stay cool... everybody dusk

Oh no! It's 10pm, its dark outside, and you've got so hooked on Glee, or whatever it is you watch on these T.V.s they have now, that you've totally forgotten to put the moth trap out. You can't be assed to get it out of the shed at this time of night, and anyway you think you can see rain clouds in the distance heading your way... so what do you do?

... Stay cool is what you do.

Fetch a net, fetch a few pots, fetch a torch, and most importantly, fetch a Stella. Sit down on the garden bench, and wait for the moths to come to you. You are now dusking.

I've been doin' a bit of it myself recently, with a combination of A-Levels, rubbish weather and other bits and bobs stopping me from putting the moth trap out. Here are a few of the commoner species in the garden at this time of year.

Flame Shoulder...

Treble Brown Spot...

Treble Lines- very original...

Common Marbled Carpet...

It helps to stay in touch with your Latin side if your brave enough to delve into the micro moths. Alternatively, you could just copy and paste the names from Wikipedia...

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana- you can't make this stuff up...

Argyresthia trifasciata- so small it makes blades of grass look big...

Crambus lathoniellus- a common species of 'grass moth' which you can expect to easily disturb from your lawn during the day...

Lathronympha strigana- had a nice orange glow to it in the flesh...

Traps out tonight, but the temperatures have dropped right down, so expectations aren't too high. Drop by again tomorrow for an exclusive bonus full catch report. Hows that for a hook?

Everybody say "awhhh"

2011-05-15T23:19:00.009+01:00

Everybody say "awhhh"...

Two things are inevitable in May: exams, and fledged birds.

The latter is something I look forward to (unlike the former... surprisingly) every year in the form of a family of Blue tits, which usually fledge without fail from nextdoor's nest box. This year however, they haven't even investigated the box for some reason or another, and I was starting to get a bit afraid that the blog would be devoid of fluffy little squeaking fledglings photos for a year.

Not to fear though, as today, a new family appeared on the block. Can you guess what species they are? I'll give you a clue, it has the letters O, B, I and N in it...

Well I don't know which famous Taliban leader you were thinking of, but I'm talking about juvenile Robins- three of which have been kickin' about the garden for most of today. Like their parents, they were ridiculously curious, and allowed for very close viewing whilst they fed on the stocked up feeders.

Under the watchful eyes of Mum, of course...

I thought I'd give a bit of a helping hand myself, so I popped off to Squires, and came back with these...

They've always looked so appealing in the bird food catalogues, and I was hungry at the time, so I thought I'd try one. From personal experience, wouldn't suggest them. They were a bit too crisp, and lacked any flavour, so I soaked them in water to see if that would bring out the pizazz.

It didn't work, so I gave them to the Robins instead, who seemed to like them...

Everybody say "awhhh"...

Wanna See Some Moffs?

2011-04-29T00:27:00.001+01:00

Wanna See Some Moffs?

... Well, you don't have a choice.

The scorching weather we've been enjoying this April has meant that many moths have been emerging from their chrysalis stage earlier than they would normally do, and when the garden would usually be totally devoid of any night life, this month has been ticking over nicely, with a number of species being seen that I never would have expected...

Not least of these, the superb Great Prominent. A massive beast of mature oak woodland...

At the other end of the size scale, an Ochreous Pug. A moth of coniferous woodland, with a cool name to boot...

Waved Umber, a common species in gardens in the South...

One of my favourite moths of Spring, the highly distinctive Brimstone. This is another common garden species which anyone can expect at lighted windows...

And now for something a little bit rarer. Are you ready for this? You are? Are you sure? Ok... a Buttoned Snout!

... Proaaarrr, that is one heck of a moth. Its declining state means that its a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Unusually, the main stronghold for this species is in gardens, where it can be found in mid-spring after hibernation. I found it whilst watering the garden, so if you've got nothing to do, then get the hose out and prance around the garden with a net... you never know (clothes are optional).

Slightly less rare than the above, Lunar Marbled Brown is a common species in the garden in spring...

And who could overlook the smaller 'micro' moths...

Bucculatrix nigricomella...

Not quite such a struggle to identify, the Garden Pebble is bigger than many 'macro' moths...

I was quite surprised when I looked through my photos of this Caloptilia syringella at how intricate the details are on its wings. It seemed pretty dark and colourless when looked at normally...

Cydia strobilella- a silvery, sparkly Surrey scarcity, known from only 5 other sites in the county. Found it flying around the borders one sunny afternoon. The larvae feed on Norway spruce, and the species presence in the garden might just be explained by a whoopin' great big Norway spruce two doors down... just a possibility.

I'm actually quite pleased with myself recently, as I haven't put the moth trap out now for a week.

The withdrawal symptoms are coming on fast though- I keep glancing up at the nearest light just to make sure I haven't missed a Death's Head Hawk-moth sneeking past me, and bed time reading is currently Townsend and Waring's 'Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland', although its quite hard to read, because I may have accidently spilt cereal over it one morning in my excitement at seeing the illustration of a Kentish Glory.

A Hairstreak in a Spot of Bother

2011-04-24T20:24:00.004+01:00

A Hairstreak in a Spot of Bother

With its iridescent, golden bordered green wings, the Green Hairstreak is one heck of a smart looking bugger. Emerging in mid-spring, these butterflies are on the wing until well into June, but to see them in their best outfit, its best to catch up with them in spring.

I was hoping to see one when I went for Grizzled Skipper back at the beginning of April, but never managed to, so this individual on Denbies Hillside the other week was a welcome surprise...

When it turned its side to the sun, a stunning coppery greenish tinge would show, but this was hard to capture on the camera, especially when you are lying down, on stinging nettles, with a butterfly that has a habit of going walk-about on flower stems rather than keeping still.

Whilst I was photographing the butterfly on a nearby bluebell, Mr Green Hairstreak's habit of walking about aimlessly over flowers got him into a bit of a pickle. He had walked onto a bluebell which was already occupied by a naughty little Crab Spider, that was looking for his lunch.

Luckily though, I was on hand to take pictures of those last moments of Mr. Green Hairstreak's life, and just as the Crab Spider was about to pounce, the sound of the camera shutter shutting sent the little butterfly into the air, and out of harms way. To be honest though, a spider pouncing on, killing AND eating a Green Hairstreak would have made a pretty decent shot wouldn't it?

Waxwings, Heading Your Way

2011-04-17T00:12:00.001+01:00

Waxwings, Heading Your Way

Picture the situation...

You've been stuck inside all day, so decide to walk down to the shops for a Fanta. You get to the shop. You buy a Fanta. Your walking back, and get two roads down from your house, when suddenly you hear lots of trilling sounds coming from above you in a tree. The trees have leaves on them now, and you have a Fanta in your hand, not optical equipment, so you can't clearly see the things thats making the noise, but they are clearly birds, and they aren't Blue tits. Suddenly, the mystery birds decide to fly, and its then that you see that they are about the size of a Starling, but that they are not making the sound that Starlings make.

You think you have temporarily lost them when you turn a corner and find a flock of 14 Waxwings happily trilling away at the top of a tree by a bridge. The birds have strategically placed themselves over a railway line, so that when the train comes, they will fly away and never be seen again. Its ok, you say to yourself, the train shouldn't come for a few minutes, giving you the chance to get closer. But those few minutes are spend looking dazed, and wondering what to do, so the train comes, and the birds fly away.

But thats not the end of the story. The Waxwings fly off, but in the direction of your house, and although you can't see the birds flying over your house, you can guarantee that if you were in your house, looking out at that time, you would be able to see the birds.

You fall to your knees, and wimper. You are overcome with emotion. Half of you is jumping with joy for finding Waxwings a few doors down from your house, and the other half is filled with regret that you didn't take your camera, or rush back home to try and spot them from your house.

So yeah, thats what happened to me (if you haven't already guessed) the day before yesterday. I went home, grabbed the bike and cycled around the area to try and look for them again, but did I see them? Have a guess. I did manage to get some shots of the tree they were in though, 10 minutes after they left. Let your imagination run wild, and you should be able to see Waxwings in this photo...

Changing the subject slightly, a funky Bee Fly that was in the garden recently...

And a Crab Spider, that eats Bee Fly...

In Which I See A Rare Grizzper

2011-04-15T00:39:00.001+01:00

In Which I See A Rare Grizzper

April is great, isn't it? The leaves are slowly appearing on the trees, bluebells are emerging, the swallows are returning and not to mention the fact that we get two bank holidays in this month alone. One of my favourite thing about April however, is that the butterflies, and in particular, the rare Grizzled Skipper, are back on the wing.

A few years ago, in this post, I had a very brief glance of a single Grizzled Skipper on Old Winchester Hill- where the sheltered chalk downland are host to flowering plants in spring, which in turn play host for Grizzpers (a newly thought up shortened word for Grizzled Skipper, if you were still wondering) to feed on-but ever since that day, I've wanted to get myself proper views of this Red Data Book species, which is threatened with extinction throughout its range in the South.

