Occasional visits to relatives who live in the leafy suburbs of Surrey always make me feel a little envious of the habitat represented by their garden and its surroundings. Lots of old oaks and other tree species beyond their fence but plenty of spots for birds (Aves) and invertebrates in their garden.
I usually get a few moments to survey the life forms in the garden and among those oaks. It doesn’t take long to build a decent garden ticklist of birds. For a recent trip:
Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock, Firecrest, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Green Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Robin, Song Thrush, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl, Wood Pigeon, Wren.
I only heard and Goldcrest and it was the Merlin app that picked up the Firecrest. The Tawny Owl was a nocturnal caller, of course. Merlin claimed a Willow Warbler, but I didn’t pick that up aurally or visually. Out on a walk up to and along the Wey River added Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mallard, Red Kite. Was half expecting to see House Martin and Swallow, and perhaps Kingfisher, but no such luck with those.
Meanwhile, I’d brought my Skinner moth trap with me and put that out for a couple of sessions. Unfortunately, it got very cold (near freezing) during the first couple of nights and there were just a Brindled Pug (NFM) and an Early Grey. Third night was a lot warmer (10 Celsius) albeit rainy, but it brought in a much bigger moth haul. I was very pleased to see a few species I’d not seen before, NFM (new for me) moths. Data for the lighting-up session now with Surrey County Moth Recorder.
Brindled Pug (NFM)
Frosted Green x3 (NFM)
Great Prominent (NFM)
Grey Pine Carpet
Lunar Marbled Brown x3 (NFM)
Muslin
Purple Thorn x2
Red-green Carpet x2
Scarce Tissue x2 (NFM)
The Streamer
First Streamer of the year for me in Surrey, and also appeared in our Cambridgeshire garden the night we came home.
