Autumn
31 Oct 2015
The last day of October and a little heat-wave. No wonder the seasons are confused. To make the point, there were winter visitors coming in off the sea (a flock of fieldfares) and also an extremely late lesser whitethroat (a summer visitor) in bushes by the allotment patch. Also a peacock butterfly still on the wing. Nice but rather weird.
Jeremy
Moth trapping in Shingle Street
Here are the results of two moth trappings led by Nick Mason as part of the 2015 Shingle Street Survey, both held in Tricia Hazell’s garden at The Battery. The results tabulated here include just the larger ‘macro-moths’.
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Avocets gone
22 Aug 2015
... gone. The avocets and their two young have now flown. A little local success story.
In nearby pools there was a ruff feeding, a wader on passage but not one I often see here. And further along the sea-walls there were two clouded yellow butterflies, so it looks as though the tiny colony at East Lane may have survived despite all the clearance work there.
Jeremy
Day-flying moth
09 Aug 2015
Not all moths fly only by night and I've just been watching a delightful little day-flying one in our front garden. it's called a 'small purple and gold' and in appearance is just what it says on the tin. My book of micro-moths (and it is tiny) says that it feeds particularly on herbs like marjoram and that's exactly the plant it was nectaring on. The Latin name literally means 'bright flyer into flames', which isn't quite as helpful (to us or the moth) as the English one.
Jeremy
Moth morning
29 Jul 2015
A reminder that there will be another 'moth morning' in the garden of The Battery from 7.30am on Friday 31 July. Be there. Could be your best chance of seeing a Flounced Rustic in the flesh!
Jeremy
Mothing
24 Jun 2015
We had our first 'moth morning' today and gathered at Tricia's to inspect the night' catch, which included such delights as a white ermine (identified by Alex), a burnished brass, a satin wave, tawny shears, mottled rustic and best of all a huge and incredibly beautiful elephant hawk moth.
Jeremy
Painted ladies
07 Jun 2015
Tim Miller clearly has the gift of summoning up the sun for his annual parties, and with the warm weather came a huge influx of painted ladies (not Tim's guests, the butterflies). There must have been a hundred or more in SS this morning, mainly feeding on the red valerian. With them were some humming-bird hawk-moths, hovering like little birds, as the name suggests, to probe for nectar. Both these species are immigrants from the continent or possibly from North Africa, and their arrival suggests there is more warmweather on the way. See our gallery for some images.
Jeremy
Butterflies
06 Jun 2015
Quite a few butterflies out on the seawalls this afternoon when it warmed up: common blue, small heath, painted lady and red admiral all on the seawall leading to East Lane. And ther were two singing corn buntings near the Martello half-way and, interestingly, a pair of avocets prospecting the pools.
Jeremy
Butterflies
09 Jan 2015
Amazingly warm for the time of year (up to 13 degrees C). Things are already sprouting in the back garden and if we get a day of sun it wouldn’t surprise me to see the first butterfly of the year emerging from hibernation (probably a small tortoiseshell, brimstone or possibly even a peacock) – please look out everyone. There are certainly a few moths out at night (not sure which ones until I get my moth trap out again).
Jeremy Mynott
