Some light cold weather movement

A few very quiet hours at Staines Moor this afternoon revealed very little cold weather movement (and certainly nothing compared to some other London sites - see today's sightings at Beddington on Pete's blog and yesterday's sightings on Dodge's blog). The highlight was a Redshank that dropped down to the Colne before heading high N. Also seen: 15 Lapwing over, 4 Common Snipe over (1 dropping onto the floods), 27 Fieldfare S, 3 (2m, 1f) Stonechat, 2 Reed Bunting, 1+ Redwing, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Greenfinch over N, 3 Meadow Pipit along the Colne, 4 Mallard (believe me, this is a high site count nowadays), 5 Mute Swan, 3 Little Grebe on the Colne and 1+ Kestrel was pretty much it! On Stanwell Moor, 1 Short-eared Owl, 3 Reed Bunting and a Redwing were logged. No sign of yesterday's Bittern at Stanwell Moor despite a thorough search, and no Short-eared Owls showed at Staines Moor this afternoon.

Redshank. Honest!

Moth research at the Natural History Museum

Last September I found and photographed a Bombycidae (silkworm) moth at REGUA in Brazil's Atlantic Forest (see here) that, despite a thorough review of images on the net, and a check of specimens at Rio's National Museum of Brazil by one of the museum's entomologists, Alexandra Soares, has so far eluded identification. So today, after a quick twitch for the Hyde Park Bearded Tits, Pete Alfrey and I visited the entomology department at the Natural History Museum in London to study the collection there.

I'd narrowed the identity to the Apatelodes genus, and the closest species I'd found was Apatelodes lapitha that has some features that don't match. After checking several draws we eventually we found a species that is a very close match - Apatelodes pithala. However, the three specimens of this species the museum holds do not show the oval mark on the upper forewings of my moth, but instead four parallel cross-lines. All the other features do match so the oval mark could be an aberration?

Specimen draw Ma15241 containing what we think is my moth - Apatelodes
pithala (the three specimens in the furthest column)

The museums only three specimens of Apatelodes pithala.

Apatelodes pithala specimen ventral view

Apatelodes sp. This pic shows the key features of my moth and which of these
are present on the specimens of Apatelodes pithala

Pete doing all the hard graft while I play around with the camera

Modern day storage of entomological specimens

Inside the Cocoon at the Darwin Centre. A colossal 12 million entomological
specimens are housed here!

This isn't quite the end of the story though. I need to compare my moth with photos of the type specimen and make sure that the oval shape on the forewings are within the variation found within this species. Furthermore, all three of the museum's specimens are from northern South America so I need to check if other specimens have been collected from south-east Brazil.

Many thanks to Martin Honey, curator of Macromoths & British Lepidoptera at the Natural History Museum, for arranging our visit and for helping with our research, and also to my good mate Pete Alfrey for all his help. More on today on Pete's blog.

Hyde Park reedlings

On route to the Natural History Museum early this morning Pete Alfrey and I dropped in to Hyde Park in London to see the first ever inner London Bearded Tits - 2 ringed female birds feeding in a tiny strip of reeds on the Serpentine, next to the Diana Memorial Fountain. The birds showed incredibly well (must be the best views of Bearded Tits I've ever had) feeding at very close range on phragmites, occasionally dropping down to the ground to drink. Both birds were caught and ringed (numbers L511927 and L511928) together on 10th November 2012 at Rye Meads, along with a male. They were not seen again after release but the two females have been present in Hyde Park since 11 December 2012 (more details here). Frustratingly I got home to find my memory card is corrupt and after three hours I have not been able to recover any photos!

Adjacent Kensington Gardens held 7 Pochard, small numbers of Shoveler and plenty of Common Gull on the Round Pond, and few Shoveler and about 13 Pochard on The Long Water/The Serpentine. Great to meet up with dedicated Hyde Park patcher Des McKenzie. I must make the effort to come back up to Kensington Gardens some time to see the often very showy Tawny Owls.

Postscript: Fortunately, 17 days later I found out that only the first image in the sequence was actually corrupt and this was preventing the other images from being downloaded. By putting the card back into the camera and plugging it into the computer I was able to download the images and delete the corrupted one. Phew!

