A quiet autumn

October and November were relatively quiet in terms of amazing rarities. I did manage a visit back to the north east to see a new bird for Britain. This major find was so close to being missed, as someone had taken a photograph of it and another bird thinking they were two of the same species. Fortunately he posted his photographs on a local bird forum and someone who was familiar with the species suddenly had a heart stopping moment as he realised that the bird was not a Yellow-browed Warbler as stated but an Eastern Crowned Warbler, new for Britain. The resultant rush to South Shields next day made the national news.

I couldn't help thinking as I stood watching the bird that the last new birds I'd seen in South Shields were Ross's and Ivory Gull both together at the site in 1970. In those days, both gulls were the stuff of legend for most birders and they had provoked a somewhat similar mass pilgrimage.

The other amazing bird of the autumn was a Brown Shrike that turned up a stone's throw from Heathrow airport and is still there in December, though its prospects in this recent cold spell look bleak.

October mothing was quite eventful, Durlston in Dorset provided much interest in the form of both Oak Rustic and Sombre Brocade. These two species have recently colonised the Holm Oak trees that abound along the cliffs there. The former has successfully spread to several neighbouring sites and it is supposed that Sombre Brocade will show similar dispersive behaviour over the next few years.

December has been quiet on most fronts, apart from the journey to London a friend and I made last week to help rescue a beetle :-) The beetle in question is only known from one brownfield site in the docklands area of London. The area is soon to be redeveloped so a last trawl of the habitat was made to see if any more beetles could be found and translocated to a nearby suitable habitat that was safe for them. We found four beetles and they joined the sixty plus that had already been successfully moved. I managed to get some nice photographs of the beetle in question and one of these made it onto the Guardian website. In typical fashion, the "Grauniad" spelled my name incorrectly but hey ho :-)

Scilly Break

Chris and I enjoyed two weeks on the Isles of Scilly in September. Highlights for me were finding a Smooth Stick Insect and photographing Red barbed Ant.














Pretty weird highlights you may think but you just gotta think "different strokes for different folks". We got to do a lot of walking and the weather was great. I wouldn't call a holiday on the Isles of Scilly relaxing, but it does recharge the spiritual batteries. An island local summed it up perfectly when he said nobody comes to the Isles of Scilly twice, they either come once and just don't get it or they come back again and again. I definitely put myself in the latter category and would recommend it as a holiday destination to anyone.























Because of the blocking high that sat over the uk throughout our stay, the winds were largely non existent, so new birds were hard to come by. I did see and photograph some nice birds, however, with Water Rail being one of the most confiding I have ever seen. Tresco Abbey Gardens provided a wonderful diversion from birds, and on a trip out to see the Bishop Rock Lighthouse up close and personal, our boat crossed paths with a very obliging school of Common Dolphin.

Putting the House in order

August was a bit of a wash out weatherwise but it did allow us to concentrate on the mundane stuff like getting quotes for double glazing and a new boiler. We also sourced a new bed, the thinking being that now we are retired we need all the energy we can get from a good night's sleep to allow us to function at this hectic pace :-)

I managed to squeeze in a few moth and photography forays, highlight being Dusky Scalloped Oak in Dorset. Another real bonus was getting to see and photograph a White Prominent larva. I also started to use my 65mm MP E Macro lens a bit more. It will magnify to five times life size so anything that is too small for my aged eyes to make out is fair game. The problem lies in finding the subject matter in the first place!

I have recently had the good fortune to be pointed at several really interesting weevils (bet you never dreamed anyone would write that in a sentence)and have managed to take photographs of them that are satisfying. None of my Flickr photographs are in Explore yet but I get 150 hits a day on my photostream so someone must be enjoying them. www.flickr.com/photos/oldbilluk if you are interested.

