Late New Year

Belated New Year Greetings. And a late seasonal image.

Robin with Tortula muralis, moss, in the bottom right of the image.

There has been a flurry of records of birds in and from the garden and within the Patch. At the end of the year I was bemoaning the lack of redpolls and Siskin, but these species are now regularly in the garden with three Siskin, at least and four Lesser Redpoll, daily. Serious quantities of Nyger seed have had to be purchased as there have also been up to ten Goldfinch. On NYsDay  a male Yellowhammer briefly graced the feeders, I dipped  and nearby a flock of 45 were reported, but when I checked the spot none were to be seen or heard :-( Lapwing have had two more Patch records with a four and then a ten. Today nine Greylags flew silently past the garden, not quite making airspace, but still a Patch tick. There have been Brambling and Magpie. I was pretty sure I was hearing Waxwing one afternoon but it/they could not be visually located and I was less than 100% Patch/garden target species are: Woodcock, Common Crossbill, Peregrine; Long-eared Owl, Golden Eagle and Little Egret are at longer odds.

The new bins, a pair of 8x30 Nikon Monarch M7s are certainly a success. These were purchased for use when I'm cycling, and I just bought the basic model not the + or HG ones. At under £300 these are a real bargain. As usual with Nikon the critical focusing is pin sharp in the centre of the view. They have a wide angle of view and focus well within 2m. There has been some criticism of them for "veiling" in certain light conditions, and that does occur, but for the price, lightness, sharpness and nice handling I can live with that. I use these as my preferred bins since purchase, they are so light and handle so nicely and even for the kite roost they gather sufficient light. Only negative is that the supplied strap fits just for me but anyone shorter would find the minimum length too long I think. I prefer these to the Zeiss 8x25s we've had for a while now as a proper rain guard is fitted. The Zeiss  (Louise's bins) are smaller and lighter, but the double hinged design can be a bit of a nuisance to get used to. The Zeiss do not gather as much light, but I'm very impressed with those as well, especially if you want a small pair of bins for travel. Again, around the £300 mark.

I've mostly been looking for small things in this very cold weather. And it has been very cold again for days, the Linn froze over yet again, a rare occurrence apparently. 

Small tributary burn.

It warmed up , so the moth trap went out on the 14th, the first time since Xmas Eve (When I caught Winter Moth, Mottled Umber and Paroligolophus agrestis (an opilione). Otherwiae I've been searching for Collembola, mosses and the occasional fungus. With the thaw arriving a pitfall trap and a bit of clumping for beetles might be on the agenda.

The trap caught a new moth for me, Pale Brindled Beauty. There were various diptera including a pair of Scathophaga stercoraria in cop.

Pale Brindled Beauty.

Scathophag stercoraria.

Here are some of those very small things.

Dicyrtomina saundersi, very common, found almost everywhere under trees.

Entomobrya nivalis, another very common Collembola species, and also distinctive.

Quite a bit smaller and harder to ID, I think this might be Isotomurus, perhaps I. plumosus.

I also found a Collembola that has not yet been fully named which was interesting.

Katiannidae gen. nov. 1 sp. nov. 2

Yesterday's visit to the Community Woodland produced quite a few interesting things, I'm currently working through these, but there are certainly some new species for me in there. One I have been able to identify fairly rapidly was the Psillid Arytaina genistae, beaten from Broom.

Arytaina genistae.

Lots of data to enter into iRecord still, a good few things left to identify from last year. A determination to improve my botanical skills, with both bryophytes and dicots is my target for 2025. My pan-species list is now quite close to 2,000 (low lister!!) I'm aiming to reach that target by the end of March, that could be a challenge.

The kite roost the other evening, another 80+ at the pre-roost.

London calling

I had to go to London just before Xmas. So far south always offers an opportunity to add a few PSL ticks. The cemeteries in Orkney are manicured and really no place for wildlife, things are better in Perthshire, but in Lewisham there are two large and wild cemeteries at Nunhead and in Brockley. So an opportunity to contribute to Cemetery Wildlife Watch (an iRecord activity - https://irecord.org.uk/activities/summary?group_id=2043&implicit=f )

Nunhead Cemetery entrance.

Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery, an area of good habitat.

Nunhead was first on the 17th and the star find was surprisingly a snail, Thames Door Snail Balea biplicata which is quite a rare beast, its range has been contracting in recent years.

Balea biplicata.

A new moth for me, a bagworm.

Psyche casta, larval case. I didn't check if the cases were occupied.

There were plenty of Harlequin pupal cases, and one adult.

Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis.

Both cemeteries were full of Ring-necked Parakeets of course. The best bird was quite a surprise, a Green Woodpecker in Brockley Cemetery afforded some close views.

Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery also produced some good inverts. Highlight was probably 24-spot Ladybird, I found two pupae. To be honest I had no idea what these were, plant/animal/fungi??? But fortunately PTS did know these (thank you).

24-spot Ladybird Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata.

Other highlights from Brockley were this mirid.

Deraeocoris lutescens.

Another snail, but not such an uncommon one.

Hygromia cinctella.

There were a couple of barkfly species. One was identified for me Valenzuela flavidus (further thanks to PTS). The other keyed out to Ectopsocus petersi, but there is some doubt that the key gives a reliable result, and it may be that gendet is required to be certain of this species.

A male Ectopsocus petersi, maybe.

Valenzuela flavidus.

I've been a bit quick to tick E. petersi PSL-wise, and on recent infomation I should probably leave it as pending. We'll see what the verifiers on iRecord think.

The only botanical PSL tick was Cherry Plum, Prunus cerafisera, I found some young plants sprouting near a more mature tree of this species. I did find the moss Tortula muralis as well, I have seen it before, but it wasn't listed, so sort of a tick.

A last tick was a Collembula, Dicyrtoma fusca, which I haven't recorded before. These were common at both cemeteries along with the very common Dicyrtomina saundersi.

Dcyrtoma fusca.

Dicyrtomina saundersi.

Of course there were a number of unidentified/unidentifiable things that I photographed. This hymenopteran is a Cynipidae, a gall wasp (thanks BL). Which species though is an altogether more challenging, and impossible without a specimen, issue.

A gall wasp of some sort....

All beastie photos were taken with the Olympus Tough TG4. In the end I regretted not taking the EM-5 with the 30mm macro, I will next time. 

Some random cemetery views follow. Taken with the TG4 or Pixel 7.

A Nunhead grave.

Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery views.

Cute

 The cold weather and my adjusted feeding regime have led to a new regular visitor to the garden.

Red Squirrel, actually just out of the garden but a regular visitor in the last couple of weeks.

This species is undeniably cute. We usually have one, but occasionally two turn up. The Bank Voles continue to be active in the wall by the feeders, and pretty much everywhere else, I if I take the time to look. Less welcome are the mice in the garage. These are probably Wood Mouse, deployment of the camera trap may be required, indeed deployment of live traps to remove the wee beasties may have to be considered. Roe Deer have only once made it into the garden but are regular close by and Red Deer are a possibility, I'd probably need to leave a tempting snack on the grass.

More cold weather and an accidental spill of nyjer seed brought 49 Chaffinch into the garden. One new species for the patch has been Lapwing, Sparrowhawk sightings are more frequent and Redwing are a constant presence although the Fieldfares seem to have moved through. The kite roost probably continues to include upwards of 80 birds, but counting them is not the easiset. And Woodpigeon numbered a record day count, with a single flock of 350+ the highlight.

Bullfinch, these have been feeding around the garden in the cold.

More delving in the fridge produced some interesting and new moths. I'd caught a couple of ear moths in September. Despite being macros the dissections of these are not necessarily definitive. The four species can be paired and habitat and distribution are helpful. One of these was a male and certainly Large Ear Amphipoea luscens. The other was a female and somewhat confusing as a feature highlighted on Moth Dissection is said by Chris Lewis (British Lepidoptera) to be difficult and perhaps unreliable. In the end I decided that on the balance of characters, distribution and habitat it had also to be A. luscens but it was a useful lesson in figuring these out.

Female genitalia Amphipoea luscens.

Amphipoea luscens, female, I believe.

Male Amphipoea luscens Large Ear.

A. luscens, male gendet, no doubt about this one, although there could have been fewer bubbles in the prep'.

There were a couple of micros to work out as well. A somewhat worn, tiny white beast puzzled me, but the AI gave me a 100% certainty for Elachista maculicerusella. Checking in the books proved this to be correct so I didn't bother to dissect it. Reed Canary Grass Leafminer is, I think, the new colloquial name for this species.

Elachista maculicerusella.

The other micro proved to be more troublesome, I initially thought it was a Coleophora species but when I posted it with its dissection online I was helped to the correct family and fairly soon to an identification of Ypsolopha ustella (thanks BS). This would be the 7th VC record of this species, so well worth dissecting.

Male gendet Ypsolopha ustella.

Ypsolopha ustella male.

A couple of water beetles were identified, the best of which was the distinctive, but apparently not especially common Strictonectes lepidus.

Strictonectes lepidus.

In this period I also had a bit of a mooch around the White Church cemetery, and found a few fungi. It will be worth further exploration I suspect. At the moment the photos are evading me. So some pictures from around the patch instead.