Author: David Bradley

Where were you in ’76…

…the long, hot summer? You want to be a rebel and turn your hosepipes on! — Damon “Badly Drawn Boy” Gough (Born in the UK).

Great song, a very British version of Born in the USA, and far better to be frank.

Anyway, where was I in ’76, just entering my second decade in the North East of England and then to the scorched earth of Great Yarmouth for our summer hols…we visited The Norfolk Broads and even Lowestoft. The day after we got home, that town was flooded, and the Minister for Drought (Denis Howell) was quickly renamed the Minister for Floods and rather than organising water bowsers, standpipes, shared baths, and demanding we let our plants die, was forced to organise buckets for the bailout.

Fellow science journalist David Shuckman is also reminiscing about the summer of ’76. He was doing his A-levels, so he must be 7 or 8 years older than me. He’s looked at the differences between that long, hot summer and the current one. It was 30+ in the shade here, just outside Cambridge, earlier in the week, and while the patio slabs feel hotter and have scorched my bare feet (only myself to blame), it’s actually only got to 29 today.

Apparently, it’s a weak jetstream and cyclic Atlantic surface temperatures that have led to this long hot, dry spell (I don’t think it’s rained here since May). But, there’s also the effects of global warming, which may well have nudged on the effects of the weak jetstream and the Atlantic temperature. However, as Shuckman points out, the high pressure keeping the British Isles warm and dry in ’76 was further to the East, which meant it sucked up hotter, more humid air from the south that made it even more sultry at night than it has been this year (honest!).

But the current UK heatwave isn’t just a UK phenomenon, countries across the globe that aren’t directly affected by the Atlantic, the jetstream, and shared baths are also suffering. It’s possible that the heatwave will persist through August, there are storms forecast here for the weekend, but minimal chance of rain. Shuckman points out that East Anglia generally gets less per capita rain than Jerusalem. So, it could be that those standpipes are going to have to be brought out of storage, and if you’ve only got a cubicle shower in your en suite and no bath, you’re going to have get even more intimate than they did in ’76. Oh, and back then, they had two years to wait till Jilted John.

 

The Nouveau Mottephile

Mid-July 2018, I set a trap, a Robinson moth trap, constructed by my friend Rob. He’d had lots of success capturing, photographing and ultimately releasing hundreds of different species of moth when his children were young around 2006. We got quite a haul of moths on a trial run in his garden, including an enormous Poplar Hawk, Rustic, Brown-tail, Buff Ermine, Burnished Brass, and many others, here’s an open gallery of some of the moths we saw. It was seeing a Copper Underwing on our conservatory wall that triggered me to borrow the trap from Rob.

Robinson moth trap with actinic light

Another friend, erstwhile moth expert, Brian, named some Rob and I hadn’t put a name to and highlighted the taxonomic discrepancies in a couple to which we (I) had assigned an incorrect monicker or where there is ambiguity without dissection or additional knowledge, examination.

The first night with the trap in my back garden brought high diversity, but mostly very small moths and one or two special (to me as a novice moth lover) species: Burnished Brass (Diachrysia chrysitis), Rose-flounced Tabby (Endotricha flammealis), Yponomeuta sp., The Dun-bar (Cosmia trapezina), Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa), Cloaked Minor (Mesoligia furuncula)…

Mothley Crew

My very good friend Rob, former bigMouth chorister, cabinet maker, luthier, painter, photographer, and, as it turns out, amateur lepidopterist built himself a moth trap back in the mid-2000s to entertain his children.

You set the trap up to do its job overnight. It is basically a sealed wooden box full of egg trays, with a big funnel as a collector and an ultraviolet lamp above as an attractor. At night, the flying creatures are attracted to the lamp, find themselves perambulating down the funnel and into the box, and roosting in the egg trays.

There they will happily stay until dawn, when the amateur lepidopterist will pay a visit to see what lurks within, setting them all free again after a few observations are made and photos taken, preferably into undergrowth and bushes some distance away from the trapping site. You can see some of the snaps I took at Rob’s early this morning in a Facebook gallery entitled Mothley Crew, hopefully I will have more species to display tomorrow.

