More thoughts on PSL...

How things can change in a week. Sometimes we need to have a word with ourselves, to bring us back to reality, a grounding if you like. In recent times I have not only been birding or mothing. I have been looking at everything from Spiders to Mosses and Beetles to fruit flies. All that I have identified or had identified for me have been carefully added to my list. What used to be on a crappy old spreadsheet is now on a fabulous all singing and dancing searchable website.

Today, the alarm bell has rung. While I was already awake.

Seth Gibson, Alastair Forsyth and Steve Gale have all debated the topic on their blogs, that I have read with great interest. These three naturalists and bloggers are a real inspiration to me, so when one speaks I tend to listen.

The thing is, with the rise of PSL there is perceived to be a decline in actual biodiversity recording standards whereby listers are not being as rigorous as they should be when listing a new form of life.

Where people are concerned, no recording system with a competition factor will be clean. Looking on the PSL website, I see that Red necked Nightjar has been included by one observer, who would need to be at least 180 yrs old to have seen the only British record! That's their choice I suppose, but the species on my list are at the very least, plausible, and most are accurate with a few being aggs, or the commonest of a bunch based on distribution etc, but I if I tick a species on that basis, I will not add a congener as I couldnt be sure its different to the one I already have. For example I have Dandelion but not to species, I have Mouse Spider as Scotophaeus blackwallii as it is by far most likely but Ive not had any scrutinised. Mouse Spiders twin will not be added without both being checked and the same with Dandelions etc. 

Things are added to iRecord but if they don't meet the verifier's criteria that's ok, I'll have learned something and will move on.

I know birds, moths, mammals, butterflies and most fish even, quite well, but once these groups are  becoming less likely to be a new addition, along comes flowering plants, fungi and invertebrates. Anyone who has perused the Naturespot site or the British Arachnological Society page for example, will know full well that very few of these can be brought to accurate species level without the use of various scientific methods and equipment. Yet we novices ( maybe not the right word? How can I be a novice after 50 years of wildlife watching?) still plod along trying to match species to images and text in books on websites and in social media. Maybe we ( I) are /am deluded?

I think I know the reason. I am not and never will be a scientist. I was and probably still am an Urchin, a Poacher, a Tresspasser, Billy Casper, BB, Ennion, Iain Niall, a Ladybird book, a throwback to times past. 

I don't have a microscope and have never really used a Dichotomous key. I might like to, but will I ever? I'm not sure it matters enough to me but who knows, never say never. I like to find new things for much simpler reasons, and no, its not to add to a list. It is to enjoy the chase, the find and the beauty. The list just keeps the treasures in an order where I can find them again. 

So I'm sure I and many others will continue in this way until we either see the light or give up. Keep on Listing folks, but try to keep it as real as possible!  

Oonops. Its one of the two...

Wool Carder Bee, added to the list today after finding my first in the garden on Sunday. A scarce species in Northumberland 

Pan Species Listing.

 This title might crop up on here from time to time...

Since I read Graeme Lyons book and did a blog post in April I have been quite project driven. When I say driven, I mean in my amatuerish plodding way rather than Graeme's '6,000 species in a year' driven. Check out Seth's Blog Here to get a better idea of my inspiration...

What I have been doing when out and about birding or whatever, even at work or shopping, is keeping an eye open for anything different and unknown to me. In the last two months that has turned up 60 lifers. To convert that into birder speak that would take me 10 years to get, not two months.

These records and any other stuff are added in to iRecord via the phone app or back home on the PC. iRecord is a second project running in tandem with PSL, where I am trying to add dots to the biodiversity map of our region. In the period there have been 240 new records added, not including birds that go through on eBird,, again paltry compared to Mr Lyons who will think nothing of adding 200 in a morning, but for me, its ticking along nicely. Some of those new species are being discovered retrospectively from photos, social media posts etc going back to 2019.

Today I have added three to the list - Three nerved Sandwort, Raspberry Weevil and a small Caddis Holocentropus picicornis. Yesterday I added Pepper-Saxifrage and Meadow Plant Bug Leptopterna dolobrata. All common enough species nationally but I've not knowingly met them before. 

I could do with getting a microscope really rather than relying on the help of others and photo ids, but I don't have  lot of space for a set up. Maybe one day...

Raspberry Weevil Otiorhynchus singularis

Pepper-saxifrage Silaum silaus

  

Three nerved Sandwort Moehringia trinervia

Flaming June!

 Well, not so much flaming in the heat sense as flaming June in the cold, annoying, sense!

This month has been a downer after that warmer week at the end of May, so here is a catch up.

In late May a Goldfinch built a nest in the apple tree just outside my home office window. We could watch her weaving the structure together with her finely pointed bill and rounding the cup with her body pushing downwards. By 27th May she was sitting, so we looked forward to the family developing. Sadly, that was not to be because after two or three days she just left the nest never to return. At the same time a poorly looking female Goldfinch was in the garden on the other side of the house. It may have been her, who can say.  

Goldfinch on the nest. Its a shoddy image as it is taken through an old cottage window so as not to disturb her.

  At the beginning of June, small numbers of Painted Lady arrived with half a dozen in a morning passing through the garden and with them a couple of Hummingbird Hawk-moths were seen.

Painted Lady looking a bit dishevelled after its flight from Africa.

Hummer on valerian on our drive.

More unusually, unprecedented in fact, was the arrival of Small Mottled Willow. Before this year I had only seen 3 in my life, but 22 have graced the trap so far in last few weeks. Shame there were no Eastern Bordered Straw that deluged as far north as Tynemouth.

Small Mottled Willow

  Insect migration soon dried up as the wind swung back NW with a colder edge and has been there ever since. Other resident garden and village wildlife included -

 

Large Pine Weevil, a lifer for me and randomly was found in our bathroom. I put it on the valerian before identification so I could get a photo.