This species is best searched for from late April to late May, but I figured that the recent scorcher we've had might have encouraged earlier emergence, so last Sunday, when I had the opportunity, I headed down to OWH (a newly thought up shortened word for Old Winchester Hill, if you were still wondering), with Grizzpers in mind.

It was sunny, and the views of the South Downs were great. This is habitat no self respecting Grizzper would want to be without...

After initial distractions from a singing Sedge Warbler fresh from Africa, I noticed a small blackish thing resembling a Grizzper flying around a patch of wildflowers along a notoriously steep part of the hill. With the description of 'small blackish thing', I'm sure you all know what it was... a Grizzper! (or Grizzled Skipper as some people call it.

There were two of them in total, and they were surprising easy to photograph, frequently resting on grass stems, unlike most of the other Skippers species I've dealt with, which seem to just fly at high speeds, and land everywhere I don't want them to...

One of the Skippers seemed to have one wing that was completely blurred out. It most certainly didn't have anything to do with rubbish focusing on behalf of the photographer, oh no... certainly not. Nope.

On a number of occasions, I found myself chasing after what I thought was a Grizzled Skippers, only to find that they were moths. Very pretty moths at that. This here is Pyrausta nigrata...

We stopped off at the Shoe Inn for lunch, in East Meon. I wouldn't mind living in East Meon- you get a river, and a water meadow, as your back garden, as well as a bridge (sorry if this is your house, by the way)...

Getting All Nostalgic and Stuff

2011-04-07T20:33:00.002+01:00

Getting All Nostalgic and Stuff

I've been having a little rustle through some old picture files on the computer, containing bird photos which date back to 2008 when I first started taking an interest in the natural world. My searches took me back to the beginning of that year, when I first discovered my parents Olympus 3x optical zoom point and shoot camera. This would become my weapon of choice for the next few months, as I went out into the garden every evening after school to try and capture the garden birds in action.

I am short of material at the moment, so I thought I'd post a few of the very first bird photos I ever took (this is exclusive stuff right here). The funny thing is, I even use to rate some of the photos...

3 star rating... (5 stars if you can tell what bird this is)

Coal tit (4 star rating)...

Greenfinch (4 star rating)...

Robin (a full 5 star rating)... I'm contemplating sending this one to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

I'll try and get out somewhere over the weekend so you won't have to look any more of my excellent photography, maybe for Wheatears at Bushy Park, or maybe I'll go prancing about for a few early butterflies.

One last thing, if you haven't already noticed, I've started tweeting on Twitter, and if you can't get enough of me, then you can follow me by clicking here, or by clicking on the link in the sidebar which says to follow me on twitter. That is all.

Celebration time!

2011-03-22T21:31:00.001Z

Celebration time!

Had a call from NASA yesterday asking me to take some shots of the moon last night, which was apparently going to be much brighter and larger than usual, cos' its closer or something like that.

With my busy schedule, I had to reject the offer this time, but at about midnight, I found myself with a few seconds to spare, so I whacked up the exposure metering thing, and went for it. To be honest, I was expecting something a little bit bigger, isn't the solar system such a let down?

Oh wow- just as I was about to post this, I realised that this is also my 150th post, and since I didn't celebrate the 100th post, lets do it now!

Woooo! Yeahhhh! Get in there!!! Woahhh! Oh yeah! Woo... yeah... cool... OK... boring.

I'll go fetch the champagne, although on second thoughts, perhaps a Tuesday night is a little bit of an inappropriate time to pop off the cork... I'll get the vodka instead.

Hows about a bit of Kool and The Gang to get everyone in the party mood!

Thanks to all the blog readers out there (I know the three of you), and feel free to stick around for the rest of this year's adventure.

Who's a Pretty Boy Then?

2011-03-17T19:40:00.003Z

Who's a Pretty Boy Then?

I promise you a moth free post today. I've done three posts on them, and I think its time to have a break from them... is it too late to start lent? One thing is for sure, I'm certainly not going out in the garden after finishing this post, and I am most definitly not going to put out the moth trap. Oh no.

Where better to get out to than Bushy Park, where the woodland should be alive with early spring birdsong, and there was even the possibility of getting an early Wheatear out on the grassland. Win-win situation.

We started out at the Water Gardens, or was it the Canal Plantations? I always get mixed up with the two places. They could even be different names for the same place? I just don't know. Perhaps I should look a map. For the sake of the blog though, let's just say I went to the Canal Plantations.

The blossom appearing on some of the trees was an absolute explosion that was quite hard to miss...

Even harder to ignore were the birds that were perched in the trees, Ring-necked Parakeets. We all moan at them when we're at home, complaining at how they scare other birds away, and take their nest sites. Then we go out and come face to face with one, and are completely possessed by them. They are the ultimate non-conformists. We don't get colours like that in England (unless perhaps on a Camden Town street corner after a friday night).

Bloody foreign birds stealing our native birds jobs an- ohhh its soooo pretttyyyy...

I took a few more shots, and looking back through them noticed that the birds were taking small branches of flowers, eating a small part of one or two flowers, and then dropping the rest on the ground. Now, I'm no mathematician, but by using complex calculations on causation and effect relationships, I have concluded that the Parakeets, by dropping flowers, may actually have caused the carpet of pink to form beneath the trees.

That is possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever said on this blog, but when you think about it, thats a heck of a lot of flowers to drop for a bird.
Pick up...

And drop...

So, next time you and your friends walk past a blossoming tree, with lots of flowers on the ground, you can tell them who made that pretty scene possible, and you can look up and thank those foreigners.

On a more serious note, my thoughts and condolences are with my readers in Japan.

The Joys of Being a Moth-er

2011-03-05T00:45:00.005Z

The Joys of Being a Moth-er

Just thought I'd highlight the '-' in 'moth-er'. Luckily, I won't have to experience what it is like to be a mother, but from personal experiences as being a son, I can guess that there are few joys associated with it.

Secondly, you can keep your Rufous Turtle Dove in Oxfordshire and your Slaty-backed Gull in Essex, cos' I've got me here an Agonopterix scopariella.

If you don't know, for some weird reason like you don't spend your day looking at photos of the sub-family Depressariinae, this species of micro moth is scarce in Surrey, and very hard to separate from many of its counter-parts, but thanks to a second opinion from the micro-lepidopterist, John Langmaid, I have now added another 'dot' to the Surrey micro moth distribution map, slap bang on our garden. These maps should be included in a book called 'Smaller Moths of Surrey' published later this year which funnily enough covers the smaller moths of Surrey; and thus with my trusty dot, I shall become famous.

... Agonopterix scopariella, caught in the act of taking in UV light from a fluorescent tube in the garden, on the 24th February- distinguished from heracliana by the paler, buffer overall ground colour, and from atomella and subpropinquella by the presence of two white discal spots on a faint but distinctive black background of scales... obviously. Would you just look at that squared forewing apex, Christmas has come early.

So there you go, catch a moth, send it to your county moth recorder and you could find yourself living the high life, like I will be... any day now, girl in each arm, people coming up to me in the streets asking for identifications, autographs, the lot. I can just imagine it...

Last Night...

2011-02-24T12:34:00.002Z

Last Night...

I did a whole post on the bloody things last night, so I guess I've got to tell you what moths I caught last night then, don't I.
With temperatures at a very comfortable 9C and with lots of cloud cover, I caught 17 moths of 5 species to the 15w Actinic...

3 Twin-spotted Quaker, 8 Common Quaker, 2 Hebrew Character, 2 March Moth and 2 Tortricodes alternella

The Twin-spotted Quakers were a big surprise because they don't usually emerge until March, and I certainly wasn't expecting three of them. Here are the three Twin-spotted Quakers; note the variation in the number and shape of the 'spots' on each moth...

Possibly my favourite spring moth so far, the very smart looking Hebrew Character...

The Hebrew character on the Hebrew Character...

Eurgh, lots of bugs...

Take a look at the Surrey Moths and Butterflies Blog where you can find plenty more of this kind of stuff.

Mothing Isn't a Hobby Anymore...

2011-02-23T19:58:00.004Z

Mothing Isn't a Hobby Anymore...

... it's a full blown addiction. I've been putting the moth trap out in the garden on a number of occasions this year, and the scary thing is that I don't think I need to remember to do it; its become lodged in my mind as something that I can do without thinking, along with sleeping and some other things.

If you don't know how a moth trap works, basically the moths are attracted to a light, become confused, and in their confusion fall into a catchment box from which you can then observe the moths, and let them go again.

Most of the time I've put the trap out this year, I've got absolutely loads of nothing. However, on a few occasions, with the right weather, believe it or not, a few hardy moths do actually decide to show themselves. Unlike birding, I take the listing side of mothing quite seriously, and I don't really know why. I guess it could have something to do with the shear range of species waiting to be seen, and the fact that last year I saw more moths in the garden, than I have birds in my life.

Here, have some moths I found in the garden so far this year (14 moths of 7 species to be a bit more precise)...

