Nature review of 2020 - part 1 of 2 - January to end of June

Nature review of the first half of 2020. 

I stayed local for most of the lockdown period but enjoyed some great mothing in my garden and regular trips, mostly by bike to my local patch in search of bird migrants. The goat moth was the undoubted highlight for me.

20 January: Dr Ball and I searching for grebes at Rutland Water earlier today. Four types so far. One more to go. Some lovely smew about.

21: Jan: Spoke to a dog walker whilst out birding yesterday. He mentioned that a swan pair had got a total of seven young. He said that he had named them the “Cygnificent Seven”.

A quality pun, and I praised him warmly on it.

One of group of four birders has been teleported somewhere else. Norfolk February

5 Feb: Not every day that you can see a seal and an otter inland in Peterborough. These two mammals are obviously water sports enthusiasts - seal on rowing lake, otter on water sports lake. Thanks to Mike Weedon for the tip off.

Lightning struck tree at Old Sulehey A quick visit this afternoon to this wood near Wansford, east Northamptonshire. An ancient wood that retains an air of mystery and a lot of surface water.

A pair of roe deer today east of millennium bridge Peterborough. The photos were taken by holding an iPhone up to a telescope. It’s tricky to get it aligned but I don’t want to pay £20 or more for a bit of plastic to hold it in place. The photos have a painterly quality which I quite like.

Took

Sue Leeks

and my camera to try to see the otter at Ferry Meadows. No show from the piscavorian mustelid, but there were two kingfishers, this obliging heron, lots of nice polite people with small talk about mill ponds and fine scones and coffee at Lakeside. You wouldn’t wanna be a fish at Ferry Meadows with all these predators.

Sue out cycling at Star Pit. 

Angle Shades moth

Cycling along the bank of the Nene Washes

Apr 16: Yes I know the lambs are cute, but that’s not why I exercise cycled out to Basenhally on the Nene Washes this morning. Black tailed godwits on their breeding ground! Oh yes indeed, all hail Limosa limosa limosa (the scientific name).

We are so incredibly privileged in Peterborough to have them on our doorstep. In fact it’s by far the best place in the Uk to see them breeding. Arguably its the finest regular wildlife experience that’s available in the Peterborough area at any time of the year. They are getting on with their nuptials right now, with noisy display flights. And if they are viewed from Bassenhally you won’t disturb them in any way. I saw five even though I only cycled 200 meters along this bank. I erred on the cautious side and didn’t take my telescope and tripod because I didn’t want people to think that I was stretching the definition of exercise too far. The ditch bordered field in the picture has anti predator electric fences around it, installed by RSPB at great expense to protect these incredible and ultra rare birds.

Woodwalton Fen bungalow

my main sites visited in 2020 - all close to my home.

common Terns newly arrived along the Nene

a pair of very cute little ringed plovers

black tailed godwit at Tanholt Pit. 2020 was the best year yet for spring passage waders at this site.

Millenium  Bridge East of Peterborough

Cycle birding was my main type of birding in 2020. Telescope and tripod carried on my back.

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iffy photo of a peregrine on the power station chimney

pale tussock moth - impressive antennae.

Pre breakfast ride out to Star Pit. What an aural landscape when the A47 is quieter.

Bitterns booming, grasshopper warblers reeling, great spotted woodpeckers drumming, water rails “sharming”, Lesser Whitethroats (new in from Africa) rattling, green woodpeckers yaffling, Cetti’s warblers as loud as operatic divas, chiffchaffs chiffchaffing.

Its a remarkable avian assemblage for an urban fringe site.

But before I get too carried away, these sounds are all, as someone once crudely told me, intended to send out a blunt message. “F*ck me! Or F*ck off!”.

Not so innocent and charming now my little feathered friends, are you?

I still love and cherish them all though! It’s great (and moving) to see them carrying on with their lives (where we allow them the space to do so). Meanwhile us humans spend all our time struggling and often failing to do the right things.

24 April:Amazing! A NIGHTINGALE at Ferry Meadows. Been there about 4 days now.

I wasn’t sure where this bird was but soon tracked it down and early this morning I found myself lurking in the shrubbery trying to get a recording, or perhaps a glimpse of the songster. There was no one else in sight and I was very much in the zone. Enraptured you might say.

A bizarre thing then happened. I looked up and saw a man close by with a blue cycling helmet, glasses and binoculars. I convinced myself that I was looking at a reflection of myself. And then I realised it was a fellow lurker. I scuttled away somewhat discombobulated.

Dr Ball with his sound recording kit.

muslin moth

Virginia: 

"I went cycle-bird watching this morning, very socially distant. I learnt lots and it was an amazing experience.Lovely words of David Chambers describing our day.

One of my favorite things was to see how Dave was trying to guide me to hear what he was hearing, and recognize it.

Sometimes with mnemotechnic ideas or words to remember... like the one around the Cetti Warbler: "I'm a cetti, I'm a cetti, I'm a cetti, if you don't like it you can f*** off" (correct me if I am wrong in this quotation ).

Now I know who that loud singing voice in that bush I always hear belongs to.

Amazing overall. Love birds. The more I learn about them the more I love them

Gracias por tu tiempo y experiencia Dave "

Poplar kitten

two traps ready

Midnight last night, and an enormous grey moth, bigger than a large yellow underwing, and not a hawkmoth, was seen and heard flapping about the clematis growing up a wall besides my actinic trap. I couldn’t work out what it might be. It was making almost as much noise as a hedgehog.

