Short-eared Owl with prey, NT Burwell Fen, 10th November 2019
We went looking for Short-eared Owls again at Burwell Fen having heard from a friend that there were “twitchers” huddled together spotting them earlier in the week. We have been to the Fen a few times this year, but not seen the owls since February. However, I learn from local birding expert Hedley Wright that one of last winter’s “flock” (we had more than six there last Winter) had spent its summer on the Fen too presumably having decided not to return to Scandinavia for the breeding season for some reason.
Two Short-eared Owls, NT Burwell Fen, Sunday, 10th November 2019
Anyway, we saw a Kingfisher dart back and forth along the almost dry ditch in the middle of the Fen and then Mrs Sciencebase was first to spot one in the distance close to the electric power installation on the edge of Burwell. And, then a second. There were several bird photographers around, but I wouldn’t describe any of them as “twitchers” and maybe not even “birders” as such, there is a distinction (see my birding glossary).
Same two SEOs
There have been sightings of more than one SEO since the end of October 2019, and yesterday (10th November), it seemed that there were perhaps three or maybe four. We never saw two at a time, but were aware of two in the air while another was out of sight in the scrub a few hundred metres in front of us.
Possibly a third or fourth SEO at Burwell
Two of the owls were forced aloft by Rooks at different times. Rooks really don’t like raptors and owls in their territory and will harangue, harry, and harass them endlessly to get them to move on. One of the SEOs has a very apparent feather injury to one wing.
I’ve mentioned Burwell and Tubney Fens previously, depending how you approach them, they are the back end of the NT Wicken Fen area. The semi-feral Konik ponies (Equus ferus caballus) of Polish descent there along with longhorn cattle (Bos primigenius) and European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), are natural managers of the scrub.
Konik stallion
The area is almost perfect roosting and hunting for Short-eared Owls, which have once again returned from Scandinavia to the Fen for their winter break.
Starlings seem to find rich pickings around and on the Konik ponies of Burwell Fen
There were three to four showing quite well and being harried and harangued by Rooks on the wing high above the fen.
Short-eared Owl with prey
I don’t think any of the clutch of photographers (Homo sapiens phoographiensis) photographing the birds got any particularly close views, but there’s the rest of the winter to try before the birds fly back to their summer breeding grounds next March.
Throwaway capture of a Kingfisher at Burwell FenBored labrador
Pleasant enough evening and as we didn’t get to North Norfolk as originally planned to see the Red Knot on the high tide, I headed to our local housing estate balancing pond hoping to see a few Starlings bedding down at dusk in the reed beds there. And, they were, not quite murmuration numbers as there had been at this time last year, maybe half a dozen small flocks of 25-50 birds.
Broad Lane Balancing Pond, Cottenham, at dusk, 7th November 2019Dog Rosehips, Broad Lane Pond, CottenhamHardly a murmur, half a dozen flocks of about 25-50 Starlings bedding down. 60-70 in this particular group.
Visiting our daughter in the North East will usually find us dragging her somewhere coastal. This time it was Druridge Bay in my home county of Northumberland. One of the most glorious places and one that has special childhood memories for not least family caravan holidays in Amble at the north end and Cresswell and Cambois at the south.
A very bold male Stonechat came in close to have a look at my camera
Also, first demo/festival/benefit I attended (aged 10) was to protest against plans to build a nuclear power station there. We blocked that, but I see now that they’re hoping to exploit this beautiful and wild place by opening an open-cast coalmine. FFS.
Four of the six Common Scoter we saw off Druridge Bay, 25 Oct 2019
Meanwhile, the birds are blissful in their ignorance of the mankind’s machinations: Bar tailed Godwit, Barnacle Goose, Blackbird, Black-headed Gull, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew, Eider, Goldfinch, Great-crested Grebe, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Magpie, Marsh Tit, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pink-footed Goose, Red-throated Diver, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Rook, Sanderling, Shelduck, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stonechat, Turnstone, Wren…it’s possible I’ve overlooked a couple of others.
