UPDATE: Mrs Sciencebase in action with the minipresso
Sciencebase has had various gadgets to review over the years most of them computing peripherals and related technology. Today, a minipresso from Wacaco Ltd arrived special delivery. As the name would suggest it’s a mini/portable espresso maker. Basically, a container with the requisite metal filter and a push-button pump to build up a head of steam to force hot water through the filter loaded with coffee granules into a receptacle.
All looks very easy to use, although I persuaded Mrs Sciencebase to find the instructions online and she followed through with the Youtube demo. Seems like an ideal device for camping where a full-blown expresso machine might be a little over the top, but where you can usually boil water on your camping stove and bring with you your favour coffee granules.
The claim is to a nice 70-millilitre espresso with a decent crema (the syrupy froth so beloved of many espresso drinkers. Camping season is at an end for us for 2019, but this would definitely be required kit in our big camping box for any future trips.
Once I’ve made myself one, I’ll update the blog with a report on the taste test…
Back in the day, Mrs Sciencebase worked for an innovative and aspirational electronics company. One of the developments they were working on at a time long before mobile phones were ubiquitous was how to make phone calls clearer. They wanted to get rid of the squelch and muffled tones that are commonplace. The idea had to be to do this without increasing the signal bandwidth that is needed to transmit the mutterings of caller and receiver.
The problem was never solved and so remains a serious issue particularly for those who have hearing problems. Turning up the volume doesn’t cut it as that simply makes the mid-range muffle mufflier and squeezes the squelch so that it becomes unbearable. A novel solution has been developed by a startup, Audacious, in conjunction with leading hearing specialists, Brian Moore and Michael Stone.
Potential users do a special hearing test, which they call a Sound Check using their current phone and a web browser. Based on their responses, Audacious can then tweak the sound at source before it is compressed for transmission as usual via the phone network. This, they suggest, improves the sound quality for the recipient and gives them a much better experience than they would have with a standard call that isn’t tailored to their hearing profile.
You use your own phone, but switch to their SIM and all the calls you receive via their system are essentially tweaked so they’re clearer for you. You can retake the audio test periodically and the EQ and compression algorithm will update your account so that you continue to get the best out of your phone.
Now, I know for a fact I’ve got some left-right hearing discrepancy and while I’ve still got pretty got top-end for some in their sixth decade, I know that my mid-range hearing leaves a bit to be desired and given that that is the range at which most of the characteristics of speech are heard. I tried the test and when I’d finished, the system played some speech as it would be with an Audacious SIM card and lets you hear how it was before and after. It did seem to make a significant difference to hear the call with the Audacious treatment as opposed to the muffled and squelchy calls I hear on my phone with my current provider.
I’ve tried doing the built-in Samsung EQ sound improvement in advanced sound settings that also involves a simple hearing test on your phone, but that’s not really improved things enough to give me clearer calls. Until audio/video messaging is as accessible as conventional phone call this does sound like the way forward.
You can take the Audacious sound check here and hear the difference for yourself. The assumption is that you have some kind of hearing deficit, which most of us of a certain age, and especially musicians and concertgoers often do, and anyone who has a career in a noisy environment. Find out more on their website or via their Facebook.
Kittiwakes live on the tidal river Tyne as far inland as my hometown, Newcastle itself. In fact, this is the farthest inland-dwelling colony of this small gull, known internationally as the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) anywhere in the world.
We were in Newcastle for a university graduation ceremony in July, so it seemed somewhat churlish not to get photos of the seabirds in between family photos of us and the graduate and the great city itself. As Stephen Rutt points out in his excellent book The Seafarers, nobody has figured out why these Kittiwakes have come so far inland.
The world-famous Tyne Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, EnglandKittiwakes nesting on the Tyne Bridge, NewcastleThe Baltic Flour Mills (left of frame, on opposite bank of the river) GatesheadKittiwakes nesting up high on the Baltic Flour Mills, Gateshead
Gateshead Millennium Bridge over the River Tyne between Newcastle and GatesheadKittiwakes on the upper deck of the Baltic Flour Mills, GatesheadKittiwake outside the top-floor restaurant, the Baltic Flour Mills, Gateshead
Mention going on safari to most people and the assumption is that means a trip to a reserve somewhere far-flung, usually southern Africa, snapping photos of lion, giraffe, elephant, impala, and other big game. A wit might mention in passing the once-trendy concept of a safari supper, but let’s forget foodie affectations and take a safari around our local patch. What are you likely to see on a local safari?
Well, aside from the various birds we usually refer to in this column, the buzzards, kestrels, peregrines, hobbies, red kites, marsh harriers, and all those smaller specimens, there are quite a few large animals around. There’s no point offroading it and rocking up in a “Landie” like you might do on that African safari, the watering holes are not so scarce and there is almost as much chance of spotting your something in your back garden as on the farmland that surrounds the village and the local, small woodlands.
