More images uploaded to Flickr

Lee Dingain's photostream on Flickr.

I've finally got around to uploading more photos to my Flickr account. With all the mothing I've been doing this year, many of the latest uploads are moths and also butterflies, for which I've also created new sets. Most of these photos were taken in south-east Brazil, where the lack of field guides, especially for moths, makes identification to species level very difficult. This is very much a work in progress and I'll be adding more as I manage to identify them.

More moths from south-east Brazil

One of my highlights of 2012 was the time I spent mothing at REGUA - my foreign patch in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. I took loads of photos of a huge diversity of unfamiliar and often bizarre moths, and over the last few months I've been trying to identify as many as I can (no easy task considering there are no identification guides for this part of South America). So following on from the posts about the hawkmoths, silkmoths and lappet moths found on my last trip back in September, here are a selection of the myriad of other moths, some of which I still can't identify, seen at REGUA during both of my trips to Brazil this year.

The diversity of moths in the Atlantic Forest is incredible and the actual number of species here could be many thousands. Many of these species appear to be widely distributed across South America, but with high levels of endemism generally within other orders in the Atlantic Forest, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a good number of the moths we've seen here are found nowhere else.

Family: Cossidae (Carpenter Moths)

Morpheis xylotribus, 21 September 2012. Morpheis is a genus of 10
New World species belonging to the Zeuzerinae subfamily. There's few
references available for this genus, but I think the blackish line parallel to
the costa, near the apex on the forewing, together with the lack of white along
the outer forewing might be diagnostic, and helpful when separating from
the very similar Morpheis pyracmon.

Family: Megalopygidae (Flannel Moths)

Trosia cf. nigropunctigera, 18 September 2012. Trosia is a highly distinctive genus
(as yet not assigned to a subfamily). There are 17 species currently recognised,
but they are all extremely similar and difficult to identify. Moreover, there is almost
no literature available and virtually nothing of use for identification online either.

Family: Geometridae (Geometer Moths) - named after the way their larvae (inchworms) move along by looping their bodies, as if measuring as they go.

Epimecis conjugaria, 13 June 2012

Saddled Emerald Synchlora ephippiaria, 21 September 2012. Part of the
Geometrinae subfamily (Emeralds), the Synchlora genus comprises 47 species.

Synchlora gerularia, 11 June 2012. Another member of the Geometrinae
subfamily, I can find almost no information about this taxon.

Melanchroia aterea, 15 June 2012

Family: Erebidae - the former family Arctiidae is now a subfamily, Arctiinae, within Erebidae.

Great Leopard Moth Hypercompe scribonia, 11 September 2012. This species,
like most of this genus, has a bright reddish abdomen which it would display
when handled. I love the translucent ends of the forewings of this specimen.

Eucereon rosina, 14 September 2012

Eucereon sp. nr. rosina, 20 September 2012. Similar pattern to E. rosina but
note the bluish background colour and the pinkish-red abdomen.

Hyalurga fenestrata, 13 June 2012

Ornate Moth Utetheisa ornatrix, 16 June 2012.
Common throughout the Americas, this species is
often found resting on flowers or seeds during
the day but actually flies at night. This is the South
American equivalent of the Crimson Speckled
Utetheisa pulchella of the Old World.

Family: Noctuidae - the largest moth family

Letis buteo, 10 September 2012

Ceroctena grata (previously Sosxetra grata), 20 September 2012. From the
Calpinae subfamily. There are several beautifully coloured Ceroctena species
found at REGUA. Check out the scales on the front legs.

Family: Crambidae (Crambid Snout Moths)

Mung Moth Maruca vitrata, 11 June 2012. The larvae of this moth are a well
known pest across tropical regions (not only in South America), boring into
leguminous crops such as mung beans, soybeans and cowpeas, causing
significant loses in some areas. This species has also been recorded in Britain,
probably after hatching from imported crops.

Check out this excellent Brazilian butterfly and moth blog, which is very useful for identification, here.

