2023 – Page 6 – David Bradley

A bridge camera for troubled authors

Back in August 2019, before our last trip abroad (a wildlife and yoga holiday organised and run by friends), I bought a bridge camera. Much lighter in the luggage and easier to handle when trekking about in the Greek heat.

Well, that was the plan. In the end, I couldn’t bear not having a decent camera and lens for all the birds – Eleanora’s Falcon, Bee-eater, Sardinian Warbler, Blue Rock Thrush, Red-rumped Swallow, Lesser Kestrel, Honey Buzzard, Black Stork, and many others. So, I took my old Canon 6D and the Sigma 150-600mm. I wouldn’t have realistically got the shots I did even with the so-called 60x zoom of the bridge camera I’d bought – Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ82. That 60x zoom means it goes from the 35mm-frame equivalent of a very wide 20mm to a superzoom of 1200mm, on its tiny sensor. The purchase was at the time a mistake; the camera has languished in a cupboard unused and unloved ever since to my chagrin.

However, something changed in the air this summer and I thought I’d dig out the camera again to do some experiments. What had changed? Well, the wind picked up and the overnight temperatures dropped meaning that moth diversity and numbers in the garden have plummeted in the last few days . So, apart from a couple of micros, I’ve not really had any new species to photograph in my macro studio with dSLR setup (Canon 7Dii and Tamron 90mm 1:1 macro lens). The most exciting moths in the trap* last night were a couple of Box-tree moths, the very familiar grass veneers, a solitary Scalloped Oak, and just one Large Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (LBBYU).

I thought I’d dig out the Lumix and see how it fared with macro photography on these two specimens. Obviously, I have half-decent photos of both of those with my dSLR macro kit from previous seasons. The macro mode on the Lumix is pretty good, it lets you get to within 10mm or so of the subject. Obviously, that was too close to get the whole of the Scalloped Oak, perched on a matching chunk of wood, in the frame. But, I took a few shots anyway. They were okay. The quality of the basic single-frame shots doesn’t really match my dSLR setup but the focus stacking feature is handy and I gave that a try with the Scalloped Oak. To be honest, it works, but the image quality isn’t as good as the macro function on my phone.

Focus stacked image of Scalloped Oak moth using Lumix

Scalloped Oak moth using Samsung A52s phone camera — Scalloped Oak moth using Samsung A52s

I then turned to another perhaps more useful feature I’d remembered on the Lumix – recording a 4K snippet of video from which you can then pick the best single frame and save it as a 4K photo. Now, this is something that’s not available with old dSLRs like my Canon 7Dii or the older 6D.

In order to test this feature and see if I could get a decent shot of the LBBYU’s yellow-marked rear wings, I released the moth from its and let it fly up against my studio window. I’d set the camera EV to somewhere between +2 and +3 above neutral exposure to compensate for the bright background and then recorded a few of those 4K video snippets as the moth flapped vigourously around the window. Unfortunately, they’re just blurry and noisy and not worth showing. I have in the past got better shots using burst mode with a dSLR and using the same EV over-exposure trick.

I think I will take the camera on our next trip abroad as the scenic shots are pretty good and much better than what I get with my phone.

*Skinner trap with Welmite 20W ultraviolet compact fluorescent tube.

Cleaning up a Least Weasel with Firefly

While we were standing on the ditch-bridge beyond the old, stilted Rothschild’s Bungalow at Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve trying to catch a glimpse of the Purple Emperors wheeling high above is in the oak trees, a mammal squeaked near our feet and poked its head out to see what all the fuss was about. It was a Least Weasel, it seems.

Its scientific name is Mustela nivalis, although it is often known as the Little Weasel, Common Weasel, or in some places simply a Weasel. In the US the term weasel is more generic and applies to a whole range of creatures. Not to be confused with Mustela erminea,that’s stoatally different although not weasily distinguished. Hahahah.