Local Firecrest

I didn't make it to the patch today, but I did manage a quick visit to Banstead Downs Golf Course which eventually produced frustratingly brief views of the world's shyest Firecrest. That is all.

Treecreeper falls!

First day at the patch in 2013 and I get a patch tick - 2 Treecreepers along the old railway embankment. Unfortunately the elusive little buggers wouldn't play ball for the camera though. 3 Short-eared Owls showed very well along the east side for much of the day, often perching up in hawthorns and the trees along Bonehead Ditch for long periods.

This bird perched up just 15 m away!

Too much mascara? Nah!

Characteristic deep wing beats

Also 22 Common Snipe on the southern flood is my highest ever site count, 2 Water Pipit and 3 Little Grebe along the Colne, 1 Peregrine over NW carrying prey, 1-2 Little Egret, 1f Bullfinch, 2-3 Goldcrest, 3+ Redwing all along the railway embankment, c12 Siskin over S, 5 (3m, 2f) Stonechat, 4+ Reed Bunting, 5+ Skylark, 4 Meadow Pipit, 4 Song Thrush and 3 Green Woodpecker. Stanwell Moor added 1m Northern Shoveler and 1 Reed Bunting, and at Stanwell Moor Village 9 Siskin flew NE and a Little Egret was logged.

5 Stonechat on site today

Nice sunset over Staines Moor this evening

Extinct in the wild

Spent a relaxing day at London Zoo with the RAW Baker and the Non-stop Birder, wandering around the exhibits, admiring the Victorian architecture and imagining what it must have been like during the Victorian collecting golden age, bringing back exotic animals and plants to London.

2 Socorro Dove Zenaida graysoni in the Blackburn Pavilion were the captive list highlights. Socorro Dove became extinct in the wild in 1972 due to predation by cats and degradation of it's highland forest habitat by sheep on the Mexican island of Socorro, and now exists only in a few zoos where a captive population is maintained in the hope that birds might be reintroduced to Socorro once the cats and sheep have been eradicated.

Socorro Dove Zenaida graysoni, one of only about 100 pure bred birds
remaining in captivity

Can I tick it? Nope!

Bali Starling Leucopsar rothschildi, Victoria Crowned-pigeon Goura victoria, Mindanao Bleeding-heart Gallicolumba crinigera, Hooded Pitta Pitta sordida, Spectacled Owl Pulsatrix perspicillata, Sunbittern Eurypyga helias and Amazilia Hummingbird Amazilia amazilia were amongst the other exotics seen.

Hooded Pitta Pitta sordida. It was darn dark in the Blackburn Pavilion, as the
noise on this images is testament to.

The Blackburn Pavilion was built 1883 and originally opened as a reptile house

Classic Victorian scene in the Blackburn Pavilion. Those were the days!

Spent some time in the butterfly house where Asian swallowtails Papilio lowi and Tree Nymphs Idea leuconoe were amongst the butterflies flying.

A huge Atlas moth Attacus atlas caterpillar

Tree Nymph Idea leuconoe

A Peregrine over the zoo and several Goldcrest near the entrance were the best of the wild birds seen and the day was topped off with some superb sushi and noodles at the Hare and Tortoise in Putney.

New year, same rubbish Surrey birding

With the weather forecast to be sunny and calm at last, Rachel and I decided on a walk around Thursley Common today instead of Staines Moor (a huge mistake). After being stuck indoors ill for the last 7 days I was really keen to get out birding, however, in typical piss poor Surrey birding fashion, Thursley produced basically f*** all, what we did see showed very poorly, and absolutely nothing was interested in posing for the camera. Our New Years Day tally ended on 1 Great Grey Shrike (seen very distantly for between 1-2 seconds before vanishing into thin air and not being seen again in a two hour search), 12 Stonechat, 2 Common Buzzard, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 7 Meadow Pipit, 2 Jay and Carrion Crow. Dartford Warbler and Siskin were both heard. If this wasn't exciting enough, the backdrop of hoards of dog walkers and screaming kids everywhere means that I am now totally enthused for another year birding in Surrey.