Tuesday, 15 July 2025

More Moths

With our third heatwave of the summer in full spate I had the moth box out in the back yard on Thursday 10th July on what was a warm, still and humid night and early the next morning I had caught a good haul of moths including my first Jersey Tiger Moths of the year.

Jersey Tiger Moth - 1 of 3 in the trap

Coronet

Mullein Wave

Bird-cherry Ermine

Anania coronata (Elder Pearl)

Peppered Moth

As I was potting up the moths in the trap Birdy was watching me intently from the flat roof along with one of his parents, they both seemed very interested in what I was doing but there was none of the usual noise and aggression from the adult bird. 

Birdy 2025

Ever-watchful Herring Gull parent

I could also hear Ring-necked Parakeets screeching away as they were leaving their nearby roost while 2 Grey Herons, a Sparrowhawk and 4 Swifts were seen flying overhead, it certainly pays to be up at such an early hour sometimes. Later that morning David found a Hummingbird Hawkmoth buzzing around the flowers in the back yard, the first one we've seen in the garden for a few years now.

Birdy continues to thrive but there was quite the kerfuffle going on in the morning of Sunday 13th July, the adult birds were very twitched and very noisy and eventually we realised why when we saw that Birdy's sibling had leapt off our chimney stack and was now residing on the main roof of the building 2 doors down. Eventually things settled down and the sibling seemed settled there but at least we now knew that he's not going to appear in our living room grate. Interestingly he was much larger and more advanced than Birdy, maybe he hatched earlier or he is the more dominant of the 2 and has snaffled more of the food brought in by the adults.

Birdy watching with amusement the antics of his sibling on the roof

I had the moth box out in the back yard that night (13th July), it was warm and humid again but cooling down as the current heatwave begins to ease. I was woken up as usual at 5am the next morning (Monday 14th July) with the Herring Gulls making their usual racket  but I laid in bed for a while waiting for the daylight to improve. Around 6am I heard the sound of rain beginning to fall and so I leapt out of bed to sort the moth box out before it got soaked. Fortunately it was only a brief shower although it was enough to get everything wet and to spook the moths outside of the trap into flight.

I did have a decent haul of moths though but less than on my previous session and there were no Jersey Tiger Moths to be seen this time. However there were even higher numbers of Four-spotted Footman present, the most I've ever seen in the back yard, while the appearance of the first Large Yellow Underwing of the year blundering around the trap caused complete panic amongst the other moths and I lost a few of them before I managed to pot them up. 

Male and Female Four-spotted Footman

A Coronet and 3 Mullein Wave were good to see as always and other highlights included a Black Arches, 2 Dun-bar, a Dingy Footman and an Argyresthia goedartella.

Black Arches

Dun-bar

Argyresthia goedartella (Bronze Alder Moth)

While sorting out the moths an adult Herring Gull came in to feed Birdy, it yacked up a lurid orange blob of something which Birdy wouldn't touch so it swallowed it again and flew off. Perhaps this is why Birdy is smaller because he's a bit of a fussy mare with his food!

I also had a look and a listen out for Birdy's sibling up on the roof but there was no sight or sound of him and this continued as the morning wore on. I eventually went out into the street for a proper look about but there was still no sign of him and I was beginning to get a bad feeling about things. Sadly I soon found him dead in the middle of the road having been run over by a car, he must have continued his descent from the roof and ended up down on the ground. A tragic end to one of our Herring Gull chicks this year but at least Birdy is safe and sound (for the moment).

Thursday, 10 July 2025

Birdy 2025 Arrives

I headed out to Wembury for a short walk on Tuesday 1st July but a late start meant I didn't arive there off the bus until 10:45am. It wasn't too busy though along my coast path walk which was surprising as it was a hot and sunny day. The tide was high and beginning to ebb and along the beach 2 Little Egret, 7 Mallard (6 males) and 7 Oystercatcher were seen. A Whimbrel and a second summer Mediterranean Gull were also present and hinting that while it may be July Autumn is already appearing on the horizon.

The hot weather brought out plenty of butterflies with an impressive 15 species seen. Ringlets were very noticeable, they seem to be having a good year this year, and Small Whites were also present in good numbers too having presumably arrived recently from the Continent with many looking quite worn. Also seen were a Small Copper, a Wall Brown, a Green-veined White, a Painted Lady, a Peacock, a Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Common Blue, Large White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and Small Skipper. 