Anyway, as is the wont of these small carnivores, they might pop out into the open, as did this one, before quickly disappearing back into the tangled undergrowth. But, they almost always come back out within a second or two for another look as did this one, before it plopped into the ditch water swam the few feet across and could be heard scuffling on the other side before disappearing for good.

The upshot of all this peeking and scuffling is that I wasn’t quick enough to get the first shot of the creature standing on the bridge near our feet, but I got a sneaky shot of her after she made her second appearance. Unfortunately, there was a blade of blurry green grass right in front of her. I found a Photoshop tutorial on how to remove such distractions, but the techniques didn’t translate easily to PaintShopPro, although I had a go and managed to decolourise the blade so it was brown and slightly less distracting than the green.

I posted the image on Twitter to confirm the species but also to ask if anyone knew of a simple way to remove blurry blades of grass. Various people replied with PhotoShop suggesttions. But, like I say, I use PaintShopPro rather than that pricey Adobe subscription product. Twitter friend Chuck Baggett offered the best solution. A free, beta-testing AI tool from the very same Adobe, known as Firefly. It’s a generative art tool akin to Dall-E and MidJourney, AI apps I’ve discussed at length here previously.

Firefly has an object removal tool within its repertoire. You set an appropriate brush and simply paint over the object you want to remove. Chuck did the job for me on the version of the weasel, I’d tweeted. But, I obviously wanted to test the app myself, so I uploaded a JPG rendering of the DNG output I’d created with DxO PureRaw3 from the original camera RAW file. Set a brush up and painted out the green blade of grass and some of the other distracting fronds. There were some odd artefacts visible when viewing the eye close-up, but they were relatively easy to fix in PaintShopPro without having to start from scratch in the Firefly AI app.

Least Weasel photo before and after Firefly retouching

I can highly recommend Adobe Firefly for removing such problems from your photos. Much quicker and easier than the various approaches offered for PhotoShop. The app adds a watermark that declares the image was generated with an AI app, but I think in this case it’s quite fair of me to crop out that declaration given then I was simply manipulating my own photo with a digital brush! Obviously, the Firefly system can generate artwork from text descriptions just as Dall-E and MidJourney do and those generative images probably should be declared as such in some circumstances.

A micro moth, relatively new to science

The rate at which I’m seeing new moth species in the garden has been somewhat slow this year. Obviously, in my first couple of years mothing, I saw dozens and dozens I’d never seen before. In fact, most of the moths I saw early on were all new to me. I think the garden list got to about 350 species after the first three years. In subsequent, years, I’d see double figures of new moths, at least 127 NFM in 2018, 125+ NFM in 2019, and so on. 2022 was a good year, 64 NFM with the last new one of the year being at the end of October, December Moth!

Anarsia innoxiella (Gregersen & Karsholt, 2017)

So far in 2023, I’ve seen 22 new species.

Interestingly, as I fill in my records and add photos of the moths to my galleries on Imaging Storm, I also note as part of the scientific name, the scientists who gave the species its official name. Most of these were done in the 18th and 19th centuries by Linnaeus, Hufnagel, Denis & Schiffermüller, Scopoli, Forster, and others. But, a new moth for me this morning was Anarsia innoxiella. This tiny micro moth was new to science in 2017, according to the UK Moths site. The species is, the site says, well-established but only in local spots in Southern England.

According to the site, “it is thought that most specimens of previously identified A. lineatella that have been light-trapped are likely to be innoxiella.” The site adds, “The long black streak in the centre of the forewing is said to be diagnostic of innoxiella, supported by the more contrasting pattern overall. A. lineatella has a less-contrasting, duller pattern and the central black streak is shorter and more elliptical.”

Stiffkey Spoonies and Trimingham Bee-eaters

We took our first camping trip to Stiffkey for several years. Torrential rain and wind during the first night, but better, brighter, hotter days to follow, mostly. Mrs Sciencebase had spotted Spoonbills at North Fen Stiffkey on Tuesday night before the rain, so we headed that way the next morning and discovered a flock of around 16 or 17. Grey day so not bright bird photos. There were also Cormorant and Avocet on the same patch.