Sanderling
Fighting hard against low light levels the whole time, we departed just as the rain started and trip to St Mary’s Island and Lighthouse was scuppered by weather and high tide.
Red-throated Diver in winter plumage, I believeBarnacle Geese over Druridge BayDistant Eider Duck off Druridge BayA couple of Bar-tailed Godwit off the Northumberland coastSkeins of Pink-footed GeeseTurnstone on the Druridge sandRedshank
Had a short visit, via a circuitous A14 diversion to Grafham Water reservoir while the sun was shining, drove home in the rain. Intriguingly, there was a warning sign about not swimming and needed higher-spec buoyancy aids because the water is aerated and so, presumably, of lower, less buoyant density than normal water. Anyway, a few photos. Not of the sign.
Control Tower at Grafham WaterStarling in a treeWadersBoat anglers
Birdlife ticked on the morning; Tufted Duck, Great Black-backed Gull, Greylag Goose, Mandarin, Shelduck, Linnet, Robin, Wren, Starling, Stonechat, Meadow Pippet, Yellowhammer, Redwing, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Rook, Mute Swan, Common Buzzard (9 together!), Pied Wagtail, Kestrel, Red Kite, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Cormorant…Swallows (two, still actively feeding/drinking!)
Yellowhammer shaking off the drips after its bathPerched YellowhammerWren on fenceFemale StonechatMale StonechatOne of a couple of Great Black-backed GullsOne of nine Common Buzzards in a whirlA handful of dozen of Meadow PippitEven when they’re not watching, they can see you. Eurasian Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleusRed KiteOptimistic female House Sparrow at the picnic tablesEven more optimistic male House Sparrow at the picnic tables
Three species of butterfly: Small Tortoiseshell, European Peacock, Large White.
The Box-tree Moth, Cydalima perspectalis, is an Asian species of moth (usually seen in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and India), that is gradually spreading, presumably with the advent of box hedges on new housing estates, across the South East of England, and in East Anglia.
It would most likely have arrived as eggs/larvae on imported box plants(Buxus), and it was first recorded in the UK in 2007. Its larvae can rapidly eat their way through a box hedge. Another reason to go native when it comes to planting…although it is probably too late for native box now though.
Box-tree Moth larva, blurry record shot, 10 May 2023
I recorded my first Box-tree moth in July of 2019 and have seen dozens since. It is a quite beautiful, exotic-seeming moth. There is a dark melanistic, form, which is a common genetic aberration in lots of animals; see also the Industrial Evolution of the Peppered Moth.
Melanistic form of the Box-tree Moth to actinic light 13 Oct 2019, VC29
Wiki has more details on its recordings: first seen in Germany 2006, then Switzerland and The Netherlands in 2007, France and Austria in 2009, Hungary 2011, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. Also now in Slovakia, Belgium, and Croatia, and by 2016 Bosnia and Hercegovina. During the preparation to the 2014 Olympics in 2012 it was introduced from Italy to Sochi with the planting stock of Buxus sempervirens. A year later it was seen to be defoliating Buxus colchica. Now present in Toronto, Canada as of 2019.
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of pheromone traps hanging in trees close to a garden box hedge and even at a National Trust property. These traps are commonly used by moth-ers who place a pheromone lure in the trap, and draw in a target species for recording, examination, and photographing. All in the name of citizen science.
Unfortunately, this is not the way to deal with what box gardeners perceive as a pest. Indeed, hanging a lure in your garden will have the exact opposite effect of what you hoped. The females if they are in your area will be drawn to the box plants because that’s the food plant for their larvae. In the meantime, they will be pumping out sex pheromone into the air and drawing in the males who will mate as soon as they encounter the female. If you put out a pheromone lure, you are likely to be amplifying the sex signal and will draw in more males. You will trap some males but it really only takes one pairing on your box hedge for it to be devastated by box-tree moth larvae.
So, how do you deal with an infestation of Box-tree Moth larvae on your bushes? Well, you could go the nasty route and spray pesticide, but that will harm other beneficial invertebrate species. You could make a solution of washing-up liquid, but that’s unlikely to work well. You could pick off the caterpillar and…dispose of them. But, in this area, at least, I’d say your Box are doomed, perhaps better to find another native plant species to replace it for hedging.
