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.