I paid Rob a visit early this morning, by invitation, to see what kind of haul he might have had on a sultry July night. Daytime temperatures have been 30 degrees Celsius plus and nothing lower than about 25 at night. There were plenty of flies and beetles in the trap and no smaller number of moths. Moths of all sizes from tiny little specimens, through White and Buff Ermines, and Large Yellow Underwings 20 millimetres or so from antennae to tail, and at least one much bigger Poplar Hawk Moth.

I snapped a few close-ups with my phone camera while Rob set them free into his garden shrubberies to fly another night or be snaffled up by Pipistrelle Bats. It seemed rather churlish not to offer to borrow the trap to see what kind of mothley crew we might have in our back garden and save a few from the local bats, just for a night. So, almost midday, the trap is set, just need to wait until dark, switch on the lamp, and spend an excitedly restless night dreaming of Elephant Hawk Moths, Netted Carpets, Brimstones, and Angle Shades.

Incidentally, that lamp…it looks like a U-shaped fluorescent tube about 300 mm in length. It’s labelled as an “actinic lamp”. Actinic from the Greek for a ray or beam and pertaining to photography and other areas where light is important. A non-actinic light, such as a red light used in a photography dark room, will not fog photographic film and triggers no photobiological nor photochemical reactions. An actinic light, as used in Rob’s homemade Robinson-type moth trap is the opposite. It’s a full-on bright, white light that reaches deeper into the high-energy blue end of the visible spectrum and is thus highly visible to light-seeking invertebrates.

In terms of etymology, chemist readers will recall the radioactive (beta emitting) element actinium and its relatives the actinides, which will fog photographic film, and much more besides…

Science, Snaps, Songs…Birds

I have attempted to categorise and separate out the science, snaps, songs, and birds posts, so that you can focus on just one subject, there is lots of overlap. For example in a post about research into a particular species of bird where I have illustrated it using my own photos or in a song with lyrics inspired by a scientific principle or discovery, again where I may have illustrated the post with my photos (birds or otherwise). Hope it’s useful…

David Bradley’s Songs, Snaps and Sciencebase.com

Gulls jus’ wanna have pun

Gulls just want to have fun, A gull that can’t say no, Only gulls allowed, The it gull…

A real gull’s gull, Funny gull, Party gull, A daddy’s gull, One of the gulls, Good gull, Cover gull, Gull Friday, The gull next door, Couldn’t happen to a nicer gull…

Little gull’s room, That’s my gull, Working gull, Poor little rich gull, Big gull’s blouse, Call gull, Atta gull, What’s a gull supposed to do?, Guys and gulls…

A slip of a gull, Big gull pants, Old gull, Gull problems, Gull’s time of the month…

Poster gull, Page-three gull, Blue-eyed gull, Glamour gull, Same as the next gull…

Gulls’ night in, What are little gulls made of? Any other gull, Night out with the gulls…

More gulls and other birds and more in my Isles of Scilly gallery on Flickr. There are also my more serious blog posts about IOS with photos.

Isles of Scilly – Birds, beer, and boats

I started a blog post about the Isles of Scilly (#IOS) while we were island hopping there in July 2018, I was originally going to call it “Cornwall on Steroids”. My muso mate Graham gave us some pointers on IOS and he calls it Cornwall Plus. I was going to half-inch his idea but misremembered it under the influence of turning tides and Tribute.

However, my phone’s autocorrect was quite enthusiastic and fixed my draft title to “Corneal Streisand”. So, here we are a roundup of the various posts I’ve written since we got home with a few of my snaps (the full public gallery is on Flickr and a select few on Instagram).

Birds on the Isles of Scilly – Does what it says on the label.

The Seventh Seal – short post and photos about the grey seals we saw on the Eastern Isles IOS.

The piratical bird called Bonxie – Spotted a Great Skua on a pelagic trip on the Sapphire out of Hugh Town, St Mary’s, IOS.

St Martin’s Daymark – The daytime “lighthouse” with no light on St Martin’s Island, IOS, visible from mainland Cornwall and originally erected in 1683.

Manks Puffins – The reason the scientific name for the Manx Shearwater is Puffinus puffinus and not the Puffin, which is Fratercula arctica.