Norfolk via Hastings

Chris and I made a trip to Norfolk our first joint retirement sortie. Our route there was via relatives in Sussex to catch up with some family history research. Chris was able to produce the whole line back to William the Conqueror, which was a bit of a pleasant surprise for some of them. The Cornish pirate was a bit of a shock too :-)

In Norfolk, I was keen to find a moth that I was pretty sure I had already seen years ago. When I was a bird ringer at Walberswick in Suffolk, the cottage we stayed in to do our ringing was next to one used by the Natural History Museum. We got to meet several visiting experts including moth people. They would often show us things they had caught out in the marshes the night before and I even photographed the nice colourful ones. If only I had photographed those drab, brown Wainscots they kept on bringing back I might not still need to point a camera at Fenn's and White-mantled Wainscot. A visit to Catfield Fen was very productive and I caught Fenn's Wainscot along with a great variety of other reedbed specialities.























Fenn's Wainscot

While in Norfolk we had a chance to meet up with Chris's brother, a keen sailor. We joined him and his partner, Sue, for a trip along the River Yare to Rockland Broad. We saw some nice birds including Great Crested Grebe, Egyptian Goose and Marsh Harrier doing a food pass to a gang of hungry young ones. The faunal highlight of the trip came in the form of an Otter that crossed the river ahead of the boat then swam in the riverside reeds calling to a mate or young on the other bank.















Great Crested Grebe























Under Sail


















Otter

Just before leaving Norfolk, we spent an afternoon on Great Yarmouth North Denes with our long time friends Michael and Terry O'Hara. On a windy afternoon with patches of cloud often covering the sun, photography was trying at best but we managed to get some results. For me, the highlight was a Cuckoo Bee feeding on Sea Holly flowers. Whenever I go out with my camera, I am happy if I get one shot that I can feel makes the trip worthwhile. This bee was my shot of the day.















Coelioxys mandibularis

Where did June and July Go?

As you can see, I'm not a natural blogger, preferring to spend most of my time out in the field. My photographic file is expanding rapidly, as is my moth list. This is mostly due to having had the opportunity to travel around a bit more. As my wife only recently joined me in retirement, at the end of July, the months of June and July were an opportunity to go on some extended tours. A four day trip to Ireland expanded into a two and a half week saga that encompassed Wales, Norfolk and some remote parts of Scotland. The Irish trip was to try to photograph White Prominent, a moth that was only rediscovered in the south west of Ireland last year after about 100 years without a record. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our endeavours despite "help" from the people who rediscovered it. We did, however, turn up a lot of good records for that part of Ireland, so at least someone profited from our excursion. We will return next year and trap in the place where we had thought it might be but didn't actually go to. I did manage an excursion to the famous Burren while over there and caught up with the Irish form of Transparent Burnet.
























Transparent Burnet

A much more successful trip was to look for Pine Tree Lappet in Scotland. This species has also been recently discovered. The Forestry Commission were keen to find out the extent of its range and enlisted the help of amateur naturalists to augment their own efforts and give greater coverage. Our group managed to attract twenty one males to light traps with pheromones placed alongside them. A further seventy individuals were trapped later in the week by a second group of amateur naturalists who made the long drive up to Scotland. It was good to see the Forestry Commission and their professional ecologist showing such an enlightened approach to the use of amateur naturalists. While appreciating the need for caution due to the continued existence of collectors, most people I trap with are fervently anti collecting and a good photograph or a sighting is all they seek. The extra they give back in better coverage and a wealth of ancillary records makes for a win/win situation.



Pine Tree Lappet

While in Scotland, I took the opportunity to catch up with one or two other species that had long been on my wish list for late June but that small thing called work had intruded.

New Forest Burnet

Kentish Glory larva



Northern Emerald

Where did May go?

They say once you retire, you wonder where you found the time to go to work. Well that is so true. I've been so incredibly busy sorting out the detritus of retirement that May has almost gone. I have managed to get out and do photography fairly often and I now have a new car, life insurance sorted, home insurance sorted and am slotting into the retirement groove very well.

