Smelly moths & a Woodchat Shrike

Painted Lady, Bovingdon Brickworks

Bovingdon Brickworks (BMT): If the weather thinks that by throwing in a reasonable day of sunshine yesterday, I’ll forget the preceding week of grey skies, showers and low temperatures, it’s sadly mistaken. Last week was one of those unremarkable, uninspiring, plodding sort of weeks. Even netting a Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua) near a Brickworks Buddleja didn’t return the spring to my step although reading about this day-flying species afterwards was fascinating. Antennae so sensitive that they can sniff out a female more than a mile away! And, whilst the males are blessed with these extraordinary scent detectors, the females are flightless and basically live to “stink” and reproduce. I’m glad I’m not a Vapourer moth!

A very worn and slightly disabled male Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua). 

The moth requires both antennae to be in tact in order to determine the direction of scent and to navigate accurately. 

The close up shows the antennae are covered with thousands of tiny hairlike olfactory receptors

I had hoped the Painted Lady passage would continue this week but, if there were any around, they weren’t flying or visible: both are possibilities due to the weather and the inaccessibility of the scrub in their favoured area. In spite of that, most visits have included c5 of each fresh Red Admirals, Peacocks and Speckled Woods, 2-3 fresh Brimstones, 2-3 Small Tortoiseshells & Commas, a fresh Small Copper, a few Common Blues, Whites sp, worn Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers and, on Friday, a very tatty Ringlet.

Still plenty of noisy Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps around or passing through, and there are large family parties of Goldfinches throughout the site and smaller groups of Linnets.

On Friday, during a spell of sunshine, one of the Southern Hawker females perched up for a moment.

Yesterday, I escaped the local and got to see a new bird: a Woodchat Shrike. A juvenile turned up on Friday at Blakehill NR, near Cricklade in Wiltshire, and, much to everyone’s relief, had stayed put overnight. The species’ nearest breeding territory is southern Europe, whilst winters are spent in open bush country in Africa, south of the Sahara. This youngster had obviously found itself blown in the wrong direction and will hopefully get back on a northerly, heading south, in good time. Although not quite where it’s supposed to be, it was feeding very well, flying to the ground, catching grasshoppers and other large insects and returning to a perch to devour them. It remained pretty distant (100+ metres away) but that’s what telescopes are for, I guess.

Blakehill NR, location of Woodchat Shrike plus the worst digiscoped photos ever! Heat haze + distance = cr*p photos.
Still, you can just make out the pale rump, pale scapular patch and pale primary panel on the bird.

A Hummer in the Sun

Bovingdon (BMT): Almost 30°C yesterday with blazing sunshine. I got lucky with the/a Hummingbird Hawk-moth briefly coming to the Buddleja at the Brickworks again. Managed to get 6x the shutter speed possible last Thursday, which still isn’t fast enough but about as good as I can get with my equipment. Decided the image worked better with the Hawk-moth “colour popped”. In the afternoon, another (or the same) Hawk-moth was feeding on Buddleja elsewhere on site.

6 Painted Ladies yesterday, all around the same Buddleja and all new except one which had lingered from the previous day.

A Hummer & the Ladies

Disappointment awaits those looking for hulking great SUVs draped with scantily clad dames (fortunately...or unfortunately, depending on your perspective). This is strictly Lepidoptera content, starting with the fab little Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) that swooped in only seconds after I rocked up at the Buddleja.

Bovingdon (BMT): Thursday was dark and damp and I really didn’t think much would be flying at the Brickworks. But, it never ceases to amaze me just how critical, and yet how seemingly random, timing can be. At the entrance to the site, there’s a large Buddleja bush, and it’s always my first stop. Yesterday, I arrived and almost simultaneously, in came a Hummingbird Hawk-moth, totally transforming the stagnant gloom into vivid, buoyant, frenzied action. Darting, hovering and feeding before finally being chased off by a teeny, weeny fly; I enjoyed every second it was in sight. Had I arrived a minute later, I would have missed it. A few minutes earlier and I might have carried on, ignorant of its approach. I really did feel extremely fortunate to have seen it and although the photographs don’t do it justice (no chance of a fast shutter speed unfortunately), I was chuffed to get them. For more on Hummingbird Hawk-moths, this RSPB article is short but packed with great info.

Earlier in the week, there had been a big influx of passage Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs and, in the sunshine, Red Admirals, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Commas, Common Blues, Small and Large Whites, Speckled Woods, a Holly Blue, a Small Copper and a few worn Meadow Browns and Gate Keepers kept me busy. There’s also been a steady passage of the migrant Painted Lady butterflies. Ostensibly, they seem to stay less than 24 hours. The one I found on Monday had gone when I next visited on Wednesday but another was in its place. That too had moved on and was replaced by a further 2 on Thursday. Today, another had arrived but Wednesday’s specimen had returned and one from the previous day had lingered but incurred some damage to the rear of its hindwings. All of this week’s Painted Ladies have turned up in the same small area, rich in flowering Buddleja. This species’ obvious tendency to wander does make me wonder just how many are actually passing through at the times I’m not on site?!

The best way I’ve found of keeping track of butterflies is using photography. No two Painted Ladies are the same, as far as I can work out. Variations in their mottled patterning and/or the presence of wear or damage makes it possible to recognise individuals. I’ve definitely seen at least 9 specimens so far this year at the Brickworks with a 10th likely (on 18th June) and an 11th on another visit when I was looking for something else and didn’t take much notice or photograph it. Below are the 9 certainties and their date stamps (including the 2 repeats from today). Collated like that, they look rather beautiful and I'm glad I've kept a record, although, how long I keep it up remains to be seen!

Digiscoping: The Ruff Cut

Just a quick post this evening with some photos and video footage of the juvenile Ruff roaming the west quadrant of Wilstone reservoir today. Unfortunately, the Wood Sandpiper, which had been feeding alongside it, had legged it to the far bank of the reservoir moments before I arrived. The distant south quadrant was the Sandpiper Savoy today: 5 Green Sandpipers, 3 Common Sandpipers and the Wood Sandpiper were all resting and refuelling there.

So, I was using the Ruff as digiscoping practice (whilst also admiring its fresh, spangly, juvenile plumage, of course!). It was 60-80 metres away, feeding, preening and at times roosting. Conditions were overcast, grey and cool, with an occasional breeze. The results aren’t too bad considering the lack of light and distance involved. Once again, the white balance is off and I’ve not been able to correct it in post-processing. I need to test out other camera white balance settings and see if I can fix it at source. Photos and video were digiscoped (Swaro ATS80HD, x30W EP, Swaro DCA, Panasonic DMC-G3, 20mm f1.7).