The next day’s walk took us to Wells-next-Sea where there was another flock of 14 or so on land before you get to the sailing club etc.

Spoonbill in flight, showing breeding plumage

In between those two sightings, however, we had headed for the quarry at Trimingham further along the North Norfolk coast to see the nesting Bee-eaters. There are three there this year (there were eight last year, but not nesting success, as far as I know). One of this year’s three is apparently one of the same birds, a male, that was at this site in 2022.

Flying European Bee-eater — European Bee-eater in flight

Bee-eater departing the threesome's burrow at Trimingham — Bee-eater departing the threesome’s burrow at Trimingham

One of The Trimingham Three Bee-eaters heading for their burrow

Meanwhile, it’s always worth checking the utility blocks on a campsite for moths and I was pleased to see two species there that I’d not recorded before – Beautiful China-mark and Marbled Brown. Also, lots of Garden Grass-veneer, a Riband Wave, a Common Yellow Conch, and various other micros.

Beautiful China-mark washing-up block, High Sand Creek, Stiffkey — Beautiful China-mark

Interesting to learn that the campsite manager has also been turned to the mothside and was interested to know what I’d spotted and to show me some of her utility-block snaps. Apparently, one camping guest brings a trap and was hoping to snap up some rarities off the tidal marsh.

Marbled Brown moth roosting in campsite toilet block — Marbled Brown

Last camping night, we also noticed an ironically uncommon sight, a Common Gull. It was hunting for crumbs and scraps with a solitary Pied Wagtail, numerous Wood Pigeon, and several Jackdaw.

With plans to visit Holt Country Park on the way home to potentially see Silver-washed Fritillary, White Admiral and perhaps Purple Emperor, it was a surprise to catch sight of a White Admiral flying low across the campsite as we decamped. We saw lots of SWFs and five or six White Admiral at the Country Park, but no Emperors, sadly.

White Admiral butterfly high up in a tree at Holt CountryPark — White Admiral

Boosting a shady Scarlet Tiger moth

I visited Chippenham Fen NNR. Hoping to see Purple Emperor and seeing a solitary White Admiral instead. Also saw the nationally rare, fenland Silver-barred moth, and lots of Scarlet Tiger moths. It was a grey day by the time I got a snap of a Scarlet Tiger nectaring (one of the only moths of this group in the UK that can feed as an adult). Of course, being a grey day, the light levels were low below a bank of trees with the favoured thistles.

High ISO (2500) photo processed with DxO PureRaw3 removes noise to equivalent of ISO 320 — DxO PureRaw3 can save you three full ISO stops of noise

As you can see from the left-hand portion of this photo, there was a lot of noise in the image. I used DxO PureRaw 3 (right-hand portion processed with the DeepPrimeXD AI setting) to cut the noise and do a little bit of sharpening to the image and then PaintShop Pro to adjust levels in this split-screen shot.

The photo was taken from about 3 metres away, closest I can get with that my big zoom lens, a Sigma OS 150-600mm lens fully extended on a Canon 7D mark ii. And, cropped from a pixel-width of 5472 to just the moth and some of the thistle, which gave me a 1590-pixel wide image, fine for the web and social media.

Camera settings used were shutterspeed 1/800s, f/6.3, and ISO 2500. I reckon PureRaw3 saves you about three full stops of ISO. So, the cleanup of this photo at ISO 2500 is giving you an image equivalent to what I would have got if I’d been able to get a correct exposure at ISO 320.

However, I felt that although the DxO AI software had done an incredible job on removing noise, as it always does, the photo could do with a different type of additional sharpening. So, I fed the original output from DxO into Topaz SharpenAI and then did my usual PaintShopPro tweaks on the saved filed from that software to get what I think is an even better final photo.