Early Moth- very originally named...

March Moth- again, very originally named...

Hebrew Character...

Tortricodes alternella...

Common Quaker...

I think you can guess that the trap is out tonight.

Filling the Gaps

2011-02-03T20:46:00.001Z

Filling the Gaps...

The sunset from Bushy Park on Sunday, just to 'fill in' some gaps on the blog. I was freezing my ass off to get these shots for you, but at least the sun is setting a bit later in the evening, as opposed to 3 in the afternoon on those depressing January days. Snowdrops and crocuses appearing already... Spring is nigh, and couldn't have come any nigher.

Pink-footed Surprise

2011-02-01T22:06:00.003Z

Pink-footed Surprise

It has almost become a yearly ritual for me to go and see Goosanders at Painshill Park, that use the highly originally named lake; 'The Lake' as their wintering grounds. A year ago on Sunday, I managed 4 males and 1 female at the site, so I decided to take a trip down there on Satuday to see whether they had stuck to the same lake this year.

I wasn't disappointed, and a female G-sander soon showed itself in the exact same spot were I had left the birds last year. She was followed by a very smart looking male, and I enjoyed rubbish, distant views of the birds as they went everywhere we didn't.

Further down the path, I suddenly found myself staring at what looked like a smaller than average Greylag, with a flock of normal sized Greylag Geese. As I got closer, the bird moved into the water, and it became apparent that it was in fact a Pink-footed Goose. This isn't the usual species you'd expect to find in Surrey, but at first it didn't occur to me as anything other than a part of the park's collection, put there to confuse and temporarily excite birdwatchers. Then I realised there had been a relatively well twitched Pink-footed Goose of unknown origin in flooded fields a few miles away back on the 18th January. Many of the top Surrey listers had visited the fields and ticked off the bird, and I was getting anxious. Would I have to complete a dreaded rarity form? How would I describe a Pink-footed Goose? .... Goose like? Pink? With feet? It was all getting too much for me.

I watched the bird for a little while, but it tended to stay out in the middle and far edges of the lake furthest from us, so we moved on with a few images on the memory card to have a proper look at back in the warmth...

Spirits were dampened shortly after a number of gun shots went off an adjacent field, and I noticed a Greylag Goose running, and attempting to get off the ground, without succeeding. It was running quite fast, and had clearly been shot in the wing, stopping it from going airborne. The bird scrambled down a bank, across the river separating the surrounding fields from Painshill, and up the bank into the undergrowth of Painshill Park. The hunter appeared shortly afterwards looking for his 'kill', but after searching for a bit, he couldn't, and was never going to find it, so walked off. We found the bird in an inaccessible area of undergrowth just above the bank, in shock, shivering and clearly in pain, and tried to force it out onto the path and into the lake where it had the better chance of being noticed, to no avail.

The dying bird, hiding in the undergrowth. What is the point in shooting this for fun?

I understand that shooting is a well practised upper class past time, and this man could obviously not shoot the bird in the Park. When done responsibly, hunting can also sometimes benefit bird populations. However, with the recent scrutiny of the subject on BirdForum, it really does bring into question the morals of this 'sport'. I'm sure that, in the same way that there are abusers in the twitching business, it is only a minority few giving the majority of hunters a bad name- not that I agree with what they are doing in the first place. Sadly, we couldn't save this little guy from its fate.

Back at home, and after a bit of research, and contacting one of the Surrey county recorders, it turned out that I had relocated the Pink-footed Goose last seen in the area a few weeks back. The problem is that the origin of unusual or scarce wildfowl is often debatable, with so many birds kept in collections around the country. The jury is still out on the Pink-footed Goose, let's just hope its not shot. It would have made a great 26th addition to my year list, but I'm not doing one, so it won't. So there.

4 Moths, I Mean Months Later

2011-01-17T22:10:00.004Z

4 Moths, I Mean Months Later...

Whilst most of the population of British birders are currently trying to grab views of a ~~Lesser Black-backed Gull~~ Slaty-backed Gull at a dump in Rainham, I've been quietly adding to my ever growing T.V. year list, which coincidently encourages me to lounge about on the sofa and watch T.V. After skipping through some bird documentary or something the other day, my year list is already way over 100, and all of those species seen without actually moving.
Of course, I'm joking. I'm not quite sad enough yet to make a T.V. year list... but I'm contemplating it, with my real year list not yet past 20... and that's including a trip to Suffolk just gone! I am hoping to have a slight bit more success with my moth year list this year, and after a few unsuccessful trapping sessions in the garden, I decided to take the trap up to the relative's, in Suffolk, this weekend to see if I could start off my year list.

They have an unclaimed area of woodland at the back of their house which was very moth productive back in the summer, so thats where I set the trap up. Apart from a howling wind, it was relatively idealic conditions, although it could have been a tad bit warmer- but I'm not complaining.

It was dark, very dark, and I can't say I was enjoying going out into the woods at 1 o'clock in the morning, but sure enough, by the end of the night, I had finally had my first successful trapping session in 4 whole, agonising, cry-myself-to-sleep-at-night months. Final count, 4 moths of 3 species: 1 Spring Usher, 1 Mottled Umber, 2 Winter Moth.

Spring Usher...

Mottled Umber...

Winter Moth...

These are all males, the females are wingless, and look more like spiders than moths.

They may be some of the most boring moths you're likely to see, but I hope this post has somehow cheered you up on what is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year... who comes up with this kind of rubbish anyway? God, it makes me so depressed.

Hello 2011

2011-01-02T13:19:00.005Z

Hello 2011

First off, I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year, and I hope that, for those of you who can remember what you did on New Year's Eve, you had some good celebrations.

As I write this, my 2011 year list currently stands at 9, with the addition a few minutes ago of Redwing flying over. I don't know if I can be bothered to do a year list again this year (make the year list 10, Sparrowhawk over the garden), what with the failure of last year's list only coming to 140, and AS Levels coming up. Of course, I'll still birdwatch, but just not list.

The scale of how rubbish I was at year listing in 2010 really becomes apparent when you look at the birds I missed... Gannet, Shag, Puffin as well as all Divers and any kind of Petrel or Shearwater. No Little Stint or Ruff, and I didn't even bother to go for a Common Sandpiper (the name of this wader gives you an idea as to its status). I only just managed to get Common Tern onto my list, nothing more. One species of Owl, a Little Owl, as well as one species of Lark, a Skylark.

Despite generally failing miserably with the year list, I did manage some avian goodness. My first ever Nightjar and Dartford Warbler came on a beautiful evening out in a quiet woodland opening on the 8th July in Suffolk, and my first Redstart came on 1st September on Old Winchester Hill. I also managed my first Lapland Bunting, Red necked Grebe and Waxwing, as well as finding my own singing Firecrests out in bluebell woods in the South Downs.

Best wildlife moment 2010? Either watching Nightjar in a woodland clearing out on Blaxhall Common, Suffolk on a warm summer evening, or searching for rare butterflies out on one of the most beautiful places in Britain, Old Winchester Hill.

Best Bird 2010? Very little competition for this award as I really didn't see any very special during the year. In terms of rarity, prehaps the the Lapland Bunting at Staines, in October will just about tip it, or the Waxwings at Teddington at the beginning of December. If I include a holiday to Menorca, then many many more birds come in to play; Purple Swamphen, Audouin's Gull, Spanish Sparrow, Eleonora's Falcon, Marsh Sandpiper, Egyptian Vulture (absolutely massive things), Woodchat Shrike and of course, Bee-eater.

Embarrassingly, I'm going to give the prize of best bird to the Lapland Bunting, despite it being quite common in winter. Just about sums up 2010...

Best View 2010? Of course, I would usually say Old Winchester Hill, but there was just something else about staring through the bluebell woods in the Downs at Guildford, back in April.

Best Patch Moments 2010? I'm quite surprised at how much I was dedicated to my patch in 2010, the patch being Bushy and Home Park. It didn't manage 'Mega' quality birds, but it did work some magic in producing Wheatear in Bushy Park in March, and I managed Hobby on a number of occasions over Heron Pond. Home Park had flocks of Wigeon and Gadwall towards the end of December, which was nice.

In terms of butterflies, I managed 26 species in 2010, which was down on the previous years total of 31, and pretty rubbish really. It was a different story with moths though, and taking into consideration I only started trapping from May onwards, and only at weekends, my garden year list of 190 isn't too bad, I guess.

Here are a few moths I've caught in the garden in 2010...

Tree-lichen Beauty...

Scarce Silver-lines...

Black Arches (aka. smiley face moth)...

Elephant Hawk-moth...

Blackneck...

Moth of 2010? This one goes to a boring looking moth I caught in a woodland in Bury St. Edmunds, during a stay at the grandparents house back in early July. Early July is traditionally the time when most moths are on the wing, but I never expected the nationally rare and declining Lunar Yellow Underwing. The moth is declining so fast, that it is now only found in a few woodlands in Suffolk, and a few other locations in the South. Lets hope it hangs on in my grandparents back garden!