Reeves’ Muntjac on farmland behind Victory Way
Depending on the time of day, a walk through Les King Wood will often have you stumbling on and perhaps startling a Muntjac or barking deer. Specifically, the non-indigenous species originating in South Asia of Reeves’s muntjac were captive on the Woburn Abbey Estate in the roaring 20s and have since gone feral. Watch out for females with young, they will often make a noise and run out into a field as a decoy leaving their offspring out of sight in a hedgerow. They aren’t confined to the Wood though, you might spot one in and around the village at almost any time of year. Similarly, the various small herds of Roe Deer, which are more prominent on the farmland along Beach Road and in the fields beyond the Cottenham Lode.
An early morning run, as reader Andrew F will tell you, almost always has him stumbling over badgers on the “Birds Estate” in the village. Andrew tells me he sees them a lot and often with young. Foxes too are a common sight for walkers and runners especially in the photographers’ golden hours just as the sun comes up or when it is setting. That said, the inspiration for my Nature Watch report this issue was seeing a red fox in the wide open and newly mown hayfield alongside Rampton Spinney at midday.
Fox pouncing on prey at dusk, farmland between Cottenham and Rampton
The fox spent a lot of time staring at the hay, perhaps hoping for insects or small rodents to make an irresistible appearance. I watched him for ten minutes or so before he skulked off into the trees, presumably still very hungry. Some of the older residents will tell you of frequent sightings of foxes in gardens along the High Street backing on to the Lode and elsewhere in the village. They also might point out that fewer and fewer are seen even out in the more “countryside” areas beyond. Although chicken-keepers still have to be vigilant and several have lost their birds to the local vulpines nevertheless.
There are plenty of rabbits around these here parts, although thankfully they are not endemic to the allotments. That site does, however, have a European hare that makes a periodic appearance. There are plenty of that particular species around, often to be seen haring about in the fields beyond the Les King Wood and even on the back field of the recreation ground.
hare tongue
Moles are a little bit more an elusive target of our local safari, given their general subterranean existence. I have, however, once seen one of these velvetine mammals pop its head up from its hole. Seen slightly more often are stoats. If spotted these animals will often dart into the undergrowth but then come back out for a second look, just to check how feeble a predator you really are. There are water voles too, living in burrows in the banks of the Lode. Unfortunately, the Grey Heron sees this small swimming mammal as just another snack and I have seen one these birds standing atop the bank gulping down a water vole whole.
Stoatally marvellous
Meanwhile, the maintenance work the Environment Agency carries out there always takes the water voles into account and their work is done very much with protecting this species’ habitat in mind. I spoke to one of their engineers recently who told me as much and also pointed out some otter scat on stones beneath the Rampton Bridge, so there’s another mammalian target on our local safari.
Of course, if you’re unable or unwilling to venture out on our local safari, you might still be able to see some of the small game that lives alongside us in the village. Hedgehogs, once a frequent sight in their two-dimensional form on roads across the country, are seen far less often. It is important to make routes for them to traverse our gardens and to ensure ponds have escape routes to prevent drowning. Leaving gardens with some unkempt areas will give our prickly friends a place to hide and hibernate. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant though, so don’t put milk out for them. They are omnivores, however, and will see a bit of soft cat food as a treat, although it is best to leave them to their natural diet of invertebrates.
Oh, and there are lots of American immigrants in the form of the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in our environs as well as the melanistic form, the black squirrel.
If you have seen any interesting natural happenings in and around the village do let me know, you can email me [email protected] Photos and additional nature reporting on my website https://sciencebase.com
The Large Yellow Underwing is the kind of moth we used to call a logger when I was a bairn; Northern dialect word, short for loggerhead. On a warm summer’s evening there would almost always be a logger that would be attracted to a kitchen light and come in through an open window. I must confess I don’t ever remember seeing this species, Noctua pronuba (Linnaeus, 1758), specifically, and certainly don’t recall ever noticing any big moths that revealed brightly coloured hindwings when they were startled or fly. Like most people, until they learn, it’s assumed butterflies are colourful and moths are all brown, grey and dowdy. Simply not true.
Anyway, I’ve more than made up for any childhood failings in terms of moth observation over the last year or so. This summer alone I have caught and released more than 1000 moths of just this one species in my scientific trap, the peak was 148 specimens on the night of 26th August 2019. I’ve recorded their numbers and occasionally photographed them along with more than 300 other species of Lepidoptera (the word means scaly winged and also applies to the butterflies, which are really just a type of moth, anyway, there’s only any real distinction made in British English, because of the bipolar nature of our language with its Germanic and Latinate roots).
