Have you seen my trick with a stick?

The very warm February weather has certainly had an effect on the birds in the garden, a touch of spring fever.

I noticed this Starling turning over the sticks in the garden. I actually appeared be breaking off bits of a length that suited it.

However it didn't seem too sure what it was going to do with them. I had expected it to fly up to a gap in the roof where they normally nest, but instead it kept choosing a piece, walking round with it and then putting it down. I didn't see it take any of to a nest site. As there were several Starlings in the area I wondered it this was a quick demonstration of it DIY shopping ability, done to impress a prospective partner.

A small party of Long-tailed Tits came through the garden. These can be quite early nesters, though I suspect not this early. We do have a couple of bushy clumps in the garden that could be suitable for them to nest in, but so far no luck. The nearest pair I've seen was a couple of years ago in a garden in Chapel Lane.

These aggressive chaps have definitely increased in number in the last couple of days, and although I'm sure the majority will be migrants so do stay and breed in the area. I noticed that there were at least two singing in the garden to day. In fact the garden was full of bird song, this morning I could here Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Song Thrush. Despite there still be a good number round the area I didn't hear the sweet tones of a Blackbird, perhaps they are too busy fattening up at the moment. A female Blackcap visited the pond, so if the male is still around they could be in a prime place for an early start.

The male Chaffinches are beginning to look quite smart and this one was singing from just by the house.

After a few completely blank night my mothing year finally started. I have caught just four moths so far. three of them Pale Brindled Beauties. As you can see from the picture above this name would test the trades description act if challenged!

The Oak Beauty, above has a lot more going for it, with quite an interesting pattern. Looking at other peoples mothing blogs I'm off to a relatively quiet and late start here. It always seem to be the case that early in the season I struggle to persuade anything to visit my moth traps.

One visitor in my actinic trap was this Seven-spot Ladybird. A fairly early date for this species and nice to get a ladybird other than a Harlequin in the trap.

Don't believe all you hear.

Moths have actually made the news this week, both on the TV and Radio. Stories of all the rarities blown in from Europe haven't quite equated to what's happened here!

Pearly Underwing

My only migrants of the last couple of days have been a few Silver Y's and a Pearly Underwing (one of the commoner wanderers). Other than that I've had a selection, in small numbers of typical resident autumn moths. In addition to those featured in the last week or so are:

Mallow

Sallow

Feathered Thorn

Green-brindled Crescent

The Brick

Red-lined Quaker

Moth Traps

A few people have asked me about mothing (moth trapping). First I'd like to make it clear that the moths are caught, identified, sometimes photographed and then released not collected. I must also declare that I am not an expert, but fortunately the mothing community is extremely good at helping both newcomers and those like me that know a bit but are still a long way short of the experts around. All the traps work on the fact that moths are attracted to light.

The trap shown above is based on a design by Bernard Skinner, the author of the first widely used guide to macro-moth identification. Like all the traps I use, it is a wooden box about 45cm square by 30cm high. As you can see egg boxes are an important part. They are put in the box for the moths rest in after they've come to the light.

This is it with the light on. You can see it has sloping Perspex rectangles meeting in a slot that it about 5cm wide. The moths attracted to the light end up dropping through slot. The lamp is a 125W mercury vapour (MV) lamp and it needs a choke (I bought the electric kit with the lamp from Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies). That's the expensive bit. Most of the wood I use I have found dumped to be thrown away. Extra cables are useful, so always save them from old mowers etc you throw away. I have put a small rain guard on it. It will survive light rain OK but with the sort of downpours we've been getting it needs a bit of protection.

The trap above is the same design as the first one but uses a 15W Actinic tube, this also needs a choke. I has the advantage of not being a very bright light, but it doesn't attract as many moths as the MV. It also doesn't run very hot so is OK in rain. The perspex is replaced by free ply, Perspex is very expensive. The disadvantage is you can't see in the trap, so careful opening is required. I normally use a netted gazebo, so that anything that escapes lands on the walls. I had to do this Even with the Perspex sided trap because I found I lost a fair few before I could identify them.

This is a different design, using a funnel instead of a slot. The bulb is a 160W blended bulb, it doesn't need a choke but runs hot and is sensitive to rain, hence the mixing bowl rain shield. I got the electrics and funnel from the E.L.G. (Paul Batty). All the rest came from scrap, except the Bowl and fixings.

This is the 160 blended trap set up and going. I seems to do nearly as well as the MV, but not quite as many moths in total.

This is an identical trap to the one above except for the lamp, which is a 25W Black Light. Again it needs protection from the rain and I got the electrics from E.L.G. This one seems to be better that the Actinic, but not as good as the two brighter lights.