It doesn't get much more beautiful than this...

I think I'll get all nostalgic if I write anymore, so I'll leave it here and look to 2011.

New Years Resolution?

1) See a British butterfly I've never seen before.

2) Take it easier on New Years Eve 2011 so that I actually move more than an inch on New Years Day.

3) Be as dedicated to Bushy Park and Home Park as I was in 2010.

... Yeah, I think they're achievable. Well, the second one will take some practise.

Have a great 2011, and lets all make the most of it, cos' there are rumours going around that the worlds going to end in 2012, and who knows the damage this may cause to people's lists.

Y'all Folks Have a Nice Christmas Now

2010-12-24T21:29:00.004Z

Y'all Folks Have a Nice Christmas Now

Well, it's Christmas Eve, and I've just found a window of opportunity to sneak away from the family to show you a picture of a Robin, a Woodpecker and a Parakeet I took in... yes, you guessed it, Bushy Park; my second home (after my bed, and the sofa... though not necessarily in that order) earlier today- what with it being Christmas Eve, I just managed to resist the urge for a long distance twitch.
There was still quite a large amount of snow in the park, and instead of following the well trodden down paths around the ponds, I decided to go off road into the remote, snowy grassland, following remote, wild deer tracks... Bear Grylls doesn't do shizzle like this!

Wrens were calling in the dead ferns, and a Green Woodpecker was digging around for ants. It was too cold for fieldcraft, so a photo was a no-go, but here's one I made earlier, taken in Richmond Park, in February a few moons ago...

In the woodland gardens, a Ring-necked Parakeet was decorating its hole in the tree ready for the big day, and amongst a foraging tit flock, a Robin was pecking around in the leaf litter.

I guess all thats left to say now is for you to have a very...

Oh, and one last thing. I know how much you have been eagerly awaiting the results to my 'Do You Twitch Rare Birds?' poll that I put up in the right column of the blog. Ok, here goes... the results are in, and it appears that the average birder twitches......... but not often. Ten people voted (cheers) so you can bet on it being an accurate reflection. Just something to ponder on whilst trying to cope with the in-laws over the festive period. Bye now.

Not Quite As Good As Waxwings

2010-12-15T19:29:00.002Z

Not Quite As Good As Waxwings

After the other day's excitement of a whole post on something slightly interesting, I decided to bring myself back to good old reality with a trip to one of my two ~~only~~ favourite local patches, Home Park (like Bushy Park, but smaller and with some big Hampton Court Palace thing or something at one end).

Home Park has the advantage over Bushy Park of being much less busier, and this is reflected in the birds being slightly more obliging. Being covered in ant hills and short grassland, the park is home to a thriving population of Green Woodpecker, and its hard to walk a few paces without sending one screeching into the air. Here's one chilled...

Rick's Pond usually holds a large number of waterfowl, but with the pond thickly frozen over, there wasn't much. A Mute Swan was preening however (I know, heart racing stuff)...

It was a different story on the drainage pond nearbly, where the water was ice-free and so contained a large concentration of ducks, including a nice flock of Gadwall which, as I walked up to expecting to recieve pleading quacks for bread, flew off to the other side of the pond and never let me get close. Two female Shoveler were also giving me the slip.

Have you ever seen a better photograph of a Shoveler or Gadwall? I think not.

Heres a Mallard for your troubles...

And some more Swans...

Waxwings, Teddington, Ticked

2010-12-05T15:33:00.001Z

Waxwings, Teddington, Ticked

After dashing out yesterday evening and dipping a flock of 19 Waxwings down the road in Teddington, I was getting desperate to glimpse these exotic gems in Surrey, after also dipping the flock in Epsom a few weeks back.

Now, one dip I can handle, but two dips and its getting personal, so it was another early morning for a bicycle twitch, with Teddington being just a few miles down the road, to hopefully catch up with yesterday's missed birds.

Things weren't looking promising when, no sooner had I got onto the bike, I already had a stitch, and with the temperature reading a figure that wouldn't seem out of place on a weather station out in Antarctica, my usual Sunday morning routine of a sofa, a duvet and Match of the Day seemed extremely tempting. Luckily though, with the help of a life-saving Crunchy bar keeping my chocolate levels stable, I managed to resist the urge, and made it to the hopefully Waxwing infested road by an impressive time of 9am...

A small crowd of Waxwing admirers had gathered along the road; a good sign I thought, and no sooner had I turned the corner, and I already had brilliant views of the birds as the whole flock lifted up into a nearby tree...

What is a Waxwing without a berry bush?

In flight, and especially when silhouetted, the Waxwing looks very like your average Starling, and it can be surprisingly hard to tell the two species apart... these are Waxies...

Finally, I've connected with the Waxwing, and by the looks of things it might not be my last this year, with quite a few birds making their way down south in this irruption of a year for the species.

Oh, and yes, the photos you see have been taken by me, and yes they really are that stunning. I was thinking of entering them into a few competitions, but I think I'll let someone else get first 1st place for once.

Cold Weather Movement

2010-12-04T12:10:00.000Z

Cold Weather Movement

It was an early morning internet search to find college closed due to 'adverse weather conditions' yesterday. There is nothing I hate more than an early morning, and you'd have thought that with most of my life spent waking up early for school, that I'd have got used to it, but I haven't. So it's really is amazing how those three words- 'college will be closed'- can transform my morning mood from :( to : D

It took an unprecedented amount of self determination and dedication to stop myself from falling back into bed, but I managed to dragged myself out into the garden for some early morning snowtography with the birds, before the texts started to come in luring me to the local patch, to indulge in a different kind of hobby from birding.

Even watching the garden birds from my camouflage cape (latest fashion) for an hour, it was amazing to see a small scale cold weather movement take place right in front of my eyes. As you can probably guess, a cold weather movement is when species move from one place to another due to extreme weather. In my case its probably just from the local woods. Chaffinches are rarities here that usually only appear as singles every winter, but this morning there were 6 feeding. After the return of a female Blackcap the other day, the male has now joined her, and 7 Redwings dropped in to the garden to feed, as well as an additional 4 Blue tits to the normal pair that are around, and a relatively secretive Song Thrush.

Despite all the action, most of the birds were a slight bit camera shy. Luckily, the Blue tits were out in style, and were doing what Blue tits do best; being curious!

This years Christmas card? I think so... you can buy one off me for £50 a print... I need all the money I can get with these new University fee rises...

They were fiddling around in every nook and cranny they could find....

Everybody say ahhh...

Field Sketches

2010-12-01T15:33:00.003Z

Field Sketches

Hide your wife, conceal your kids and lock your doors......... it's snowing.

Yeap, the white stuff has finally made its mark on the South East, in the form of the worst snowfall here since the last one last year. It was a struggle, it was a real struggle, but I just managed to get through the day, and I even went outside, despite the BBC telling me to stay indoors... I'm bad.

Sarcasm aside though, and I really like snow. Of course, its fun, but it also brings in the birds. Just from watching the garden for half an hour this morning, I managed a record high of 3... yes, 3 Chaffinches feeding in the Pyracantha, the 3rd recorded Song Thrush and a returning female Blackcap, that hasn't been seen here for 2 years- hopefully she'll stay for the winter and bring her husband along too. Of course, the birds don't have as much fun in this weather, and so it is important that you keep feeding them with high energy foods.

What with one college lesson at mid-day, the usual thing happened when I'm at home for most of the day; I found myself doing nothing for ages. One minute it was 10am, and the next minute it was 11. It's like when you give yourself an extra 5 minutes in bed, which quickly turn into an extra few hours. I soon became bored of a Geography essay on whether Mexican migration to America is beneficial or not, and found myself looking through a few more blogs than usual. One in particular caught my eye- Steward's 'From the Notebook'- and in particular his brilliant sketches of birds that he scans in off his notebook and posts on the blog.

Now I'm not usually an artistic kind of guy, but when I can be bothered, I try (and usually fail) to do a few sketches of some interesting birds I find myself watching- it helps me to brush up on my ID skills, should I happen to stumble across a rare bird whilst walking through Bushy Park.

Inspired by Steward's brilliant sketches, I decided to scan in a few of my own sketches for a laugh- I don't know what it is but I quite like peeking into other people's notebooks to see how they record.
Because you could get better out of giving a crayon to a 5 month of baby, I've added captions so you can identify each scribble...

White-throated Sparrow, 13/4/09 (Old Winchester Hill, Hants). A real beauty, and my first proper twitch...

Red-necked Grebe, 20/11/10 (Puttenham, Surrey)...

Lapland Bunting, 23/10/10 (Staines Reservoir, Surrey). A very smart looking bunting which showed brilliantly...

In other news, the Redcrestufted Duck (Red-crested Pochard x Tufted Duck) was strutting its stuff in Bushy Park the other day. However drunk, stoned or generally confused the parents were at the time of deciding to mix and match the looks of their offspring, I've got to give it to them, they really have created a smart looking duck and I hope it stays for the winter...