If you see this species, there is a major project to record their spread and changing colour forms through the UK. You can record details here.
UPDATE: One Merv in the night and another to join it by morning!
I only started mothing with a scientific trap a little over a year ago (24 Jul 2018, to be precise) but have logged and photographed well over 300 different species since then.
I heard about Griposia aprilina, aka the Merveille du Jour, a few weeks after I started and thought it would be a nice specimen to see. But, its larvae feed on oaks and as far as I know, there are none particularly close to our garden. I was ever hopeful of seeing this little marvel but I didn’t hold out much hope of it ever making an appearance.
This beautifully marked green (and black and white) moth usually emerges in adult form in early October to fly and mate. This time last year, I hadn’t seen one and even though I lit up all the way through the autumnal and winter moth season up to mid-December or thereabouts, Merv never showed.
After our recent wildlife, yoga, and sightseeing trip to the Greek Island of Kythira, I got back to lighting up only a couple of nights ago. Tonight, I was about to head for bed, but thought I would check the trap for Thorns and Sallows only to be rewarded with the little wonder that is the Merveille du Jour. It’s odd that some British moth-ers tend to call it a “Wonder of the Day” when they translate its obviously French name, using the Germanic “wonder”. Either way, it’s a marvellous and wonderful moth.
The White Stork, Ciconia ciconia, is a scientific tautonym, its binomial being duplicated to indicate that ciconia is the “type”, the archetype, of the family Ciconia. This is the bird of birth myth, the one that bears the infant baby to the homes of expectant parents. Perhaps the myth arose because they build great nests of straw on chimneys in the summer.
Anyway, the White Stork is rarely seen in The British Isles. You might see them nesting on rooftops in Germany, Poland, Finland, and beyond. They are relatively common across Europe and not of conservation concern, wintering in southern Africa and breeding far and wide into Europe and Asia. They need thermals to soar and so cross from Africa via the Straits of Gibraltar and “The Levant” rather than attempting to navigate the Mediterranean Sea, which obviously doesn’t produce the thermals they need.
There was much excitement among Cambridgeshire birders when a ringed bird was spotted at a couple of RSPB sites, Ouse Fen and Fen Drayton, in April 2018 and another (the same one?) sighted in various places across the county in early 2019.
There is a small flock of captive, ringed White Storks at Johnson’s Farm in Old Hurst, the farm with the crocodiles. My photos on this blog post were all snapped at the farm on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2019. Aharrgh.
It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, which holds a special place in the hearts of Mrs Sciencebase and myself that has nothing to do with Dubloons, wooden legs, nor eyepatches. Nevertheless, a day out at a local farm seemed a sensible way to celebrate, hahah. So, we headed into deepest, darkest Huntingdonshire, we met no one on the way to St Ives (not that one), flew around RAF Wyton, headed for Pidley (birthplace of our long-gone feline) and took a sharp left after a U-turn to Johnson’s Farm in Old Hurst.
Now, Johnson’s farm has sheep and cows, a butchery, and a farm shop and cafe. But, it also has Macaws and Emus, Meerkat(s), Capybara, giant rabbits, and (not seen) Wallabies. It also has a flock of about 7 or 8 Storks, a bird species that like the Gene Genie loves chimney stacks, but usually those of continental central and eastern Europe rather than the British Isles. Johnson’s also has some tropical birds, a boa constrictor, oh and there is something else…crocodiles.
The crocodiles are I believe part of a conservation, breeding programme, but from the aforementioned working farm and butchery point of view, they are the most efficient means of disposing of the tons of butchery waste generated each year. which has crocodiles…I don’t know if any of them have a ticking alarm clock in their stomach.
They’re not quite as cute as the Horsey seals, maybe not quite as watchable as the birds I photograph, and definitely not as up-close-and-serious as the moths. But, they are, you must admit, rather photogenic in an almost tropical prehistoric way…needles to say, I got a few snaps.