 

Pammene aurana on verbascum when it should be on Hogweed...

Nemaphora degeerella seems to be having a good season.

We have 5 Mullein caterpillars across three Verbascums in the garden. This was the biggest of them and its enjoying the plant.

The first of the garden Tree Sparrows are out and about now, with adults taking nest material into boxes to refurbish for a second brood. We also have House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail and Blackbirds all with young. 

Pied Wagtail with fledgling .

Tree Sparrow juvs.

Cranes and Moths

 A week back at work after our holiday with a few things of interest at home.

The Saturday before we came back from Glen Affric I received a Bluesky message from Mark Eaton to say that there were two Common Cranes in the field behind our house that would be visible from the kitchen window if we weren't 300 miles away in Scotland! Its always the case isn't it. The field in question has been recently tilled and seeded and looked great for Dotterel but Crane wasn't on my radar. Unfortunately a message around 8.30pm said they had flown off south. It looked like a good garden and patch tick was left wanting.

So, a long drive back on Sunday saw us reversing up the drive at 4pm. Due to the actual driving my phone had not been looked at all day, so a quick glance showed a message from our neighbour saying there are Cranes in the field, at 10am! So, a scrabble for the bins and a scan of the field and there they were, two, huge graceful dinosaurs striding through and over pigeons and rooks looking right at home.

Get on the lists!

Common Cranes, from our house.

They graced us with their daily presence for the following 6 days, being joined by a third Crane on the Tuesday morning! Now I have a self found Crane on the patch list. On one morning I even heard them bugling as I did the moth trap count!

And then there were three...

The original two were obviously a pair, maybe 2 yr old birds as there was some grey in the neck and not as much red on the crown. The new bird was a last years young with a lot of grey in the neck and no red in the crown.

They were last seen on Friday 22nd am, then going over Skateraw at 1.30pm... 

Those were clearly the biggest highlights of the week but as the weather got warmer the Moth Trap was not about to be outdone.

On Thursday 21st I lifted the moth trap out to count it. As I removed the cone, no pugs or carpets flew to freedom. Very unusual I thought under the conditions. So after counting a couple of egg trays, I saw, lying in the base drain, a large Poplar Hawk-moth forewing. At the same time a sliver of something in an egg tray set the alarm bells ringing. Oh no, birds had been in, and that sliver, surely not...

I hurriedly did the remaining living moths that all seemed very subdued,and moved the egg trays. Then my nightmare suspicions came true. In with the other dismembered lepidoptera in the bottom were the four wings of a Lime Hawk-moth! 

This must seem a bit of an anti climax to the southern contingent reading this, but that dead moth was only the 2nd for VC68 and the first since 1902! Its a species that has slowly been making inroads into Northumberland and was to expected here one day, but after a decade of blank springs this is not the way to find a first.

So, end knocked in, that night, two traps were deployed in desperation.

Sometimes the luck of the moth Gods shines down on us. A last check before bed around 11.30pm and there in the front garden Skinner, a lovely living Lime Hawk-moth. Superb. The second VC68 record in living memory.

Hawk moths, Poplar, Lime and Elephant.

Seraphim

Small Mottled Willow one of 5 this weekend.

Anania perlucidalis, only my 3rd.

Tomich, Glen Affric and Cannich area

 We have just returned from a week up near Tomich in Glen Affric, Highlands. before we went, the weather forecast looked grim for the week, but it turned out not as bad as predicted. We still had some rain everyday except the Saturday, it was a Sunday to Sunday trip, that was fine and warm. The rest was mainly sunny with showers but it was quite cold all week.

The area seemed quite quiet for wildlife, maybe the weather was keeping things down. The hoped for Pine Martens didn't materialise, leaving our bait untouched despite them being nightly visitors to a house just a few hundred metres away. We didn't even see a single deer of any kind!  Very unusual that.

Still' a few things of interest did show including Osprey, Red Kite, a single juv Golden Eagle viewed from the bottom of the house garden over the Affric hills. Its white tail base, wing flashes and Golden nape could be seen clearly in the sunsine through the scope. A Red Squirrel ran along the road side near Beauly.

This is the house we stayed in Glen Affric View, Hilltop, Tomich, a lovely quiet place. The access track was a bit steep and undulating in the car, but otherwise, great.

As you can see from the top image, we were surrounded by birch woodland so the moth trap was deployed to see what was around. Despite the cold nights sometimes with white frost, moths were caught every evening. Highlights below - 

Acleris logiana, only one caught.

Barred Umber, one or two each night

Glaucous Shears, only the one caught.

Grey Birch, a few taken each night.

Ringed Carpet was my only new moth, 2 caught on one night. 

Scarce Prominent, maybe the moth of the week. Before this week I had only seen one, last year in our garden. This week up to a dozen per night! 

Pearl bordered Fritillary, only the third time I have seen this butterfly, this was my first in Scotland, in the garden by the summerhouse.

Some other odds and sods in the garden -

Orange Tip, female

Platismatia glauca, a nice lichen.

I kept seeing lighting fast beautiful shiny small beetles in the lawn. They were Poecilus versicolor, a Greenclock beetle. A new one for me.

This Harvestman Rilaena triangularis wasnt even seen until back home looking at photos of the lichen.

Oak Ferns in the birch woods, a new one to me.

Cowberry, Glan Affric

A few more of the local scenery - 

Above, all Glen Affric.

Plodda Falls, impressive...

The lovely village of Tomich.

We also were given a site in Strath Glass for Beavers. We visited and saw the lodge and some tree gnawing but no Beavers. Had we been staying a bit closer I would have put more effort in.

New additions to the PSL - Ringed Carpet, Oak Fern, Haplodrassus signifer, Plasmatia glauca,