Gatekeeper

There were good numbers of Sand-tailed Digger Wasps along the bone dry mud path, all busily buzzing around their nesting holes in the soil, and I was pleased to find my first Bee Wolf and Ferruginous Bee-Grabber of the year too.

Sand-tailed Digger Wasps (Cerceris arenaria or Weevil Wolf)

Ferruginous Bee Grabber - funky name, funky looking

I had to cancel a butterfly trip up to Aish Tor with Mavis on Wednesday 2nd July due to not feeling well but I did have a gentle walk around Mount Edgecumbe with David on Thursday 3rd July on what was another hot and sunny day. I didn't take my binoculars or camera with me which was a big mistake as I had some nice wildlife sightings including Silver-washed Fritillaries flitting about, 2 Hummingbird Hawkmoths feeding on flowers, an adult Mediterranean Gull flying down river and a Dark Giant Horsefly which was very large and quite ponderous in flight as it buzzed around people sat outside the cafe.

Dark Giant Horsefly - sat on my shoulder and taken with my phone

Birdy 2025 duly made his grand entrance into our living room grate on Monday 7th July and fortunately just as we were leaving the house to go for walk at Saltram. Noises were first heard in the chimney on Saturday 5th July with an increase in activity the following day. It was quieter on the Monday though until a lot of scrabbling, falling soot and then a loud thump was heard as he plopped down on to the grate flap. He was uninjured as we quickly got him out of the fireplace with the help of a towel, he looked very cute and also bemused by his experience but was silent and quite docile. I quickly ran over to the nearby Tesco and bought some tinned Mackerel to feed to him and which he wolfed down before we placed him on the flat roof next door.

Birdy 2025

Mum quickly came down from the chimney stack to investigate, there was no aggression and she quickly regurgitated some food for him. Soon after Dad arrived and did the same and without any hint of aggression either so they appeared to have quickly re-accepted him after his 2 day abscence from them. However this year he is one of two chicks and the second chick is still up on the chimney stack so we may have to go through all of this again, hopefully this one will avoid the chimney flue route altogether and jump down onto the flat roof himself as has happened in other years but we will have to wait and see.

Our slightly delayed walk around Saltram was enjoyable despite my still not feeling that great, there was not much going on as expected but there were 21 Curlew roosting on Blaxton Meadow as the tide headed in and it was nice to see a good number of juvenile Black-headed Gulls amongst the adults roosting there too.

Mandarin

I caught the bus out to Wembury again on Wednesday 9th July to meet up with my mate Mavis for a wildlife walk. It felt pleasantly warm on arriving off the bus at 9:45am with the skies mostly sunny and with just a gentle breeze and we started things off by watching the activity around the Bee Wolf and Sand-tailed Digger Wasp burrows at the main beach.

Bee Wolf

Things soon started to warm up though as the cloud cleared and the breeze dropped and by the end of our walk it was feeling very hot indeed although a bit of sea mist did briefly roll in. The hot conditions did mean we had plenty of insect activity to keep us occupied though and we had an interesting walk.

We found 13 species of Butterfly on the wing - a Small Tortoiseshell, a Painted Lady, 2 Peacock, 2 Green-veined White and 4 Red Admiral along with Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Small White, Speckled Wood, Large White, Ringlet and Wall Brown.

Small Tortoiseshell

Wall Brown

A few 6-Spot Burnet were seen feeding on Thistle flowers but an interesting find was a Sitochroa palealis (or Carrot Seed Moth), a new moth for me.

Sitochroa palealis (or Carrot Seed Moth)

Sitochroa palealis (or Sulphur Pearl)

It was quiet on the bird front as expected but the 8 adult Mediterranean Gulls roosting out on the rocks on the dropping tide were all still sporting their breeding plumage and we were very pleased to find a pair of Dartford Warbler with 2 juveniles flitting about at at The Point while worryingly a female Sparrowhawk was stealthily hunting nearby. There were also 2 noisy Green Woodpeckers in some dead trees around the upper horse field where 4 Ravens were feeding and the only other sighting of note was a Swift overhead at the bus stop while waiting to catch the bus back to Plymouth.