With more snow forecasted for tonight, the weather doesn't look like its going to get any better before it gets worse, or you could say it does look like its going to get better before it gets worse, depending on how you view snow. Bird wise, it could bring in something good into Bushy, like a Pomarine Skua, or Thayer's Gull, but then it also kills birds, and stops birders from birding... both of which are bad.

'Snow: good or bad? Discuss'... my next essay title, expect a downloadable version tomorrow morning.

Think Fluffy Bunnies

2010-11-27T18:42:00.003Z

Think Fluffy Bunnies

God it's been cold recently hasn't it? Me and cold don't really mix that well, I find the cold too... how do I say this? ... chilly. The problem is me and warm do mix quite well, and I often find I'm late for one thing or another because I've spent over 2 hours in a steaming hot shower, no doubt draining the local reservoir and malnourishing a Dunlin or something.

I'm pretty sure you're flowing along my lines when I say a cold winters day spent with a good cup of tea in the lounge, in front of the T.V. *insert favoured program here* (preferably not Misfits or The Inbetweeners, I mean everyone talks about them but they are generally, and pardon my language, bad) with the central heating turned up, is pretty damn ideal.

In fact one of the only times when I do like the cold is when its snowing, and so with the recent forecasts pledging a frosting of the white stuff in every garden, I've been ready with camera in hand. Alas, there has been no snow, but with the sun out, I braved the cold and headed down to Bushy Park during one of those independent study periods at college. What do mean I should have be studying? Well... I'm... habitats, environment, stuff like that, you know the one... biology.

There were birds on the lake, but they were pretty boring. Just the odd Shoveler and Wigeon, and a Stonechat in the distance somewhere.

Here, have a Wigeon...

And a Mallard...

And a Tufted Duck with some late autumnal colours thrown in...

Here's a Stonechat...

And here's an un-focused Shoveler touching down...

Just in case you were wondering what a seagull looked like up close, wonder no more... this is field guide material right here...

I've just re-filled the bird feeders ready for the winter, so might try and dig out that brown sheet thing that acts like a hide and watch as the birds flee the garden and bugger off somewhere else. One thing that doesn't seem to want to bugger off at the moment is that damn Grey Squirrel.

I must say I quite liked the local Squirrels, and their daily antics during the summer. They weren't doing any visible harm and I'd happily wave at one as it passed gracefully through the trees. However, since putting feed out again, I've realised just how bloody annoying they are- casually hanging from a branch whilst stealing sunflower seeds like the little rat is genuinely trying to mock me- and now the sight of a squirrel as I open the blinds in the morning will put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

... "Think fluffy bunnies, Bill. Happy, fluffy bunnies."

I think I need to see a squirrel psychiatrist.

Not So Red-necked Now Are You Grebe

2010-11-20T15:16:00.004Z

Not So Red-necked Now Are You Grebe

Well, I don't quite know how this happened. One minute this morning I was happily in front of the computer, reading through endless pages of mind numbing, but extremely addictive BirdForum threads, and the next thing I know, I had found myself in the car park at The Tarn lake in Puttenham, where there happened to have been sightings of a Red-necked Grebe... what a coincidence!

Ok... ok, you've caught me, I twitched. Happy now? I twitched a Red-necked Grebe. I'm not proud of it.

With directions on how to view the Grebe kindly given to me from fellow birder Sean Foote, I set off through quiet, misty woodland, with the odd tick from a Robin, or tack from a Wren.

Even before we'd reached the lake, I had bagged myself a lifer in the form of a Giant Green-footed Chicken, which can reach 30 foot high- although I only managed to fit the leg in the frame...

After a left turning, we came into a clearing, where the Tarn could be seen for the first time. It is a beautiful lake, and the last of the autumn leaves were creating a reflection, that, on a sunny morning, would look spectacular. Unfortunatly, it was a cold, misty and grey morning, but no sooner had we had come out onto the bank had we caught out first glimse of the Red-necked Grebe, as it hugged the shoreline...

In its pretty drab winter dress, it doesn't really live up to its name...

The bird was wary, as I'd expect for a Grebe, and even though there were just two of us watching the bird from the bank, it soon made its way out into the middle of the lake, safe from the camera.

On the other side of the lake at the other car park, a large wall of scopes was lining up. Their loud voices could be heard from miles away, and they didn't stand much chance of getting close to the Grebe- I guess everyone has their own techniques.

After diving, the Grebe scooted off to the far end of the lake. I followed it; waiting mainly until it dived, when a walk would turn into a jog, then a pause as it surfaced, and then a jog again when it dived, until I was just a few metres away from where it had last dived.

It surfaced just a little bit out of range for the frame filler that I was hoping for, but acceptable enough to make it identifiable as a ~~Black-necked... no, Little Grebe? No, its too big. Great crested Grebe? Can't be right~~... hang on, I'm going to get it right... Red... Red-necked... Red-necked Grebe, thats it! Identifiable by that clearly visible red neck...

As it moved off into the mist, it was nice to catch up with fellow birder Hillary, whom I'd met at the RSPB Guildford walk to Hayling Oysterbeds. She identified this pretty stereotypical fungi species, which I seem to have forgotten the name of... if anyone could re-identify it for me it would be much appreciated :-)

And this coral like Lichen caught my eye on the way back...

A successful twitch... I mean birding outing. Thanks again Sean for the directions.

Now wouldn't it be such a shame if I were to somehow find myself at Shawley Crescent in Epsom Downs tomorrow, where there happen to be lots of Waxwings eating berries as I write this.

Early Christmas Present Idea

2010-11-13T17:45:00.006Z

Early Christmas Present Idea

If anyone is stuck on what to get me for Christmas, here's a little suggestion...

Although it wouldn't look out of place on the top of a tank as a US manufactored Surface-to-air missile, or as an electron powered telescope used to detect black holes and galaxies in the outer-reaches of the Universe, this is actually a Canon 1200mm. It boasts an ultrasonic motor big enough to take a space shuttle to the Moon, but doesn't actually have any optical stabilisation... bit disappointing really. Of course, the exotic babe would be nice as well...

I think the lens is currently worth around $100,000- if your a bit short then just ask, I've got £2 in my pocket, and counting.

If you can't quite stretch that far, then I guess I would settle for a Canon 800mm, although don't expect me to be in such a good mood on Christmas morning, when I open my present to find I can only get a frame filling shot of a bird from 2 miles away, as opposed to from the other side of the world.

Right Place, Right Time

2010-11-09T20:26:00.002Z

Right Place, Right Time

Autumn is by far the best time to view Jays, as they move from oak tree to oak tree with their distinctive bouncy flight, carrying a crop full of acorns to store for the winter.

Every now and again, one will pass through the garden at this time of year, but never stay for long. They are usually extremely shy and require quite a lot of patience to get close to. However, with a sudden downpour yesterday morning, and with me coincidently ~~relaxing~~ studying at home; not having any morning lessons at College (ahh the joys!), a Jay decided to sit out a spell of bad weather in an Apple tree in the garden. I was able to fetch the camera and slowly open an upstairs window, and their it was.

A real beauty of a bird (I never thought I would ever see the day when I actually complemented a member of the Crow family!)...

Now leave me alone whilst I wonder how on earth I am supposed to distinguish Intrinsic Proteins from Extrinsic Proteins, whilst at the same time staring at a fresh sheep's heart I've just collected from the butcher's ready to be dissected in College tomorrow (oh the joys of Biology A-Level), and at the same time as all that, crying at why it isn't me holding this stick with Waxwings feeding at the end of it...

Happy Birding

Autumn Tufties

2010-10-29T01:17:00.000+01:00

Autumn Tufties

As I'm sure many of you will have realised by now, trees shed their leaves in autumn, but in the short period before this, the leaves show off vibrant, warm colours that provide ideal light for any photographer.

These colours are emphasised even more over water, where reds, oranges and yellows blur and merge together... and when there is the potential of wildlife to fill the frame as well, its an added bonus! For me locally, there is nowhere better to find wildlife, trees and water than Richmond Park, where the wildfowl are also used to humans walking through daily, allowing me to get closer to the subjects.

I started off at Pembroke Lodge, where a walk through the dying grasses and ferns saw a few Redwings fly over, and a Reed Bunting call in the scrub near a quiet pond...

From there, it was on to Pen Ponds, where the sun had finally come out, and lit up the Ponds with a late autumnal orange glow. Tufted Duck were numerous out on the lake, and would hang at the back of a party of ducks being fed bread, ready to catch any pieces that were missed by the main gang of Mallards, Black-headed Gulls and even a Shoveler! The female, with its fudge coloured plumage...

Now and then one would dive under, and appear amidst the frantic group at the front, nip a piece of bread and go back under, and other times they would just show their cute face and beg for a piece...

Aww... who wouldn't give this little guy a piece a bread and break its heart...

The males are very smart looking, with a comical tuft, that would be lifted in the wind, turning them into little punk rockers...

As the sun went lower over the tree-line, it would shine on the seemingly black face of the birds, and produce a smart purple glossy sheen...