Gulls just want to have pun – Hmmm…gull puns…

The Seventh Seal

…actually, it was probably the 27th seal. We saw quite a few on a boat trip from Hugh Town on St Mary’s to the eastern isles of Scilly aboard Sea King skippered by Fraser Hicks. There were lots of adults and pups of the large species known as the grey, or Atlantic, seal (Alichoerus grypus, meaning “hooked-nosed sea pig”). Of course, seals are more closely related to otters and bears than pigs although their resemblance to dogs, and cats even, is often commented on. It’s evolutionary convergence, I believe, although otters and bears, cats, dogs and seals all share a common ancestor if you follow the branches of the family tree back far enough.

There are two sub-species of grey seal, A. g. atlantica (found on both sides of The Atlantic Ocean) and A. g. grypus (found in the Baltic Sea). However, the genetics suggests that the eastern and western Atlantic populations are distinct and have been for at least one million years, and so might also be seen as separate subspecies. The western Atlantic grey seals (or should that be gray seals?) are much bigger than members of the eastern population:

Western: Males grow up to 400 kg, females 250 kg.
Eastern: Males max out at ~310 kg and females ~190 kg.

They’re fascinating creatures and very photogenic. But, it’s with some sadness that among my photos from the trip is one of a seal pup with what looks like some nylon webbing from a crab pot entangled around its neck (see photo below). It looks as if the webbing has cut through the skin and blubber although there is no obvious bleeding, so presumably, the animal has been encumbered with this flotsam for quite some time. It is difficult to know whether it will survive into adulthood. We were in a boat with no possibility of getting close to the rocks to disentangle the animal. There were snorkellers in the water, but whether or not they could safely get to the animal is a moot point too.

A piratical bird called Bonxie and the Blue Shark

We went on a pelagic trip in the Isles of Scilly with Sapphire skipper Joe Pender, departing Hugh Town harbour, St Mary’s Island on 9th July 2018 at about 5pm. Within seconds we were being tailed by dozens of Herring Gull.

Engines were cut about an hour out to sea and the anglers aboard began flicking their rods to catch mackerel, which they did, a dozen or so quite quickly. Then the fishing for Blue Shark (Prionace glauca) began. An 83-year old angler hauled in the first (with a little assistance from crew and fellow anglers to get lines around and from under the boat). The catch was a 2.3 metre specimen, it was photographed, scientifically tagged*, and returned to the waves largely unscathed, but perhaps a little confused. I must admit, you could almost see the fear in its eyes while they were doing the weights and measures and shoving the tag under its skin!

Blue Shark, Prionace glauca
Blue Shark, Prionace glauca

The older birdwatchers aboard jeered some of the subsequent efforts. But, by the end of the fishing it was a draw, 6 landed, 6 that got away.

Anyway, the birdwatching, was not quite the numbers game we had hoped for, but aside from the dozens of Herring Gull, we saw lots of Gannet, many over the boat and a distant flock diving on a patch of water where dolphins were also feeding. We had a few Fulmar and about the same number of Manx Shearwater (aka Manks Puffins).

The skipper called out another bird as it crossed our stern and I snapped at it as quickly as I could. I didn’t catch what it was at the time, I thought I heard him shout “Manxie!”. But, back home and on dryland with my laptop I could see it was a Skua that I’d photographed. The Facebook bird ID group called it out – it’s a Bonxie – a Great Skua (Stercorarius skua). Bonxie is a Shetland name for the bird probably a word of Norse origin. Skuas are piratical birds, they will steal food from other birds. But, they’re also predatory, and the Great Skua is capable of killing a kittiwake. Stuart Keenan on that Bird ID group tells me he’s seen one in Wester Ross kill and eat a first-year Great Black-backed Gull! In the same Facebook thread, Mike Honeyman told me that the Bonxies used to have a fairly good crack at the warden team on Fetlar. “We were suitably nervous in their vicinity!” he writes.

So, the Great Skua, a lifer for me, even if I didn’t get a decent shot. I wasn’t quick enough to get a focus lock on this bird as it crossed the stern of our moving boat, when the skipper shouted. The subsequent photos were reasonably sharp as it flew away but underexposed against the bright evening sky as, again, I wasn’t quite quick enough to adjust.

*UPDATE: 2024. The scientific work is important even if a few sharks have to be hauled from the water to be tagged.