Topaz, DxO, PSP processed Scarlet Tiger — This Scarlet Tiger scrubbed up quite well with some RAW processing

Chippenham Fen National Nature Reserve

Having spent Saturday morning with the Coton Orchard mothing team, I missed out on a Butterfly Conservation mothing and butterflying event at Chippenham Fen NNR, which overlapped. So, I headed up to the Fen on the Sunday morning.

I spent a couple of hours there after a horrendous number of detours to find the place. Once on the site, I spotted lots of very flitty and active Ringlet butterflies, numerous Skippers, and a single White Admiral high overhead. Unfortunately, didn’t see any Purple Emperor butterflies, which had been my primary target.

I hadn’t realised that this Fen is a site for Scarlet Tiger moth of which there were lots. Also spotted the fairly common Yellow Shell moth, a couple of un-ID micros, and I did catch a very fleeting glimpse of the Fen’s signature Lepidopteral species, the incredibly rare and fenland-only Silver-barred moth, which was one of the mothing targets for the group there yesterday.

And another nice sighting – juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (red underparts and size separate it from the much rarer Lesser Spotted).

Mothing at Coton Orchard

I helped out at my first public moth event and bioblitz on 1st July at the wonderfully serene Coton Orchard, a couple of clicks west of central Cambridge.

It’s a mature and well-established early twentieth century orchard with great soil and a lot of biodiversity, Anna Gazeley told me at the event. Plenty of wild blackthorn growing on patches that no longer host apple trees and several areas of rewilding and meadow creation underway. There were dozens of Marbled White, Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, and Small Heath butterflies enjoying the meadows while Buzzards circled the thermals overhead.

Coton Orchard is, unfortunately threatened by what can only be described as a wholly inappropriate, costly, and ten-years out-of-date transport-infrastructure project for Cambridge. All in the name of sustaining Cambridge’s purported 15-minute city ethos. It looks like a very misguided busway idea to me and many others, despite what the developers and some members of the council claim. Indeed, the 2020 biological survey of the site suggests that the development would have a very detrimental effect on the ecosystem and the wildlife. Purported offsetting of the harm by planting new trees elsewhere does not and never can compensate for destroying established systems. It’s greenwashing at its worst.

Anyway, there was a good crowd of people of all ages who turned up quite early on a Saturday morning to see the grand unveiling of the moth traps. There were a lot of species, Privet Hawk-moth, Elephant Hawk-moth, Lunar-spotted Pinion, Dark Umber, Heart & Dart, Heart & Club, Dark Umber, Marbled Orchard Tortrix, Small Emerald, Silver Y, Bordered Straw, lots of micros, and many, many more from three actinic and one mercury vapour bulb trap. Those big moths delighted young and old alike!

I, and the proper moth experts there (Adrian Matthews, Ben Greig, Jim Cox, Lois Clarke, and others), talked to members of the public who were curious about various aspects of the moths, especially the names of different species.

I kept an eye on what was being revealed in each trap and was quite surprised, but encouraged, to see that I recognised a lot of the species from my own garden mothing over the last five years. There were dozens of species and hundreds of moths all enjoying their life in and around the orchard, I’m sure. Some were more rare than others, like Small Emerald and Dark Umber, and there may well be rarities at the orchard too that didn’t find the traps but were among the trees and in the undergrowth. Of course, there were lots of Apple Ermine moths. The team there is hoping and waiting to see the super-rare Black Hairstreak butterfly on the wild blackthorn on this site.

Sexton "Burying" Beetle — Sexton “Burying” Beetle

Also, there was entomologist Claire Wallace who pointed out that she could see that a sample had been taken for genetic testing from one of the beetles (a Sexton Beetle) found in one of the traps.