A Taste of Lapland... in Staines?

2010-10-23T21:27:00.002+01:00

A Taste of Lapland... in Staines?

Firstly, sorry for the lack of recent posting; I have to admit that I haven't put much dedication into photography over the past few weeks, but I'll try and change things a bit over this half-term and get something a bit more interesting in front of the camera.

October is arguably the best month of the year for seeing interesting birds turn up in weird places. With summer and winter migrant birds moving across countries, a few gems always manage to get lost and find themselves on our shores, being quickly snapped up by twitchers. I have never been into twitching, but it is extremely hard to resist the urge to go out see an unusual bird, with so many around... So when those two words that make even the most heartless of twitchers happy, 'still present', appeared on LondonBirders news page, next to the reported Lapland Bunting that has been kicking about at Staines reservoir a few miles down the road, I couldn't resist going to have a peek!

Okay, so Lapland Buntings are far from rare, being annual winter migrants to the coast in small numbers, but they are still quite scarce in Surrey, and being a species I've never got round to seeing, it would be great to finally connect with one.

The weather didn't look particularly promising for taking photos, and I almost left the cam in the car as we opened the car door to be greeted by hailstones. Luckily, it didn't last long, and as we walked up to the causeway that passes straight through the middle of the reservoir, feedback from returning birders was that the bird was showing well. It didn't take long to locate the Bunting along the narrow path, and just as we moved in, the bird flew up, skimed the surface of the water then land back on the causeway, in between the small group of people watching it, splitting the group in two...

The Lapland Bunting was suprisingly obliging, and I've certainly never got this close to any other Bunting species before. However, for the first few minutes after landing in a certain spot, it would keep a healthly distance between itself and the observers until it settled down...

As the bird got more concentrated on feeding in the grass, it would possible to get closer, down to around 6 or 7 metres, still just too far away for a frame filling shot... so there has been a tad bit of cropping done in today's post!

I usually think of most passerine's winter plumage as being relatively drab and non-attractive, as they have no breeding purpose, but when seen up close, the different shades of brown on the Lapland become neatly layered streaks of chestnut, with shades of white and black mixed in, and really add to the overal attractiveness of the species...

Spot the bird- the Bunting's favoured hang out, near the entrance to the causeway...

After a while, a nearby Linnet flock went up, and the Lapland Bunting followed them over the edge of the causeway, where it couldn't be seen. After 20 minutes and still no sign, I wandered up the causeway to see if there was anything out on the reservoir. A Black-necked Grebe had been reported, but I couldn't get onto it. Small groups of Shoveler, Gadwall, Wigeon and Tufted Duck were scattered around, as were Great-crested Grebes and numerous Cormorants.

Back at the Bunting's crib, there was no sign, and so we decided to call it a day. As we were just about to leave the causeway, the Linnet flock flew over our heads, and whilst they carried on flying, a lone bird stayed behind and perched in full view on the railings... the Lapland Bunting!

What a brilliant bird, and a great little character. What with the summer over, I can't just keep updating the blog with little insects all the time, so I'll try to fit in a few more sessions like this for specific birds before half-term is out. Damn, I think I might be catching the twitching bug...

Lots of Green

2010-09-22T20:08:00.004+01:00

Lots of Green...

Haven't been getting out in the field much recently, but I did try out the macro lens on this baby Stink bug. They look totally different from the adults of the species, and I did think it was a totally different species until I had a proper look on the interweb.

Hopefully I'll post something interesting soon. There's a Spotted Crake just down the road from me which I'm currently contemplating on paying a visit. Knowing my luck though, just thinking about the bird will cause it to leave; currently contemplating a Crake... try saying that after a few pints.

Bushy Park Sunset

2010-09-11T16:48:00.008+01:00

Bushy Park Sunset...

The weather over the last couple of days has been brilliant, and every night there has been a nice sunset to finish off with. The other evening I decided to cycle down to Bushy to see if I could catch the sunset using the wide-angle lens, with a backdrop of the surrounding grassland. I almost missed it, with an unexpected build-up of cloud.

With the gates about to be shut and the light going, I didn't spend long in the park, but just had enough time to get some photos as the sun went behind the clouds for the last time.

Silver-spotted Skipper

2010-09-02T22:29:00.002+01:00

Silver-spotted Skipper

At this time of year, as we enter the autumn, few species of butterfly are emerging for the first time. Silver-spotted Skipper is one of these few, and for a few weeks between mid-August and early-September, this species can be found flying fast around suitable chalk downland habitats. They are quite rare and confined to a few spots around the south of England.

A real stronghold for this beautiful butterfly is Old Winchester Hill, in Hampshire, where its favourite caterpillar footplant- Sheep's Fescue, thrives on the south-facing chalkland slopes. Old Winchester Hill is not only good for wildlife, but is also a great place to just go walking with the family, so we went down there early yesterday morning to try and catch up with these butterflies.

The weather couldn't have been any better, with hot sun, and very little wind meaning that butterflies would be out feeding in the open, taking advantage of the weather window. One species certainly taking advantage of the weather was the Chalkhill Blue, which was out on the hillside in very large numbers, allowing me to try out the new lens on them...

Note the chequered markings on the edge of the hindwings that distinguish Chalkhill Blue from any other species of British blue. This is a female...

The majority of the Chalkhills on the hill were males, and when a female turned up, it was a scramble to try and mate with her...

The lucky guy...

As we got further into the walk, more butterflies started to appear, such as the below Small Copper, but there was still no sign of Silver-spotted Skipper...

Before we arrived at the reserve, I'd done a bit of research online, and according to Alan Thornbury's brilliant site (documenting the butterflies of Hampshire), the best place to see the skippers on Old Winchester Hill were the slopes to the south of the Hill Fort.

With this in mind, I headed over there, and was not disappointed. I soon caught a glimpse of one of these fast flying insects as it dashed past me, but their speed, and in ability to keep still mean't they were an absolute nightmare to photograph. After 30 minutes of chasing them around the downs, I opted for a new method and decided to see if the butterflies would come to me. Before too long, a Silver-spotted Skipper came and landed a few metres away, and after a bit of crawling on all fours, I was close enough for a frame-filler...

The butterfly was very laid back, and did not react to movement like I'd expected it to. It allowed me to move around to a side on view- its when viewed side on with wings closed that you can really begin to see why its called a Silver-spotted Skipper!

This is probably the last new butterfly I will add to my list this year, and almost completes my challenge to see all British Skippers, with just the absence of Chequered Skipper, a very rare species confined to a few areas of Scotland.

A great day, with a great butterfly to boot. I thik I'm going to have a lot of happy outings with this new lens... although prehaps not as much as I'd like to in the next few months, what with college starting soon. One things for sure, I could do with another summer!!

Macros at Bookham Common

2010-09-01T18:52:00.004+01:00

Macros at Bookham Common...

I've been wanting to get a proper macro lens for insect photography for quite a while now but the lenses have always been out of my price range. Recently however, I found I had saved up enough money to buy myself a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. The lens has been given brilliant reviews so I was expecting good results when I gave it a little test run at Bookham Common yesterday.

The weather was perfect for insects, with sunny skies and a gentle breeze meaning everything was active.

Scorpion Fly were numerous, so called because of their abdomen which appears to curl like that of a Scorpion, although you can't see it from this photo. The len's autofocus isn't it's strong point, being quite noisy and slow, but for macros I mainly use manual focus, which is easy and quick to use; allowing me to quickly adjust the lens to focus onto this flighty insect...

The lens' extremely close focus distance gave nice, frame filling shots of Helophilus Pendulus, a common Hoverfly on the Common, without any need to crop...

And of Common Darters, looking a bit worn for wear as we enter the autumn...

And a Speckled Wood, which allowed me to get close whilst it sunned itself...

I almost looked right past this spider, which had positioned it's legs so that it was as thin as the stem, presumably to allow it to catch prey un-noticed...

An added bonus was stumbling upon some young Toad along the path, and with help from the family, they were safely moved to an area of moist grass...

This lens couldn't be more different from what I'm used to, and the distance it can focus to is absolutely phenomenal to me at least, whilst still producing sharp and clear images.

A real test for the lens will be when I go to try and photograph a rare butterfly, occupying chalk downland in the South for just a few weeks every year, on Old Winchester Hill. See how I did in tomorrow's post...

Good Weather For Ducks

2010-08-27T22:22:00.004+01:00

Good Weather For Ducks...

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if even the ducks are getting a bit pee-ed off at all this rain that is falling out of that grey mass of crap above our heads-- although some may like to call them clouds.

However, due to the undeniable fact that I've neglected all local patches that I ever had, I had to get down to Bushy Park. Luckily, there was a weather window; the sun was shining, and birds were singing... only kidding, it was raining and it seemed that, as we got out of the car, the weather deliberately decided to get worse, from typical English summer, to the kind of weather I would expect on Shetland in an extremely bad winter. However, knowing that the ducks were craving to have their photos taken of them, I pushed on.

