Bawdsey Moths

 

Back at the end of July we spent a week at Bawdsey on the Suffolk coast. We were pet sitting for family whilst they took a well deserved holiday. Was this a charitable act on our part to help out some nice people or did we view it as a free weeks holiday in a lovely part of the country. Actually it was a bit of both but if I am honest a week away with the promise of some good mothing made for an easy decision.

Given the poor returns so far this year, in our garden on the south coast, a real rural retreat offered the promise of some decent catches.

Although we had a couple of windy night, the weather for the rest of the week was good and resulted in a few busy mornings identifying and photographing the moths. I never have time to photograph them all but a few of the more interesting ones are shown below. Most are firsts for the year or ones that I don't see very often but there are a couple of micros that were new for me and also my first Small Rivulet.

Barred Hook-tip - Watsonalla cultraria

Beautiful Hook-tip - Laspeyria flexula

    

Bullrush Veneer - Calamotropha paludella

Burnished Brass - Diachrysia chrysitis

Chestnut Leafroller - Pammene fasciana

Cinnabar - Tyria jacobaeae

Cloaked Minor - Mesoligia furuncula

Dun-bar - Cosmia trapezina

Ear Moth - Amphipoea agg

Ear Moth, there are are four species of these moths in the genus Amphipoea they are difficult to tell apart and can only be confidently identified by gentitalia examination. This specimen is most likely to be the Ear Moth Amphipoea oculea, the other less common species being, Large Ear Amphipoea lucens, Saltern Ear Amphipoea fucusa, and Crinan Ear Amphipoea crinanensis.

You can only wonder at the Victorian entomologists that managed to determine that there were four species and to identify the differences between them. Particularly given the limited equipment they would have been working with.

Festoon - Apoda limacodes

Gold Triangle - Hypsopygia costalis

Gorse Wanderer - Brachmia blandella

The next I can only identify as Cnephasia sp. Perhaps if I had taken more and clearer pictures I could have made a better attempt at identification but these species really require dissection to be get an acceptable record.

 Cnephasia sp.

Large Emerald - Geometra papilionaria

Privet Hawk-moth - Sphinx ligustri

Small Fan-footed Wave - Idaea biselata

My first Small Rivulet.

Small Rivulet - Perizoma alchemillata

Smoky Wainscot - Mythimna impura

Southern Wainscot - Mythimna straminea

Another difficult one to identify. It looks good for Spotted Knot-horn - Phycitodes binaevella but again I should really have taken more pictures and a less worn specimen would help.

Spotted Knot-horn - Phycitodes binaevella

Uncertain - Hoplodrina octodenaria

If the identification of the next moth is correct, it is a relatively rare find, being an occasional immigrant species that has recently established colonies in Britain. New for me.

Mugwort Tortrix - Eucosma metzneriana

And another immigrant species again new for me.

Marbled Yellow Pearl - Evergestis extimalis

I am just hoping that I get invited to help out again next year.

Tobago 1- The Blue Water Inn

 

LATE REPORT OF A BIRDING TRIP BACK IN APRIL

A trip to Trinidad and Tobago and a stay at the ASA Wright Centre centre has been on my "to do list" for many years. However it's not cheap and a full on birding holiday like that, would not go down too well with Sue. Worse still, neither of the two options, of take her with me or leave her at home, were likely to have had a favourable outcome!

Then I managed to come up with a compromise, a cheap, fully inclusive week, at the Blue Water Inn on Tobago. The Blue Water Inn is on a lot of the Trinidad and Tobago birding itineraries. It is in a remote bay, on the north of the island, close to some of the best birding locations and it had bedrooms with verandas, opening up straight on to the beach. One look at the web site was enough to sell it to Sue, it was her dream location, and at about a quarter of the price of an organised birding tour I was all for it.

There was a downside, Tobago only has about half the number of bird species of Trinidad but that would be enough to keep me going for a week.

So, five blogs, birding around the Blue Water; Little Tobago; A day out with Newton George, More Time with Newton George and Common Potoo.