The Mediterranean Blue Shark, a species critical to the marine ecosystem, is facing the threat of extinction due to overfishing and a lack of proper conservation efforts. A 2024 study explored the genetic differences between specimens in the Mediterranean Sea and the Northeast Atlantic Ocean to understand if they are separate populations. The results showed subtle genetic differences, suggesting that the Mediterranean sharks are largely isolated from Atlantic populations. This separation means they rely on local populations for survival, with limited new sharks coming from the Atlantic.

This has important implications for conservation. Current management often treats Blue Sharks as a single population, but this overlooks the unique risks facing the Mediterranean sharks. Overfishing in this region could push them closer to extinction, especially since they reproduce slowly and are not being replenished from elsewhere. Protecting these sharks requires more targeted conservation strategies and international cooperation.

This research is vital not only for blue sharks but for understanding how fishing and environmental changes affect marine ecosystems as a whole. Safeguarding such apex predators is essential for maintaining the balance of marine life.

I don’t know if Pender’s tags are specifically part of the data for this particular study, but they do feed into the bigger picture of Blue Shark movements in the Atlantic.

St Martin’s Daymark

There is a large red and white striped object on the Scilly isle of St Martin’s, you can’t miss it if you visit. It’s an obvious destination when hiking the island and a great attractor for a nice photo of the island from a boat. But, what is it?

Well, it’s a daymark…

…basically a daylight hours beacon for mariners.

The daymark on St Martin’s sits on its northeast corner and was erected in 1683 by Thomas Ekins, first steward of the Godophin Family to live on the islands. It is a rendered granite circular tower (4.8 metres in diameter and 6.4 m tall) with a conical top taking it to 11 m tall. It was originally painted white (until 1822). By 1833 it was being painted red but is now painted with red and white bands to make it more visible in any weather, you can see it from the Cornish mainland if the weather and light are right. The St Martin’s daymark is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Manks Puffins

The Manx Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae, photo immediately below. The scientific name of this species is Puffinus puffinus. It’s a tautonym, which means the name repeats to indicate this species is the “type” for the family.

But, you’re perhaps wondering why isn’t it the Atlantic Puffin with its colourful beak the bird that gets to be called the “type” of the family instead of this largely black and white seabird. Well, the answer lies in the fact that Manx shearwaters were known as Manks Puffins in the 17th century. The word puffin has an Anglo-Norman etymology (in Middle English it’s pophyn) and it means “the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters”, a delicacy at one time. So, back when animals were being given their scientific names and the science of taxonomy and its rules and regulations first being drafted by Carl Linnaeus, the Manx Puffin was the type and was given the appropriate name – Puffinus puffinus.

It is thought that the bird we commonly call the Atlantic Puffin today (Fratercula arctica) got its common name much later, perhaps simply because it has nesting habits similar to the Manx Shearwater.

We recently visited the Isles of Scilly (IOS), spent a few days island hopping from St Mary’s to Tresco, St Agnes and Gugh, St Martin’s, the Western Isles and Bishop Rock Lighthouse and the Eastern Isles. Given that Manx Shearwaters have started breeding here again we were hoping to see quite a few. I think in total we probably saw 20-30 over the course of the week whereas others had seen vast flocks of 1500-2000 the week before. Same applied to the Atlantic Puffins…we were there just a little bit too late in the season.

Meanwhile, we did take an evening pelagic (open-water) trip on a shark-fishing/bird-watching boat. The focus was very much the sharks for the fishermen at least.

The sea anglers caught six (another six got away). The first and largest was 2.3m from tip of its nose to the tip of its tale and was caught by an 83-year old gent with only a little assistance from crew and fellow anglers. All the sharks were scientifically tagged and returned to the water alive and flicking.

Our hope was to see a lot of Manx Shearwaters, like I said. I think we saw, at most three or four on that trip. We did see a lot of Gannets, Herring Gulls, several Fulmars, and a Great Skua.

However, perhaps a highlight was the appearance of a school of short-beaked dolphins (pictured below) accompanied by some bottle-nosed dolphins as we headed back to St Mary’s at sunset. The photo below is of Short Beaks skimming alongside our ferry back to the mainland rather than the low-light snaps I got of the various dolphins on the evening pelagic.

I’ve shared a gallery of my best bird photos from our IOS trip via a public link on Facebook and you can see the top 10% of all of our photos from the trip on Flickr.