I fetched the kiddies pond net to try to catch it, but it eluded me. As I stood waiting and searching, kiddies net in hand, a large insect landed on my back (I was wearing a light coloured t shirt which was illuminated by the uv light of my trap). Just as I was considering waking Sue up to help me, I heard a thud, possibly of something substantial hitting the perspex on the moth trap. I had a quick look at the trap, but saw nothing and as I didn’t have a torch, I didn’t investigate further. Probably a cockchafer (a large beetle) I thought. Roll forward to 5am - first moth I saw peacefully resting inside the trap - goat moth! Instantly recognisable when at rest.First ever sighting. Extraordinary beast. A proper bruiser. And nationally scarce. It’s called a goat moth because the larvae smell of goats apparently. They take five years to grow to full size, eating wood inside a standing tree. Any big moth gets to pose on Sue Leeks hand before being released unharmed. These adult beasts don’t eat, they just mate, and die.

Light brocade

Puss moth - my favourite and cutest moth photo of the year

broad barred white

pale prominent

privet hawkmoth

Sue and I out and about - Baston Fen I think

I was up til nearly 2 last night having an elicit non socially distanced party with the moths in the garden. Then up briefly and blearily at 4 ish to cover up the traps to deter the hungry blackbirds and robins. Three hours of sleep, up at 7.30 to go through the traps.There were several beauties. This is a small elephant hawkmoth

another small elephant

green silver lines

buff tip moth. amazing mimicry of a twig

poplar hawkmoth

burnished brass

barred yellow

27 May: Heard my first Uk quail this evening near Crowland. Amazed that birders make these discoveries in unpromising arable farmland. My previous quail experience was in Malta where I watched a hunter, abetted by a very hard working spaniel, shoot 10 of these odd little birds in an hour. he tucked each of the corpses into his belt. The sound tonight, “wet-my-lips”, transported me instantly back to Malta where parts of the island would be filled with the looped pre recorded quail calls to attract them to guns and nets.

28 May Tanholt Pit near eye this morning. A sight I rarely see but something for everyone to look out for at this time of year. - A great crested grebe chick on its parent’s back. It was only one, but it was quite large. In its striped attire the baby grebe looked like a jockey on a racehorse. Shame, no photo.

One of those moths that take your breath away with their clean cut beauty and neatness.

A scarce silver lines, just arrived in my garden onto a white sheet. No colour enhancement.

Eyed hawkmoth. What a stunner

bee orchid at Swaddywell

In a change to moths and birds,

Sue Leeks

and I had a stroll around the other Worldly amphitheater that is Swaddywell Pit. First visit it three years! So atmospheric on a sultry afternoon. I didn’t get a photo but the creepy exuviae of dragon flies in the pond encapsulated the place very well. (The site has a chequered history).

Great showing of three types of orchids.

buff tip moth

a sparrowhawk with food in our garden

A commotion in the apple tree.

Bark blackened by pouring rain.

A small young bird struggles for its life,

A talon clamping it’s neck to a branch.

Four claws. Four death sentences.

Gasping for air.

Life not viable now,

plucked away as it squirms.

I don’t want to look.

I don’t want to take my eyes off it.

The predator balances like a gymnast on a beam.

Adjustments.

Grace.

“Evil” Olga Korbett.

The ruthless butcher of Gildenburgh

Serial killer with a taste for blood

And other absurd anthropomorphisms.

But by all measures seems to know exactly what to do.

Programmed.

A young hawk I think, recently fledged perhaps.

Daffodil yellow eye constantly monitoring everything.

Wing lifted and held up by hooked beak, stretched and stripped like a ziplock.

Feathers fall in the rain.

Beak of victim closes and opens and closes but now falls still.

Body held still under the foot.

Shiny red berry like flesh manifests

then a smear of blood.

From catch to death, possibly 2 minutes.

From catch to chances of survival, probably 10 seconds.

All lives matter

Om mani padme hum.

rain during the moth trap emptying

Solstice (ish) sunrise swallowtail.

A moth that many would think is a butterfly. Two this morning. Quite common. Have you seen one?

Willow beauty on a wall.

Latticed heath. A day flying moth seen at Fermyn Woods.

Fermyn Woods on the hunt for butterflies

Pine hawk moth. A first for the garden. Last night it flew into the bedroom and scared the bejesus out of

Sue Leeks

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four spotted moth. A real local speciality. My first one ever.

Coronet posing on a moth book

22 June: This afternoon I have mostly prone beside our tiny duckweed swamped pond watching semaphore flies. If you have a garden pond, I’d suggest looking out for them. The males make semaphore signals with their wings which translate to “I want to f**k you”. The females in nearly all cases just ignore them. Then after the wing waggle, there’s the flight a centimetre over the top of the female, an ultra rapid reverse thrust and back to the starting point, about 3cm from the female. And repeat. And repeat. And get ignored. Again. And give up and walk away to try another female. And keep going like this all day. The males look about as successful in their amorous gyrations as I was in my 20s in numerous nightclubs. Ie it looks like a complete waste of time. Maybe they get it on when I’m not watching.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poecilobothrus_nobilitatus

30 June: my birthday picnic venue. Woodwalton Fen. We saw purple emperor butterflies here

Sue and I on my birthday butterfly hunt