Five years of mothing

UPDATE: I helped out at a public moth event and bioblitz this morning at the wonderfully serene Coton Orchard, 2-3km west of central Cambridge. It’s a century-old orchard with great soil and a lot of biodiversity, Anna Gazeley told me at the event. It is, unfortunately threatened by what can only be described as a wholly inappropriate, costly, and ten-years out-of-date transport-infrastructure project for Cambridge. All in the name of sustaining Cambridge’s purported 15-minute city ethos.

Also, there was bee expert Claire Wallace who pointed out that a sample had been taken for genetic testing from one of the beetles (a Sexton Beetle) found in one of the traps.

If you’ve been visiting Sciencebase for a while, you will know that in July 2018, I acquired a moth trap, became quickly fixated on this other world of nocturnal Lepidoptera, and have logged and photographed the species that turn up in my garden and that I see elsewhere ever since. Almost fanatically, Mrs Sciencebase would say…

I did an audit of my logs at the end of June ahead of my five-year anniversary as a moth-er on 24th July. So, I’m writing this post on the 30th June and will update as July gets underway.

At the time of writing, I have recorded 448 moths in my South Cambridgeshire garden, mainly drawn to a 40W actinic light over the years, but occasionally and regularly for a month or so to a (cheaper-to-run) 20W Wemlite, an even-cheaper-to-run LepiLED, or to various pheromone lures. There has been the occasional moth that turned up without my having done anything, The Vapourer and the Lilac Beauty, for instance. The former on our bedroom window one afternoon (spotted by Mrs Sciencebase), the latter perched at the front door (spotted by me).

I have also recorded 34 species elsewhere, either random sightings on nature reserves, in woodlands, or in holiday house gardens. I have also photographed 38 species of British butterfly (butterflies are moths) and ten species outside the UK. So, in total, well over 500 species of Lepidoptera.

It’s the garden moth list that I focus on, however, I was hoping to reach 500 species of moth in the garden for my fifth anniversary, that seems unlikely unless there’s a big change in conditions and wind and weather in the next three weeks that brings some newbies in.

In my first year (2018), I saw approximately 127 species new to me. I had obviously seen a few moths in my life before that. In 2019, the NFM list was 125, in 2020, when we had a run of very warm days and cold March nights, I only ticked 30 new species in the garden. For 2021, that number was 38. Things picked up considerably in 2022 and despite that fact that I was basically seeing mostly the same moths year after year, I recorded more diligently the micro moths and the macros too and had 64 new species, with Convolvulus Hawk-moth (attracted to my Nicotiana flowers) and the wonderful December Moth (also in late September) being the highlights of that season.

Mother Shipton on Devil's Dyke — Mother Shipton on Devil’s Dyke

At the time of writing, I’ve recorded 19 new species in the garden and one elsewhere, Brindled Twist, which was in the local Les King Wood sitting next to a fairly rare Pyramidal Orchid.

So, as of 30th June, 482 (non-butterfly) moths and just 34 of those not in the garden. Incidentally, I have ticked only one new butterfly species so far this year, Dingy Skipper at Devil’s Dyke. In the previous two years, I’ve seen 6 new species each year. I am hoping to add one or two more to that short list in 2023, but it may not happen.

Feed the birds…twenty quid a bag…

Food for the garden birds is rather pricey. Certainly not the tuppence-a-bag of the song from Mary Poppins. Admittedly, the bags you buy are a lot more heavily laden with various seeds and grains.

Anyway, discussion is ongoing in my Wild Fen Edge group about when to feed garden birds, so here are some thoughts.

Birds need to eat all year round. So, I put food out all the time – mixed seed peanuts, nyjer seeds, fat balls, flutter butter. Different places in the garden, different heights if possible, near obvious perching points, higher than cat access, some out in the open. Also, not too many feeders close together to avoid disease. Feeders should be emptied and cleaned thoroughly with detergent on a regular basis.

I also have a couple of bird baths of different sizes (one on the ground, one on a stand) and a pond for their drinking and bathing. Birdbath water needs to be changed frequently as the birds commonly add droppings.