Anyway, I wanted to know the etymology of logger/loggerhead. Obviously, there’s the whaling term referring to a large post at the prow of a whaling vessel around which the harpoon rope would be slung to hold fast the catch. There are loggerhead turtles and the word is sometimes used to refer to a foolish person, someone thick as two short planks, and apparently, tadpoles.
Bill Griffith in his Dictionary of North East Dialect (Northumbria University Press, 2nd edn 2005). Refers to a logger as being a coloured butterfly. And mentions that it might also be used to refer to moths. He quotes its usage:
A've been doon the born coppin loggerheads
A literal translation from the Geordie would be: I have been to the burn looking at coloured butterflies/moths. But, figuratively it is a way of responding to the question “Wheor hev yee been?” (Where have you been?) with a curt “Mind your own business!”.
I’ve mention Peter Marren’s book on Lepidoptera nomenclature before – Emperors, Admirals, and Chimney Sweepers. It’s a fascinating read, especially if you love words and lepidoptera. But, if you enjoy either one of those things you’ll enjoy his book. Anyway, this morning, I had need to refer to it and put my various moth pots from the scientific trap next to it…ooh, I thought as I did so: photo opportunity. There are seven actual moths posing on my copy of the book in the photo immediately below. Can you spot them?
Angle Shades moth on Marren’s bookCanary-shouldered Thorn
On the upper picture there is an Angle Shades, a Canary-shouldered Thorn, an Orange Swift, a Green Carpet, a Ringed China-mark, a Coronet, and a Garden Carpet. Did you spot them all?
I’ve simplified my Imaging Storm “Mothematics” photo galleries. We now have – Butterflies, Hawk-moths, Macro Moths, and Micro Moths instead of dividing the macros between geometers, owlets, erebidae, notodontidae, lasiocampidae, drepanidae, and everything else.
Ruby Tiger, a member of the Erebidae family of moths
Peppered Moth – one of the geometers
Puss Moth, member of the NotodontidaeCopper Underwing, the owlet (noctuid) moth that got me started on mothing in July 2019
You can take a look at my detailed mothing records for 2019 here.
The mercury had been rising for a few days, nudging up the little iron shims on the garden’s max-min thermometer by mid-afternoon. Three days on the trot it has peaked at a little over 30 Celsius in the shade despite it having been a Bank Holiday Weekend. Nights have been sultry, as they say in a certain kind of pulp fiction. Humid, and the mercury not nudging the iron bars below about 16 Celsius.
Face to face with an Old Lady, Mormo maura
Of course, these are not extremes, these are puny temperatures when compared to much of the rest of the world. But, this is England and our weather is tempered by the Gulf Stream and admonished of late by global warming. It’s been good for the night-flying creatures you know I love. Both the bats and the moths.
Face-on view of Burnished Brass, Diachrysia chrysitis
The moths far outnumber the bats of course. In the scientific trap, drawn to the 40 Watt actinic, UV light, there were at least 421 leps of more than 43 species (highest density but not diversity so far for me in my garden in 2019).
Pebble Hook-tip, Drepana falcataria
I keep a detailed record, but some of the micro-moths, the grass veneers, for instance, don’t always get segregated in my logs, so where I say Satin Grass-veneer or Chrysoteuchia culmella, it is possible that I’ve overlooked a distinct species of the 2000 or so micro moths of the British Isles.
Setaceous Hebrew Character and Swallow Prominent
For the macro moths, I’m 99.9% certain I’m naming them and logging all of those correctly, albeit with an occasional escapee before it is ticked. There are around 500 macro moths in this country. Worldwide there are some 170,000 species of moths. #MothsMatter. I lodge rarities, interesting migrants, and vagrants that turn up with iRecord and the Cambridgeshire County Moth Recorder. Amazingly, of this morning’s haul not one of the specimens was new to the garden nor even new for the year, I’ve seen and photographed all of the species listed below several times.
Trapping record for 27/08/19Female Poplar Hawk-moth and eggs
Oh, by the way, in case you didn’t know, Lepidoptera means “scaly winged” and butterflies are essentially a sub-group of moths, they all having a common moth ancestor way back in evolutionary history. All leps are descended from a common ancestor with the caddisflies (of which many often turn up in the trap too).
A conventional sideview of Burnished Brass, showing its brassinessSmall Blood-vein, Scopula imitariaSetaceous Hebrew Character, Xestia c-nigrum
The main aim of the recent camping trip to the North Norfolk coast aside from camping for the sake of it was to see some of the seals that have a colony at Winterton/Horsey, a couple of miles along the beach from the Waxham campsite. You must keep the dog and yourselves at a good distance, which we did but so many people didn’t, which is frustrating to witness. Tragic consequences of such ignorance came to light in December.