There were no ducks on the main lake, unless you can call a branch looking like a duck a duck, which technically you can't. However, all wasn't lost. I found a duck! An eclipsed male Red-crested Pochard, on the next lake further up from the main lake, looking pretty annoyed at himself for not booking that holiday to the Caribbean a little earlier...

I'd post a photo of the branch to brighten up the post but I'm not very confident on the identification (it's been so long since I last saw a British duck I'm starting to forget what they look like). It could be a Red-billed Whistling Duck, or a Baikal Teal... probably blown in with all this weather.

To lighten up the subject, I look outside as I write this to a smidgen of blue sky. Who knows, prehaps that tiny seed will grow into a mighty oak, prehaps the sky will change colour overnight, and we will wake up to a new world... I doubt it. I think we've all learn't a lesson today- never go out in the rain because you won't see any ducks, so don't even bother trying.

Menorca- The New Birding Approach

2010-08-25T01:27:00.002+01:00

Menorca- The New Birding Approach

Sorry for the lack of posting recently, I know how much you ~~have~~ haven't been missing my ~~fabulously~~ poorly stringed-together posts, ~~amazing~~ rubbish pictures and ~~frequent~~ occasional updates.
Anyway, I'm back, and more good news is that I found my preferred method of wildlife watching whilst in Menorca over the last 2 weeks. It included a deck-chair, cold drink, hot sun and preferrably a pool or beach as the habitat.

Our villa was situated on the south coast of the island, and like most of Menorca, the area extremely rich in wildlife, mainly due to the government rejecting many plans to build large tourist resorts and other attractions that could leave Menorca heading for the same fate as Ibiza (no offence Ibiza, and not that I don't like that kind of lifestyle).

With wildlife came photographic subjects, and one of the first birds to hit the camera lens was a Turtle Dove; a species I have yet to encounter in Britain, and with its current rate of decline, my chances of seeing it are getting slimmer. No such problem in Menorca however, where their weird and bloody annoying two note call would wake me up every morning!

Another commoner in and around the garden was the Spotted Flycatcher, and every evening a family of six would congregate on the telephone wires outside the villa and flit around in the evening light. The problem was that they would usually appear just after the sun had gone down for a 10 minute period, and the light was not brilliant for a frame filling 300mm shot.

However, this shot was an exception, and I managed to catch the bird in good enough light to make it showable...

Whilst waiting for the Spotted Flycatchers to show up, my vantage point gave a good view of the sunset...

What we didn't realise when looking at the villa on the internet, was that they had a resident family of Hermann's Tortoise living in their garden. The tortoises had a mind of their own, and were constantly on the move, feeding off salad and roaming around the house like it was theirs. This family included at least two very young tortoises. To give you an idea of size, the baby on the left is not much bigger than the palm of your hand... dinky or what?

Talking about reptiles, as you'd expect on a hot Mediterranean island, lizards were abundant, but very hard to get close enough to identify, let alone photograph. Probably the most common lizard in the area was the Italian Rock Lizard, originally imported into the Balearic islands from surrounding Europe, being resident in Italy (would never have guessed!) and much of mainland Europe.

Occasionally, I would take a lizard by surprise whilst it was sunning itself in the glorious weather and it would give me a few seconds to take a shot (try and ignore the whappin' great green grass stem going slap bang through the middle of the shot. Typical)...

But it wasn't all about common species... oh no. Whilst scanning a wader scrape at Es Grau nature reserve, one of the largest of it's kind in Europe, watching Black-winged Stilts and a Marsh Sandpipers, I got onto a large, stocky Moorhen type bird with a stocky bill. There was no mistaking it... a Purple Swamphen!

A very local and rare breeding bird in Europe, where it is only found in marshy areas of the Balearics. Score!

Yeap, yeah... that tiny blob in the middle of your screen wading through that swamp is a Purple Swamphen, honest! And it is purple, not that you can tell from this awful photo...

A slightly more scenic view of Es Grau NR...

There were plenty of insects to photograph at Es Grau. Most of the butterfly species I couldn't identify, as I had no knowledge whatsoever of Mediterranean insects, and I even needed help identifying the following Common Blue and Speckled Wood (both common in Britain)...

Common Blue...

Speckled Wood...

Just about the only damselfly I could identify, a Blue-tailed Damselfly. Relatively common here in Britain but one I've yet to see at home...

As the days went on, I found the amount of time I spent with the camera was decreasing almost as dramatically as the little Turtle Dove from Britain, and the amount of time I was spending on the beach was increasing. Before I knew it, the 2 weeks were up and I came away with a surprisingly empty SD card.

Sadly, many species missed the camera; Orphean, Sardinian and Cetti's Warbler, Egyptian Vulture, Black Kite, Hoopoe and Bee-eater are just some of the beasts that managed to vanish the second I pointed my lens in their face.

Ah well. All in all a very nice holiday, and you have to agree with me that chill-axing on a sandy beach with a cold drink, watching the odd Audouin's Gull fly by (along with plenty of birds... wink wink), is probably the best possible way to birdwatch... ever ;-)

Silver-washed Fritillary

2010-07-23T16:28:00.000+01:00

Silver-washed Fritillary

The largest Fritillary in Britain, and one which I have never seen before; I was kindly given directions by Frank (The Early Birder) to Bookham Common just a few miles down the road, where the Silver-washed Fritillary will be reaching its peak.

With the weather window we needed, my mum kindly offered to take me to the Common on Monday, and we were greeted by 100s of these striking orange and black streaked butterflies.

They spent most of their time feeding on thistle in the sunny clearings, but were easily disturbed and without a proper macro lens, I used the telescopic; having the advantage of not needing to go too close to get a shot.

The sun was extremely bright, which produced many 'fried' images, but also a few ones that I don't think are too bad.

A side on view...

These guys will be on the wing throughout August so I might give it another shot at them... literally.

Good Old Winchester Hill

2010-07-18T19:21:00.002+01:00

Good Old Winchester Hill

Old Winchester has got to be one of my favourite nature reserves in Britain, because of it's brilliant views and also stunning range of wildlife that can be found there. It is arguably the best sight in Britain to watch butterflies, solely because of the range of specialist wildflower that grow on the chalk downland slopes, providing excellent feeding for specialist butterflies.

The butterfly I was looking for when I went down there the other day was Chalkhill Blue, and as the name suggests, its favoured habitat is chalk hillside.

The weather wasn't brilliant as we left, with grey clouds and rain overhead. Hopefully though, the bad weather would break up as we reached the south downs (area of hills)... obviously, it didn't, and we arrived to find many of the butterflies sheltering on grass stems, especially the smaller, weaker flying species like Small Skipper...

Some of the stronger fliers, such as the stunning Marbled White, braved the windy weather, and happily fed and perched out in the open...

As mentioned earlier, the reason butterflies flourish here is because of the specialist wildflowers that grow on the chalk slopes, including Common Agrimony, the footplant of Grizzled Skipper, abundant on the hillside in late spring...

The yellow flowers below are Lady's Bedstraw...

... Apparently, they can be used to cure the smell of stinking feet; I'm starting to regret not pickin- errm... anyway, here's a nice Ringlet that was resting on the path...

Up on the Celtic hill fort, it was evident that Yellowhammers were breeding, with adults carrying caterpillars into the surrounding shrubland...

Back to the task in hand, and slowly but surely the weather began to improve, with the odd bit of sunshine coming through. By this time though, we were reaching the end of the walk with no Chalkhill Blue to boot. Suddenly, a glance over the left revealed a blue butterfly... but was it a Chalkhill?

It finally came down to land on a bramble and bingo, those chequered patterns to the wings identify Chalkhill from all other British Blues...

It performed for another 10 minutes but was far out in the brambles, and I had shorts on, so common sense told me not to go prancing into the brambles!

... Success, I think so!

Small Copper

2010-07-13T16:13:00.002+01:00

Small Copper

I seem to have abandoned Bushy Park recently, even though it provides great opportunities for photography and is only a short cycle from the house. Butterflies seem to be everywhere at the moment and with only one photo of Small Copper in the archive, a colourful but common species, I headed down to Bushy Park where the butterflies would be reaching their peak.

The park is made up mainly of grassland and ferns, and it's clearings like this that are ideal for butterflies, with wildflowers such as daisies making easy pickings for them...

In this particular clearing, Small Skippers were also abundant, and it didn't take long for me to find a Small Copper as it patrolled its territory. They are very territorial and this male would intercept any insect, including Small Skipper incase it was a passing male, or even better, a female.

They are very active little butterflies, and I could only get close enough for a photograph when the male sat on a vantage point (i.e. fern, grass stem) across his territory...

Or in this case, a leaf...

Meadow Pipit...

After a while, the sun's heat became a bit too much and I decided to call it a day, a bit unsatisfied with the result.

Doesn't Get Much Better Than That

2010-07-11T22:34:00.002+01:00

Doesn't Get Much Better Than That...

