Convolvulus Hawk-moth comes home!

I usually try not to repeat thing to often or two close to each other but in this case I make no apologies. This stunning Convolvulus Hawk-moth was trapped overnight in the garden. When it opened its wings it had the brightest body of any that I have seen. This is the fifth one here, one in 2003 was found dead in the greenhouse on Sept 3rd, 2003 and then three in 2006, on Sept 9th and 26th and Oct 10th.

Birding was slow today at Bockhill, but the big excitement was along the road at Pegwell Bay, where the Fan-tailed Warbler (Zitting Cisticola) that put in a brief appearance yesterday, was refound today. I haven't seen any pictures of it yet, I guess it was elusive, they're never that easy to photograph. If it hangs around I could go along for a look, but it is the sort of bird that normally makes for much standing about and only brief views.

It's not Dracula

A few more moths last night including two Feathered Gothics. The feathered comes from the nature of the males antennae, but the two I caught were females so the antennae were plain.

Feathered Gothic (Tholera decimalis)

This is one of the moths that has an intricate pattern of lines and shapes which would challenge many artists to produce something as perfect. I presume that it is this pattern that gives it the name "Gothic" as applied to the pointed arches and rib vaulting of 15th century cathedrals rather than anything to do with Gothic literature.

I like this sideways on angle, it shows of the way the lines radiate form the "shoulder" and then spread to the base of the wing, with a little arrowhead between each pair of lines. These were the first I've caught since 2005, and all six that I've had have been between Sept 3rd and 24th.

Large Thorn (Ennomos autumnaria)

The first large Thorn of the year appeared last night. This is a male and does have feathered antennae. Like several of the Thorns, this moth sits with its wings about two thirds open, forming a shallow V. It is quite variable, some having much heavier speckling than this one. It is a scarce species, occurring locally in a few counties in the south-east of England, but it is possible that this is a migrant. The caterpillars feed on a wide selection of trees.

Dusky Thorn (Ennomos fuscantaria)

A Dusky Thorn was present for comparison. It sits in much the same way but is much smaller. It has a longer flight period and I catch then from the second week of August To the third week of September. It is a much commoner moth then the Large Thorn and the larvae feed on Ash.

Willow Chiffs

A group of Spotted Flycatchers at the farm wood this morning moved on soon after I started watching them. Gerald Segelbacher good a couple of good pictures of them at the top of the trees.

While we were watching the Spotted Flycatchers at the top of the trees behind the farmyard Gerald noticed a Little Owl watching up. It looks quite fluffy and seems to still have some down among the newer feathers. I presume this is a recently fledged younster.

There were a few Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs about, juvenile Willow Warblers have the complete underparts a rather nice shade of pale yellow.

Along with the warblers Blue Tits and Great Tits are beginning to form feeding flocks that move in circuits round the chosen feeding territories. I haven't detected any differences in how the two leaf warblers feed, although I suspect that there may be some subtle differences.

This Blue Tit seems to have its head on backwards.

The yellow feet and paler legs of the Willow Warbler help separate it from the Chiffchaff. In addition the Willow Warbler has longer wings, the primary projection being about equal to the length of the tertials. This is often said to be because the Willow Warbler is a longer distance migrant than the Chiffchaff, but I'm not sure that this is the whole story, there are several quite short winged passerines that migrate longer distances than Chiffchaffs.

It not yet Christmas and the trees are being decorated, unfortunately by some moronic dog walkers who, having put their dog's poo in polythene bags hang it on trees rather than take it home and bin it. If you know or see any of these disgusting, antisocial people, please tell them to stop doing it and to behave more responsibly.

A fuller list of the birds found at Bockill today can be seen on the Bockhill page of the KOS Website.

I ran my moth traps last night, but there were so few moths that it was really a waste of time. except ofr my first Gallium Carpet of the year.

A last anecdote. I went to Tesco's this evening, mainly to get some bits and pieces that Pam needed for her Chutney making. I wanted two Kg of raisins, but they only had one Kg in stock. The young lady who I asked about it told me, that it was because people were getting prepared for Christmas, I have to say that I think that is a load of...................

Washed out

I've not run my moth traps for two nights. The heavy rain a couple of nights ago got into the electrics and I've had to dry everything out and replace two lamps. I'm not sure why, but both my black lamps were dead, although they didn't seem to have got wet and the power tripped out, which should have protected them. A bit annoying because they are expensive and I only had one spare. A couple of moths that appeared before the switch off, caught my eye.

Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica)

This little moth(2cm wing-span) is more at home on a wall or rock, but it doesn't show up so well against a stone background. As the name implies it is often found on houses. I don't catch many here, but previously, when we lived in Crayford, it was very common.

Toadflax Pug (Eupithecia linariata)

The even smaller (wing-span about 15mm) Toadflax Pug is one of the more distinctive pugs, a group that can be very difficult to identify to species. The small greenish caterpillars feed in the flowers and seed pods of common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) and cultivated snapdragons (Antirrhinum)

It's that time of year again. Lots of gulls, in this case all Herring Gulls, and the hope that some time a rarity will turn up amongst them. At them moment I haven't even seen a Mediterranean Gull locally this autumn. Dave seems to be making nice curves in the field.

Going back in time

A while ago Ann Milne left a note about a house named Uplands in the Droveway, where here parents lived in the 1970's and 80's. At the time I failed to find it. Ann has now sent me some photos of the house from some years ago.

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This is taken before the house was modified and is from pre-1922.

This is after the house was modified in c.1922. The fence and the gate are the same as in the first picture, presumably they were taken just before and just after the changes.

The photo above was taken in 1980 and it isn't very different to now.

This is uplands now, the hedge has grown and the windows have changed, but it is still quite recognisable as the house that Ann's parents lived in.

I hope the current owners don't mind me featuring their house, it obviously has an interesting history that I'm sure they will know about.

A walk around the farm and the freedown this afternoon was a bit uncomfortable in the windy conditions but there were a few birds around.

The group of Linnets that were feeding on the remains of the stubble became very agitated when an adult Hobby flew through. I hoped that it might hang around but it seemed to keep going.

Along the fence there were two or three Yellowhammers, that dived into the bushes as I walked along and this white tailed Corn Bunting. Four Wheatears and one Whinchat flitted along the fence in front of me and a Swift flew over, moving west.

Beached

Dotterel that flew over Jack and Phil the other day, and I couldn't resist going to see the bird that's been on the beach at Sandwich for a couple of days.

When I got to the right spot it was sitting quietly on the beach.

It did have a preen for a short while, but most of the time it was content to sit tight in the howling wind.

As with many Dotterels it was very confiding and took little notice of the camera. It did jump up and go for a short walk when a small dead plant almost blew into it after a particularly strong gust of wind.

From behind the two supercilium can be seen to join at the back.

Juvenile Dotterels and not as colourful as the adults but even so they are striking looking birds.

As I left it another big gust had made it briefly stand up, but it settled down into another little hollow a yard or so long the beach.

This was taken with an 80mm lens. More photos here.

On the way back I had a quick look at the Restharrow Scrape, that is now all but devoid of water. A few birds were coming down to drink in the puddles that were left, including this Yellow Wagtail.

A long wait, but worth it.

Yesterday morning, after a quick look round confirmed that there were few migrants around here I went along to Canterbury to see Kent. I anticipated that they would finish Surrey off quite quickly and that I would pop down to Grove Ferry for a couple of hours birding afterwards, but it didn't turn out that way.

Surrey were without Mark Ramprakash, who had broken his thumb earlier in the game, but their remaining batsmen held out well and they had only lost two more wickets by lunch. James Treadwell bowled steadily and took three wickets in the innings.

Justin Kemp used his 6 foot four inches to make the ball lift and did get the critical wicket of Dernbach, while Amjad Kahn tidied up the tail with the new ball, and took another three wickets to add to his five in the first innings. In the end it was after three when Surrey were all out setting Kent 200 to win in 38 overs.

Sam Northeast opened with Captain Rob Key and played a steady innings, giving Key the strike as much as possible, he made a useful 28.

Key made 50 from 55 balls, hit one six and didn't look over pleased when given out LBW, along way down the pitch.

Geraint Jones played a belligerent inning of 45 off 45 balls and was stumped when he danced down the wicket and missed the ball.

van Jaarsveld made a quick 19, with one six, before being given out caught, although the ball seemed only to bounce of his pad.

Darren Stevens played sensibly to see us home. He didn't need to go mad as Kent were well ahead of the run rate.

Kemp had just a cameo, but did hit a big six to bring the winning run in sight.

And this is Stevens running the winning run, giving Kent 22 pts and increase their lead at the top of Div 2.

When I got in, after a day in the sunshine, I fell asleep after eating, and woke up at 2.am. It's a tiring business watching cricket!