Perhaps despite appearances, my photos were all taken from at least 10 metres away, which is what the signs tell you to do. The dog was never allowed anywhere near that proximity. They’re done with a 600mm zoom and then cropped to the frame.
Anyway, we counted a couple of hundred seals that we could see in the water and basking at the water’s edge. Two species here – Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus, the “hooked-nosed sea pig”, and Harbour, or Common, Seal, Phoca vitulina, which means “veal seal”.
There is an amazing diversity of colour and patterning of their fur and variation in size. Interesting to note that although they have a common evolutionary ancestor with the cat and dog a closer relative with a more recent common ancestor are the otters.
We like to take at least a couple of camping trips during the summer. It used to be that we would do three or four when the children were still coming along with us but that’s almost ancient history now. Anyway, there are several very important things to remember when camping:
Once you arrive, first things first:
Unpack the tent, get it erected
Make sure the pre-chilled beer gets stowed somewhere cool if not cold and crack one open as a reward for being so efficient with putting the tent up.
Then, it’s time to check the toilet blocks. Not for imminent ablutions after a long drive to the site, but to see if there are any local Lepidoptera in attendance.
Arriving at this week’s site on the more Easterly coast of North Norfolk coast where there are seals to be seen on the beach, we spotted quite a haul of toilet block moths. A Silver Y and a Flounced Rustic in the gents, but on the wall outside the Ladies, a Red Underwing and a Treble-bar (Aplocera plagiata, Linnaeus, 1758), which unlike the Red Underwing the others was new to me, although it was initially vaguely familiar as I’d seen it post by fellow moth-ers on at least one Facebook group prior to our trip.
The campsite was quite special, it had at least four toilet and one shower block and almost all of them had various ‘veneers’ in most of the buildings. With Mrs Sciencebase in tow as a chaperone also pot in hand we identified Small Emerald, Light Emerald, another much larger ’emerald’, and new for us a Magpie!
Magpie, Abraxas grossulariata (Linnaeus, 1758)
We will head for the beach when the campers are quiet and hopefully see the seals out of the water. There were half a dozen swimming near the shore but not landing as too many people and too many dogs. Despite appearances, seals are not evolved from dogs nor cats, rather they have a shared ancestor with otters. Whatever their heritage they would be unlikely to want to approach a domestic dog either way. Although that said, the ones we saw early in the trip were all very curious to see who these landlubbers are. There were also lots of Little Terns diving and quartering up an down the shore. Later that evening a Beautiful Plume, moth, a Straw Underwing and a Flounced Rustic in the red toilet block.
Next morning I got up at 6:30am and headed to the beach with zoom lens and rewarded by the sight of a single female Harbour Seal on the shoreline and a first winter Wheatear too. I was at least 30 metres away when I took this shot. The “authorities” suggest you stay at least 10 metres away.
Early morning Harbour Seal, Phoca vitulina, North Norfolk coast, 20 Aug 2019
On the back to the tent with breakfast in mind, the toilet blocks again, but there were Silver Y, Straw Underwing, and a Canary-shouldered Thorn.
Canary-shouldered Thorn, posing on my copy of Stephen Rutt’s “The Seafarers”, perfect camping reading
Mrs Sciencebase found a Sharp-angled Peacock and another Treble-bar in the green ladies’ block. Incidentally, the campsite was home to a decent-sized flock of Starling and lots of Pied Wagtail, and a few summer visiting Swallows and House Martins. We also heard a Nightingale on the first night somewhere beyond one of the site’s corners. And on subsequent nights Tawny Owl, and at least one other species of owl.
Sharp-angled Peacock, Macaria alternata ([Denis & Schiffermueller], 1775)A new camper turned up one evening with a tent perched on the top of his builder’s white van. Took him an age to set it all up with many trips in between the job where he headed off to the other side of the campsite and refitted somebody else’s caravan and then I heard him giving a quote to a dog walker in the dunes for a castle built on sand, typical builder.
Later: Blood-vein in green toilet block that night.
Next day was a chilly morning but with another Magpie in the Yellow toilet block. Also, Brimstone and Yellow-tail in the red block. The stars the next night were magnificent and the moths forgotten for a while as we gazed in awe at the Milky Way and discussed the meaning of life and the decline in Earth’s total biomass in some regions of Europe. We also played spot the satellite of which there were many heading to and fro across the night sky. Final morning, no new moths in the giant moth trap that is the array of toilet blocks on this site other than a Swallow Prominent high up on the outside wall of the green toilet block.
I also just about caught the sunrise over the North Sea at a little before 6am. Horrible phone photo though
On the back to the tent with breakfast in mind, the toilet blocks again, but there were Silver Y, Straw Underwing, and a Canary-shouldered Thorn.