Ewell Waxwings

There's a flock of Waxwings a mile from my house at the moment in Ewell (at the junction of Ewell Park Road and the A24), so I thought I'd go and take a quick look. Unfortunately, the birds were easily startled by traffic and pedestrians and being on such a busy road I couldn't be bothered to hang about for too long, but I did manage a few record shots. What is it with Waxwings choosing tiny berry bushes at busy junctions?

This shot isn't at all sharp, but I quite like it anyway.

The birds would occasionally drop down to a small Rowan tree to steal a few
berries before flying back up to the tops of surrounding trees. This is an adult
male.

I counted a maximum of 39 birds

London's incredibly tame Buff-bellied Pipit

It took London's first ever Buff-bellied Pipit, turning up less than 2 miles from the patch, to break my self-imposed no twitch rule (don't worry, this twitch is a one-off! Honest!!). The bird showed ridiculously well along the east bank of Queen Mother Reservoir in Berkshire, down to less than a metre at times (Water Pipits at Staines Moor take note), and proved a real education as well as providing amazing photo opportunities! Unfortunately I didn't hear it call once. I must say a huge thank you to the Berkshire Ornithological Club for arranging access and organising everything so well!

The bird didn't seem to mind being under the main flightpath of Heathrow Airport.
Oh look everyone, an Airbus A380!

Some terrible video below - I wonder why I couldn't hear it call?



The male Long-tailed Duck was seen, loosely associating with c60 Tufted Duck, and the Red-necked Grebe was with a group of 8 Great Crested Grebes. Also, 4+ Common Goldeneye, 5+ Pied Wagtail and just a single Fieldfare were noted.

Long-tailed Duck with Tufted Ducks

At Staines Moor late afternoon, 3 Short-eared Owls were still along the east side, and an hour or so spent spotlighting for Woodcock after dark produced 10-15 Common Snipe (H) in the floods.

A freezing 12/12/12

Freezing mist early this morning followed by fog prompted me to leave traipsing around the moor until Friday. Even once the fog had lifted it remained largely dull with the frost persisting all day. Kept an eye on the feeders in the garden while working from home which were fairly busy, with 1m Blackcap, 2+ Stock Dove, 2 Eurasian Nuthatch, 3 Chaffinch, lots of Coal, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, several Blackbird, 4+ Goldfinch, lots of Woodpigeon, 3+ Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Wren, 3+ Ring-necked Parakeet and a few Magpie logged. Also heard a Pied Wagtail overhead and a Red Fox stalked the birds in next door's garden. The bird bath was frozen this morning - must remember to put out fresh water daily.

Male Chaffinch. The Chaffinches spent a lot of time pecking at the frozen buds in
this plum tree.

Female Ring-necked Parakeet. This bird still has frost on the primaries and tail
feathers late morning (click to enlarge).

Male Blackbird. Seems to be quite a few Blackbirds around at the moment.

Lots of Woodpigeon around at the moment

A bright winter's day

Slightly warmer today with bright sunny calm conditions thawing the ice a little. 1-2 very mobile Water Pipits around the frozen pools are my first of the winter, also 6 Stonechat (3m, 3f), 2 Common Snipe, 1-2 Little Egret, 28 Fieldfare, 5 Song Thrush, 4 Mistle Thrush, 10 Pied Wagtail, 4 Skylark, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Sparrowhawk narrowly missing a Pied Wag, 1-2 Kestrel and still quite a lot of Blackbirds and Robins around. 3 Short-eared Owls still present along the east side, showing well, on and off (albeit a little distant), from 14:20 onwards. Overhead: 1 Red Kite, 2 Redpoll sp., 1 Siskin H, 2 Redwing SW, 1 Common Gull and 2 more Common Snipe near dusk.

Water Pipit

Short-eared Owl. 3 birds showing again today but generally distant.

Red Kite are regular over Staines Moor. This bird had no wing tags.

Stanwell Moor produced 1 Little Owl, 1 Goldcrest and a lone Common Gull.