I have seen some very nice beetles at different spots in Somerset and adjacent counties. One I saw at Martin Down was, I thought, a new record for Hampshire. A little research then threw up that Martin Down is in VC8 (Wiltshire) for record purposes and then the Hampshire beetle recorder told me that he had already found that species elsewhere in Hampshire so no cigar for me. It was a very nice beetle anyway.

Agapanthia villosoviridescens

My other real "find" was suddenly discovering that Sand Lizard can be found on Dawlish Warren. I've been going there for years and had not heard about them. As I was wandering around in the sand dunes looking for insects to photograph, one suddenly sauntered onto the path right in front of me. It seemed churlish not to take its photograph.

Spent some time today sorting out my fast dwindling financial empire in preparation for paying off the mortgage. Spent a frustrating hour talking to people about cars. I think Ford must have one "test-drive" Fiesta Econetic in the whole south west that they borrow from each other. The Citroen C3 Picasso looks nice and roomy but it just strays into the £120 per year tax bracket so that is a bit off-putting. The ordinary C3 has much less boot space for all my moth gear. I'm going mad weighing up all the options.

I finally got outside with a camera late this afternoon and spent a happy time in the local field that doubles as my outdoor photographic studio. I just hope the farmer doesn't suddenly get it into his head to plough it all in and grow something. Mind you if I see him, I might be cheeky and ask if he'll let me have an allotment on part of it. We've already run out of planting space in the back garden.

Saw a nice Green-veined White and for once it didn't disappear into the far distance while I was still stalking up to it. It had probably just had its cocoa and was thinking of turning in for the night.

Spent the weekend mostly in a field near my house, taking pictures of any insect stupid enough to stray close enough. It may seem strange to some people but I find that standing next to a patch of Cow Parsley for a couple of hours really gives you a feel for biodiversity. Try to choose a nice warm day if you do it as that helps both with the diversity and countering feelings of futility.

Spring is definitely in the air, with new stuff hatching out all over the place and immediately indulging in activities to make new stuff.

Hoverflies are really starting to emerge now that May has finally arrived. Leucozona lucorum below is one of my favourites, so clean looking.

My retirement started with a rush of rarities. On April 30 I went straight down to Portland Bill and in the early evening saw a Collared Flycatcher. I then had an early night with a 3 am start on Friday morning to get to Dungeness for first light. My younger son Dave came with me to add a new bird to his life list. Once there, finding the Crested Lark was not a problem, we just followed a group of birders who started running over the shingle just as we got out of the car, having just found it. We had a good look round the Dungeness area, seeing Hobby, Marsh Harrier and several newly arrived migrants, singing for all they were worth. A Jay was a Dungeness rarity and looked quite incongruous as it flew in from the sea. We saw some nice moths at the Dungeness observatory, including a Light Feathered Rustic of the pale "shingle" form.



















Dragonflies were very much in evidence, including a fine male Hairy Dragonfly - Brachytron pratense.

























I tried several times to photograph singing Sedge Warblers and they invariably dropped into the vegetation as soon as a camera pointed at them. This one was more of an exhibitionist.

Day Zero minus one

I retire tomorrow so, in preparation, have set up this blog to give me something to do in those long hours between nine to five that used to be filled so completely by work (note the irony, or if you once worked with me, STOP LAUGHING.).

The following items will largely be of a natural historical flavour, with many photographs to enliven the leaden prose. Today's little foray into the domain of Attenborough is to report on a new fly for Hampshire. I was out trapping moths, like you do, in the New Forest recently and a friend of mine presented me with a fly he had found on the sheet by his moth trap. A stunning little blighter (see above). Today I learned that it is a new record for Hampshire. Any Hampshire dipterists who wish to go searching for more, please get in touch "oldbilluk at hotmail.com" probably fastest.

It just goes to show that if it looks interesting it probably is and no matter what your plans are, always be willing to add new dimensions to them. I really hope they all appreciate me turning up for work on my very last day, especially when there is a Crested Lark at Dungeness this evening and a Collared Flycatcher still on Portland. Sometimes the gods can test you summat cruel.