The Blue Water grounds are surrounded by hill forest and dense undergrowth, most of it impenetrable, but birding the grounds and the main track running through the area gave plenty of opportunities. Birds were everywhere particularly during the period after dawn and before dusk.  The morning chorus was deafening with most of the noise coming from the national bird of Tobago, the Rufous-vented Chachalaca.

Rufous -vented Chachalaca

Hearing birds was easy, seeing them and then getting a good picture, through the dense undergrowth proved to be a lot harder.

I saw a few of these Barred Antshrikes but the shots below were the best I could get. There is quite a difference between the male and female markings.

Barred Antshrike

Barred Antshrike (Female)

Other birds in the area included:-

Carib Garckle

House Wren

Shiny Cowbird (Female)

White-fringed Antwren

White-tipped Pigeon

This Yellow-crowned Night Heron was one of a pair that flew onto the beach whilst we sat having lunch. The first flew into a tree where it was difficult to see but this one was happy taking a gentle stroll along the beach whilst the diners took pictures of it. Probably one of my best shots of the holiday and it took no skill or field craft to get it.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Black-faced Grassquit

Blue-black Grassquit

Blue-grey Tanager

Caribbean Martin

Pale-vented Pigeon

Palm Tanager

Spectacled Thrush

And our two most common species, making regular appearances just outside our room and scavenging at breakfast.

 

Mocking Bird

Bananaquit

The Banaquit male was attempting to build a nest in one of the light fittings in the restaurant. He would make repeated visits with nesting material which he carefully wove into the nest structure. When he flew off the female would appear to make modifications and dispose of bits she did not like. Then each evening the nest material was cleared away by the hotel staff (a fire hazard ).

For the seven days we were there he duly returned every morning and started over again whilst his partner watched on, scolding him for the lack of progress. Sad to watch but there was no easy solution.

A Black-throated Mango nesting in a tree on the beach in front of the hotel rooms.

and a better shot of the same species (not at the nest).

Black-throated Mango

Copper-rumped Hummingbird

A Ruby-topaz Hummingbird - really stunning if you manage to get the lighting right - which I didn't.

Ruby-topaz Hummingbird

White-necked Jacobin

Four of the six hummingbirds on the island seen around the hotel area. Pictures of the other two on later blogs.

Tobago 2 - Little Tobago

 

Little Tobago is an island located about a mile off the North East coast of Tobago. It takes about fifteen minutes on a glass bottomed boat from the pier at the Blue Water Inn. 

The island is protected and is a great place to see migratory sea birds. You can only visit the island with an official guide and the boats trips usually combine a visit to the island with snorkelling over the coral reefs in the Blue Water Bay. Great if you like snorkelling, not so good if you wanted longer on the island.

There were lots of birds on the island. We saw the target sea birds but I am sure there were a lot more to be seen if we had more time.

There is a colony of Laughing Gulls on little Tobago and they were a very common bird around the Blue Water grounds. It was strange to see so many of them when I have travelled hundreds of miles back home in England to see one as a rare visitor to our shores.

Laughing Gull

The Yellow-bellied Elaenia, a fairly common bird around the Blue Water grounds but this one photographed on the Island

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Then from the high point on the island, the birds we had come to see:- Magnificent Frigate Bird, Brown Booby, Red-footed Booby, Red-billed Tropic Bird

Magnificent Frigate Bird

Red-billed Tropic Bird

Red-billed Tropic Bird

Red-footed Booby

Flybys by the birds were mostly too distant for good photographs and the shots of the Brown Boobys were too distant to publish here, but we did see the occasional Red-billed Tropic Bird roosting on the ground, close enough to touch.

Red-billed Tropic Bird

We also saw short-tailed Swifts which I was unable to get in focus in the time I had available and we were shown nesting holes for Audubon's Shearwaters with young in the nests. The adults would not return until after dark and we could not disturb the young. So close to a life tick but it doesn't count.

I should perhaps have explored the possibility of getting more time on the island but with plenty of other places to visit, it did not seem worth the expense.