July is a pretty poor title I know, mainly because this blog post concerns itself with the second half of July, but it was the best that I could come up with. Sometimes, I'll start writing a post without a title, and the title becomes obvious from the nature of the post, but not this time.
Mid-July saw Gail and I carrying out the final breeding bird survey of our coastal site in northwest Cumbria. It was a glorious morning, with clear skies, and a light southerly wind. Whitethroats were very much in evidence at different stages in their breeding cycle, as we encountered a few fledged juveniles, and two different adults carrying food, so they obviously still had young in the nest. Whitethroats can have 1 - 2 broods, but I suspect few will have two broods this year, as it seems that a lot of birds lost at an early stage, and started again.
There was a trickle of Swallows south, only about fifteen, but definitely a southerly movement. We had two pairs of Stonechats, but didn't notice any juveniles, and I suspect that they have finished nesting now. House Martins from the nearby housing estate were foraging for insects, and we also had a pair of Kestrels.
Throughout the second half of the month, we have operated our garden moth trap several times, including overnight Sundays into Monday, so that I can show our 22-month old grandson, Alex, some of the moths. I am not sure how impressed he is with moths, although he did seem to be impressed with a Buff-tip that Gail showed him. He does wander round shouting Gull and moth, so I hope we are doing something right.
I have decided to lump together my totals for the month, rather than to post individual day totals, so below, in no particular order, is what we trapped in the second half of July:
Riband Wave - 8
Codling Moth - 9
Double-striped Pug -2
Marbled Beauty - 13
Clay -2
Dot Moth -5
Smoky Wainscot - 1
Dark Arches -10
Bright-line Brown-eye -2
Light Brown Apple Moth - 14
Brown House Moth -5
Garden Grass-veneer - 2
Clepsis consimilana - 3
Buff Ermine -3
Carcina quercana -11
Fan-foot -5
Common Rustic - 12
Mottled Rustic - 1
Single-dotted Wave -5
Large Yellow Underwing- 3
Old Lady - 1
Lesser Yellow Underwing - 4
Bee Moth -3
Small Dusty Wave - 2
Garden Carpet - 2
Uncertain - 2
Shuttle-shaped Dart - 1
Buff Arches - 1
Swallow-tailed Moth - 1
Rustic - 2
Common Pug - 1
Yponomeuta sp. -2
Pine Shoot Moth - 2
Small Angle Shades - 1
Scalloped Oak - 3
Yellow Shell - 1
Eudonia mercurella - 1
Iron Prominent - 1
Dotted Clay - 2
Willow Beauty - 1
Buff-tip - 1
Cabbage Moth - 1
Flame Carpet - 1
153 moths of 44 species.
If you don't already run a light trap in your garden, or indeed in other habitats, I can heartily recommend it. It is so interesting, and absolutely fascinating, and particularly if you post your records to an online biological data recording system like iRecord you are contributing to our knowledge on moth populations, and this data can then be used to aid in their conservation. A win, win situation! What's not to like?
Just over a week ago, we had an early afternoon walk through Larkholme Grasslands Biological Heritage Site (BHS) to look at a few plants, and hopefully it would be warm enough for a few butterflies to be on the wing. We had clear skies, with a 15 mph WNW wind.
We had three species of butterfly, and one species of day-flying moth; 22 Meadow Browns, 1 Small White, 5 Small Skippers, and 2 Silver Ys.
In the second half of July, Gail and I managed to have two ringing sessions at the Nature Park. We were keen to get a few sessions in before the end of the month, to be confident that we had encountered as many of the local breeding birds as possible. Interestingly, the lack of recaptures during the sessions would suggest that the birds have quickly moved on. I've lumped the totals from the two sessions together below, and we ringed 38 birds (recaptures in brackets):
Wren - 1
Chiffchaff -2
Cetti's Warbler -5
Blue Tit - 2
Reed Warbler -5
Blackcap -6
Sedge Warbler -6
Whitethroat -2
Robin - 1
Blackbird - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Reed Bunting - 1
Willow Warbler - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 3 (2)
Driving along the road to the Nature Park, we flushed 15 - 20 Blackbirds, and it would seem that they have had a good breeding season. However, in the south of England, and particularly in Greater London, they have been struggling.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), think a new virus, first detected in London in 2020, may be accelerating the decline of blackbirds in the UK.
The Usutu virus (USUV), originally discovered in the 1950s in Africa,
and present in Europe for the past three decades, is carried and
transmitted by mosquitoes. Culex pipiens, or the Common House Mosquito, is one of the main culprits – the species is native to the UK
and is ornithophagic, meaning bird-biting.
Hugh Hanmer, senior research ecologist with the BTO, said that “the overall fatality rate is unknown, but the Usutu virus causes
systemic infection in Blackbirds, affecting multiple organs including
the brain. Affected Blackbirds are most often found dead without prior evidence of ill-health.”
Certainly, one to watch out for, and let's hope this virus doesn't spread.
As we opened the gates to gain access to the site, we could hear Sandwich Tern and Whimbrel calling from the estuary, and a Grasshopper Warbler was reeling nearby.
During both sessions, as we were putting the nets up, the Starlings exited their reedbed roost, and we estimated about 1,000 and 900 birds respectively. Two juvenile Ravens over, would indicate successful breeding locally, and on both dates the only raptor we had was a female Sparrowhawk.
Hemp-agrimony. Just starting to flower at the Nature Park.
white flowers in the sward.
As it warmed up, a few butterflies were on the wing, including 4 Speckled Woods, 2 Common Blues, 2 Gatekeepers, a Large White, 4 Small Whites, and a Meadow Brown. We also had a Common Blue Damselfly, and a Siver Y moth.
A couple of days ago, we waited until it had warmed up in the afternoon, before having a walk along the estuary from the Quay. We were hoping for a few common butterfly species, and we recorded 7 Small Whites, 11 Common Blues, 4 Gatekeepers, and a Red Admiral. We also had a Silver Y moth, lots of Common Drone Flies, Honey Bees, and Bumblebees (mainly Red-tailed, Buff-tailed and Common Carder).
Redshanks were starting to build up in numbers again on the mud in the quay, and we had 60, alongside nine Little Egrets in the estuary.
I note that Spring 2024 (March, April, and May), has been confirmed as the hottest on record in the UK, beating the highest previous temperature by 0.25 C. It was also the wettest spring on record since 1986, and it is this in particular this year, that will have caused the problems that I and other naturalists have observed, with some of our breeding birds. It most certainly has caused lots of failed nesting attempts, but based on the ratio of adults to juveniles that we are catching in our reedbed and scrub site, perhaps the birds have caught up a bit with later nesting attempts. Let's hope so!
Over on the right you will see that I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group up until the end of July. During the month eight new species were ringed for the year, and these were Wren, Sand Martin, Blackcap, Grey Wagtail, Lesser Whitethroat, Cetti's Warbler, Whitethroat, and Reed Bunting.
Below you will find the top 3 ringed in July, and the top 9 'movers and shakers' for the year.
Top 3 Ringed in July
1. Blackcap - 12
Reed Warbler - 12
2. Sedge Warbler - 11
Top 9 Movers and Shakers
1. Siskin - 112 (same position)
2. Blue Tit - 81 (same position)
3. Goldfinch - 37 (same position)
4. Tree Sparrow - 34 (down from 3rd)
5. Chaffinch - 30 (down from 4th)
6. Great Tit - 28 (down from 5th)
7. Reed Warbler - 23 (down from 6th)
8. Sedge Warbler - 12 (straight in)
Blackcap - 12 (straight in)
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