I have written about attracting birds to your garden previously, so check out that for more tips and tricks. I’ve seen at least a couple of dozen species in our garden over the years, including the common birds, but also the likes of Grey Heron, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Fieldfare, Redwing, Chiffchaff etc.

An additional point about gardens, native wildflowers are great for insects and so the insectivorous birds. Leave your garden a bit scruffy. Let a few weeds sprout. Create some wild patches, don’t have gravel and lawn throughout and never, ever, ever put down astroturf, you Philistine! Let standing stems go to seed at the end of summer and don’t prune them back until they begin to rot or the birds have emptied them of seed. Stick to #NoMowMay and let it run into June. Also, do #NoPruneJune and basically avoid being overly tidy with your garden. The more scruffy bits, overgrown, weedy, diverse, the more chance of attracting and keeping invertebrates and birds. Let your bushes and ivy produce their berries, these will feed Blackbirds and the like in the winter. They might even attract Fieldfares and Redwings…maybe even Waxwings, if you Rowan (Mountain Ash).

The natural approach is perhaps best and maybe not even putting out food should be the way to go. But, there are two arguments about feeding garden birds one for and one against

The first says we shouldn’t really do it at all, as it brings birds together and can spread disease. Garden feeding can alter behaviour in terms of how birds feed so that some might become reliant on feeders rather than seeking out natural sources of food. There are also issues with the numbers of chicks Blue Tits and some other species are raising and out-competing other local species because they have adopted feeder feeding quite vigorously. Feeders are even thought to have altered migration patterns, viz the over-wintering Blackcaps we now commonly see in English gardens.

The second school of thought suggests that because we have removed the birds’ natural habitats and reduced greatly the numbers of insects on which they would feed through agriculture and development, we need to provide them with alternative habitation and food all year round. Our gardens can offer that.

So, personally, I feed all year round with a few caveats. Such as if I spot an obviously diseased or dead bird in the garden, I’ll remove all feeders, empty them into the bin and give them a good scrub in hot water with detergent. I’ll dry them and put them away for a couple of weeks, to dehabituate the birds to my garden for a while. It’s also a good idea to remove feeders if you see rats. Although rats are perhaps more attracted by bread and meat scraps or cheese. These are not the best choice for bird food anyway, so best not to put those out on bird tables or in feeders.

Tinea pellionella – The Case-bearing Clothes Moth

I spotted something moving very slowly along a wall in the house this morning and took a close look. I thought maybe it was a bagworm at first, but a couple of experts on Twitter, Colin Foote @MothIDUK and Richard Lewington confirmed it as the larva of the Case-bearing Clothes Moth, Tinea pellionella. These are sometimes colloquially known as bagworms, but they’re not fully fledged bagworms, that word is reserved for a group of moths known as the Psychids.

Now, I’ve almost certainly seen the adults of this species, although there are several very similar Tinea adults that are almost indistinguishable, so I couldn’t tell you for certain. But, I’d definitely not seen the insect in the larval stage…as with the bagworms (the Psychids), the Case-bearing Clothes Moth makes a home for itself from fragments of materials it finds when it hatches from its egg – wool and fur – for instance, which it can also eat, although it does dine on feathers in bird’s nests too. The unrelated Psychids might also use bark, wood, sand, and lichen. The case-bearer wraps itself up in its case for protection and camouflage. It’s perhaps the ultimate in mini-beast home-building. There may well be some larval silk spinning involved in building these cases and bags.

It’s a not dissimilar strategy to that used by the leafroller moths (the Totricids, from the same root as torque), which roll themselves up in a leaf of their larval foodplant. But, it’s a stark contrast to the silken larval nests made by the likes of the Brown-tail, and the Oak Processionary Moth, and very, very different from the strategy adopted by others that make themselves look threatening using lurid colour schemes, thorns, hairs, and spines, or false eyes to ward off predators, and make them seem unpalatable.

One more thing…best not to encourage this species to live in your home, its larvae do have a penchant for fabrics.