Remember that time when luck was just on your side... everything was going right... nothing was going wrong? No, neither do I; but I got pretty damn close last week, during a few nights stay at the grandparents house in Suffolk.

Being the absolute donker I am, I managed to leave my camera kit at home. In a nutshell...

"Right, time to do some photography. Hmm... I wonder where my camera is? I'm sure I packe- damn!"

This mean't that for the first three days I couldn't take any photographs at all; none at all; zilch; nil; zero, and I was literally crying myself to sleep at night. Anyway, on the fourth day I had my baby back safe with me via a pretty useless courier.

Before the trip, we'd been given a tip off as to where we could see Nightjar, one of those birds that most birders dream about, at Blaxhall Common by the coast. It was a healthy distance from where I was staying, so to make it a day trip we set out to RSPB Minsmere, and with camera in hand, I was hoping for some photos.

By the entrance feeders, this female Chaffinch was having a bit of a shocker with her plumage. I mean that style is sooo last year...

The reserve is dominated by reedbed, and Sedge and Reed Warbler were in full song. Occasionally the odd Sedge Warbler would pop up, albeit distant...

Down along the beach, I failed to pinpoint any Little Terns, but we did get distant and brief glances of a Grey Seal out in the sea. Believe me, it is a seal...

Back down on the wader scrape, much of the water was dried up, but a small pool had been adopted by a family of Avocets...

The juveniles, note the hint of a greyish brown tinge to the plumage...

Despite the young birds large size, the adults were still very protective, and were constantly chasing away nearby Black-headed Gulls...

The gull then decided to take his revenge. Getting ready to give the Avocet a good old slap...

With the sun low in the sky, we decided to head off to our next and last location of the day, Blaxhall Common, in the hope of finding Nightjar. The conditions couldn't have been better with a warm temperature and no wind. The sunset...

A clearing in a woodland were the Nightjars were located...

As the sun went down, I was amazed to hear a Dartford Warbler singing and briefly showing in the gloom, but it was too dark to get a shot.

Then, right on queue at 9.30pm, we heard a churring noise in the distance... Nightjar! Another churring noise started in a tree to the left and it soon became apparent that there were at least two males calling. From then on until 11pm, the Nightjars churred non-stop and flew right over our heads on several occasions. It was too dark for an acceptable photo but we did record a video with churring in...

At 11pm, the noise started to die down and eventually stop, although it was starting to freak me out.

On the final day, we took a brief trip to Lackford Lakes SWT before I took the train back to London.

With the amount of luck we'd already had with the Nightjars and the seal, we decided to try our luck in the Reed Hide, famous for Kingfisher sightings. After a painstaking and ass-breaking 5 minutes of sitting still in the hide, a little blue bird came and sat in full view on the wooden post designated especially for it...

So there you go, two of my personal best wildlife experiences in two days. I think it's safe to say that it doesn't get much better than that. I'll leave you with a little ickle bunny wabbit, just chilling out. I definitly feel like a sit down after this post.

The Winning Streak Continues

2010-07-01T01:32:00.000+01:00

The Winning Streak Continues...

Actually, that title is pretty debatable. The winning streak actually started and finished about a week ago, but Mr BT Home Hub and the laptop haven't been getting on recently and so Mr Home Hub decided to muck up laptop's internet connection, stopping me from posting this earlier in the week when it actually happened... if you follow my strings. Luckily though, I got them to apologise to each other and the internet is now back to normal.

Anyway, the winning streak refers to Hawk-moths, and only the night after catching the Elephant Hawk-moth, I caught the garden's second species of Hawk-moth, the Lime Hawk-moth.

Not quite as pretty, but still a very smart looking guy...

Enjoy. I'll try not to bore you with moths too often, except when I get a really good one, I'll save most things moth related for this blog... worth a peek if you like what you see here.

Ever Caught A Pink Elephant?

2010-06-25T23:19:00.001+01:00

Ever Caught A Pink Elephant?

... I have, it was in the moth trap last night. No, it wasn't a real elephant, that would be a bit weird, and it wasn't a drug either... it was a brilliant Elephant Hawk-moth and I'm still physically shaking from the experience.

It all started when I came back from a gig and decide to put out the trap for a while. I wasn't expecting much as it was late. After 20 minutes, I heard 'the thud' that as any moth trapper will tell you, means that you need to run-to-the-trap-as-quickly-as-possible-because-you-have-something-big-on-your-hands.

With small container at the ready, the ones you put pee samples in (don't ask how I got them), I ran to the trap... and there it was.

You don't need to know my first thoughts because they included some bad words, but my second though was "I'm gonna need a bigger container", so I rushed back into the kitchen, came out with a large sandwich box and potted the moth, knowing I wouldn't get any sleep thinking about photographing the thing in the morning.

Morning came and I woke up at the bloody early time of 11am, instead of late afternoon... the things I'd do for a flippin' moth! I stuck it on a leaf and here is the finished result...

That is one stupidly beautiful moth.

Look at that thorax. Get a load of that trailing edge to the hindwing. Don't even get me started on the leading edge and that mouth watering basal cross-line. Kill me now please...

And if you thought that was all, think again. I also caught a Leopard Moth, another exotic looking moth that I'd ask out any day... if I was a moth...

And if your not already on the phone buying a heavy duty moth trap, then this should make you. A Blotched Emerald in all its blotched beauty. One of two which I also caught last night...

I'd just like to say that this is actually what these moths look like, so colour enhancing or stuff like that. Now if these moths don't rock your boat, flip your haystack or ruffle your feathers, then I don't know what will!

Fledgling Fotos

2010-06-19T22:36:00.002+01:00

Fledgling Fotos...

Just a few more photos of the local freshly fledgled Blue tits...

The feeding station, currently being refilled every two or three days- the greedy bastards.

Note the yellowish tinge to the plumage and undefined blue cap- all of which distinguishes this little guy from his old man and woman...

And changing the topic slightly, a Woodpigeon posed in front of the camera...

And I couldn't resist putting up this shot of an absolute stunner of a moth that I netted a couple of nights ago... it's called an Old Lady and is one of the moths that I've always wanted to see...

The end of the GCSEs are coming ever closer and apart from partying all summer, I'm also hoping to take a few trips further afield in search of some particular butterflies and birds. Last year I almost achieved a personal goal of seeing all the Skipper butterflies in the UK, with the exception of Chequered and Silver-spotted.

This year I'm hoping for such beauties as Purple Emperor, White Admiral and any Fritillary species (a family which totally eluded me last year! Heres hoping for good weather throughout the summer- watch this space!

Fat Greedy Little Birds

2010-06-10T20:48:00.001+01:00

Fat Greedy Little Birds...

It's good to see that the Blue tits nesting in next doors nestbox have fledged 4 healthy looking little balls of fluff. I put out a big block of fat for them and they seem to be attracted to it like magnets. At this age, the fledglings need to eat as much as they can, and ironically, they benefit from eating the fast food junk that would give our heart a run for it's money!

Like all new generations with sense, we like to give ourselves as little work to do as possible by making mum and dad do everything.

This is no different in the world of the Blue tit, and the adults were constantly bringing fat to the young, who were using up as little energy as possible through movement by perching, thus increasing the amount of biomass that could be converted into growth... If you didn't get a word I just said, don't worry- it seems that revising for GCSE Biology has left it's mark!

The fattest Blue tit I think I've ever seen...

I'm beginning to get afraid that it might have eaten it's younger, weaker siblings...

All this taking care of the young, both in and out of the nestbox, really takes its toll on the adults plumage condition... and during late summer and early autumn, both adults and young birds will undergo a moult in which they shed their worn breeding feathers, and change it instead for something a little less glamourous (in the case of the males) and a bit more clean.

I bet our Blue tits can't wait until the breeding seasons over looking at the state of one of the adults plumage last week!

However, it's not just the Blue tits that are bringing their young to the garden feeders. A family of Coal tits nested somewhere in the neighbourhood, and have also become frequent visitors to the seeds and fat that I put out.

Juveline Coal tit...

Due to being lower down the pecking order than Blue tits, the Coal tits had to patiently wait their turn, which could be quite a long time thanks to the fat fledgling (3 photos up) demanding seemingly endless amounts of food.

It seemed like there was only one adult Coal tit feeding the young...

However, the fledglings are quick learners and soon got the hang of... well... hanging on.

Another welcome surprise of this breeding season is a fantastic male Great-Spotted Woodpecker (identifiable from the female by the presence of a red patch on the back of the head) that has been visiting the garden over the last week and flying off with food to an unknown location somewhere across the road, presumably to feed it's young.

I attempted to get a close shot of the bird by setting myself up close to the feeders using the same method as in this post. As usual it failed, and being the secretive birds Woodpeckers are, flew off the second it landed- sensed a new object in the garden that wasn't there before.

I guess you'll just have to make do with this long shot...

Right now back to revising for Maths GCSE tomorrow. Algebraic quadratic simultaneous equations, reciprocals, vectors?!... I've got no chance.

Wish me luck!