Lesser Emperor - Round two.

This afternoon I seem to have managed the impossible. I got a picture of the Lesser Emperor which was again frequenting Radipole today. Its appearances were rather sparse today as they were yesterday and opportunities to photograph it lasted roughly three seconds each time but this was result!

Well you can at least see what it is... just!

A few moths pics

As sort of promised yesterday, here are a few moth pictures.

Jersey Tiger is a regular in the trap at this time of year; in fact there were four in the trap this morning.

Willow Ermine from yesterday. First record at Radipole which usually just means that someone’s not managed to ID one before but this could be an immigrant rather than a local. Saying that, the ermines are a tricky group to ID so hope I’m right!

Caught this species last night though this photo was taken back in Wales about 5 years. It imitates birds poo which is a pretty good way of stopping birds from eating you! Its a Chinese Character by the way.

One final one, not caught locally but one for any mothers who have the time to read my garble to ponder over. Picture not especially sharp as it was taken indoors on a rainy day.

It's been a month but I'm back!

This is the first post for a while but think of the last month like some sort of summer holiday or something. It’s been rather quiet on the bird front and works been rather eventful but today I immersed myself back into the life of a naturalist. No, I didn’t strip off and head for the beach (that a naturist!) instead I went ringing which was rather dire to say the least. Every year we monitor Radipole Lake for Aquatic Warbler which in the past has proved worthwhile. However the last few years have seen something of a lull in records so my hope was that I can end this Aquatic drought. A session this morning saw just seven birds caught (non of which were Aquatic Warbler obviously) which is a lot less than what you’d expect for the time of year. Hopefully things will pick up!

Got back from ringing and got stuck in the moth trap where the first Jersey Tiger of the season obliged. As well as that there were plenty of other things so see including Radipole’s first Willow Ermine. Will possibly add photo’s another day.

Then headed off to work down at the Radipole visitor centre where the day really went crazy. My first and Radipole’s first Lesser Emperor appeared in front of me whilst standing on the visitor centre bridge! Couldn’t quite believe it at first and after blurting out several swear words I managed to explain to the people next to me that I wasn’t mad, I had just found a rather rare Dragonfly!

A rather neat little twitched developed (three of us!) but it remained elusive for several hours much to the frustration of some! I didn’t have my camera and nobody else managed a photo which leaves me with a slight dilemma. Should I steal one of the internet?? Nah... I won’t bother.

An ecological disaster?

Well, apparently not. Though this weather is really getting on my tits now! The scenes around Weymouth have been quite extraordinary during the last 24 hours. The biggest disaster of course is the flooding of the Olympic park and ride drop off point. Well it is if you read the local and national papers and have seen the news coverage. How the hell can a bloody car park flooding be bigger news than a whole ecosystem being wiped out? Marsh Harriers chicks... gone. Countless Reed and Sedge Warbler nests... gone. Bearded Tit nests... gone. Thousands of inverts... gone. Reptiles and tons of small mammals... you’ve guessed it, gone.

This shot is of the concrete bridge at Radipole!

OK, this type of thing does happen from time to time and we just have ride it through and obviously the wildlife will recover eventually but it really does annoy how oblivious most of Weymouth was to the devastation unfold before their eyes.

Whilst at Lodmoor yesterday and this morning I was amazed that even birders were oblivious to the carnage right in front of them. Whilst there yesterday assessing the tern island situation (which was very bad) a birder wanders in and asked where the White-winged Black Tern was. I said that I had been counting tern chicks that were having to swim around desperately trying to find somewhere to pitch up rather than looking for the other tern. Instead of him saying something like ‘Oh God, that a disaster’ he said something along the lines of, ‘Oh, I’ll got further down the path to look for the Black Tern’. Admittedly, most birder I’m sure noticed what was going on but that just got to me!

In protest I’m not going to post a picture of the White-winged Black Tern but instead here’s a shot of some of the surviving Common Tern chicks at Lodmoor which managed to make to a bit of dry land.

When all's quiet

Turn to moths. I’ve not run a trap much this year (or last for that matter) but it’s now back to being a permanent feature in the garden. Last night was a half decent night with a few nice species. Only migrants were a single Dark Sword Grass and a Silver Y but the moth of the night award went to a Dingy Shears which is a localised species in Dorset.

This time of year is normally very quiet for birds so I maybe resorting to moths to keep this blog alive and kicking over the next few weeks until the onslaught of migrant birds flood to Dorset on their return journey. Well… I hope, but considering the bad weather I doubt there’ll be that many fledglings making their first migration this year. Fingers crossed I’m proved wrong!

A wanderer from Wales?

Just back from Lodmoor having seen my second Dorset Gull-billed Tern.  This bird is presumably the one which has been present in South Wales the last few days so nice of it to wander down here. Forgot the camera but thankfully I’ve still got  a picture of one from 2010 which was present on the fleet at Abbotsbury and nearby Abbotsbury beach.

Back to the Breakwater

A year ago we had our first voyage to Portland harbour breakwater to ring gull pulli. This year’s visit was somewhat unsure earlier in the year, largely due to that sailing competition that’s happening in a few weeks’ time. Despite all that we were allowed back over this ‘summer’ which was sure to be an interesting visit due to the recent awful weather. There were plenty of nests about but chicks were few and far between. Herring Gulls seemed to have suffered quite badly with several cold eggs in nests but Great black backed Gulls seemed to fair better. However, last years visit was something of a learning curve in finding gull pulli. So the fact that more pulli were found this year compared to last could just a case of the team being better at finding them! They get into some rediculous cracks and caves in the rock armour.

This was one of the Great black backed Gull pulli.

And they bite!

Over 70 Great black backs were ringed in total with a lot fewer Herring Gull. In fact, I believe it could be less than 20 but I haven’t got all the data. A good number of both species were colour ringed but I rather stupidly didn’t take a photo of the rings we were using. The GBBG’s were white rings with Red codes. They start with the letter P followed by one of these, :, then two numbers and a letter.  The Herring Gulls are black rings with a three digit numerical white code which we also use on hand caught fully grown Herring Gulls in Weymouth.

Huge thanks for the Harbour Authority and Terry Coombs for arranging the visit. Finally here’s a shot of the team before we got covered in gull poo!