Parasite!

OK, I know I know, so much for fine words about keeping a blog going. Perhaps we're just all going to have to accept that this will be something of an occasional feature.

Anyway, rest of the USA trip was great.... rest of the summer produced a few new things, which I'll probably come back to in due course. Or probably not, come to think of it. Anyway...

This is what inspired me to write again. On 25th July, Trudy, Duncan and I (Tom was swanning around in Yellowstone!) went to contribute to a "bioblitz" at Strumpshaw Fen, where I found this teeny little caterpillar on a bramble leaf...

I didn't know what it was, so I kept it in a pot, and fed it lots of bramble leaves, and it grew up to look like this...

This is the caterpillar of a particularly cracking moth, called the Peach Blossom (Thyatira batis). It then pupated in the pot, and it should really then have emerged to look like this...

Well, that would be all very nice, except it didn't emerge to look like that at all. In fact, back when it was a teeny caterpillar, a parasitic ichneumon wasp had clearly found it and laid an egg on/in it. The grub from this had then grown inside the Peach Blossom caterpillar, undetected, until hey presto - look what emerged...

Actually, I think this is even more stylish than the moth. I don't know what it is though, so any suggestions welcome. Ichneumon wasps seem to be a bit of a problem, given that there's about 2000 species in the UK and virtually no-one who can identify them. Hmmm. Surely a case for a sabbatical....?

6th May

Wandered round the motel car park first thing while the others woke up, and was particularly entertained by at least six White-crowned Sparrows, many singing. I think these are my favourite American sparrows - ultra-smart! After a quick breakfast we drove back to the coast at Hamlin State Park, following up a stakeout for Red-headed Woodpecker. And in fact, within a few minutes of getting out at car park no. 3, one flew across the lake here. Unfortunately, I was the only one to see it at all well, but we persevered for about an hour until we had superb views of at least one bird. The only other tick for me here was a flock of five Rusty Blackbirds that stopped briefly in some tree-tops but were soon off again. Other birds included Eastern Kingbird, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Green Heron, Red-breasted Nuthatch (found on call), Chimney Swift and a superb Magnolia Warbler (as well as Palm, Yellow-rumped and Yellow Warblers). Particularly notable though was the overhead passage of Blue Jays - about 300 flew east during the morning.

We then moved on to car park no. 5 within the park (an enormous car park that was entirely deserted apart from us - it was Sunday, where was everyone?!) We walked through the woods here, adding American Redstart, House Wren and White-breasted Nuthatch to the trip list, as well as Warbling Vireo, Rough-winged Swallow and others. The highlight though came from following up a commotion of calling crows; I suspected it was an owl or raptor, and as we made our way towards the noise in the woods, a Great Horned Owl flew through the trees in an 180 degree arc around us - brilliant!

From here, we drove a few miles further west. Leaving the main road onto a minor one, I glimpsed something slink across in front of us and when we reached that point and jumped out, confirmed my suspicions as my first Wild Turkey crashed away through the undergrowth. We then drove a short distance more to a super little stakeout on Cook Road. A small area had been given over to growing Christmas trees and we rapidly found the target species - Clay-coloured Sparrow. One was feeding on a track here, but there were at least three singing, a nice simple 2-buzz song. I stalked one and eventually got rather decent photos of it singing.

From here we continued west as the others wanted to see Niagara. A Sharp-shinned Hawk over the road was new, and we stopped at a jetty in the village of Wilson that was packed with gulls - mostly American Herring and Ring-billed, but also a single Glaucous which was a bit of a surprise. A Spotted Sandpiper was running around with them also. Then on to Niagara itself, which was OK but a bit smaller than I'd expected, and far more built-up surrounding it. There was a large colony of at least 1000 Ring-billed Gulls here, and otherwise a selection of other common species, including a photogenic Common Grackle and some good views of Turkey Vultures. From here we headed east again, picking up a Cooper's Hawk over the road about 20 miles west of the Brockport exit. Coming off the freeway and heading south to Ithaca we also saw another Wild Turkey by the roadside. We found our hotel for the next few days - the Courtyard Marriott, rather nice - and then headed down into town for dinner.

Trip list = 109 species, lifers 4 today, 19 total

Red-headed Woodpecker, Hamlin State Park

Clay-coloured Sparrow, Cook Road nr Hamlin

Assorted gulls, Wilson (L Ontario)

Common Grackle, Niagara

5th May

Up early this morning, which was to be rather a feature of this week come to think of it. We grabbed a coffee in the foyer and drove the short distance up to the Fire House Woods at Braddock Bay, ready for the expected warbler fest! Maybe we'd been building this up a bit too much though. Although there were some nice things to see here, including Warbling Vireo and Northern Flicker, as well as our existing warbler trip trio of Yellow, Yellow-rumped and Palm, there were otherwise thin pickings. OK, so maybe it was not all that easy.

We then drove the short distance along to Island Cottage Woods. This also required some work, but eventually there were some rewards for our efforts. After notching up a few trip ticks like Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Black-and-White Warbler and Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, I eventually scored with four lifers: Swamp Sparrow (not great views though), Magnolia Warbler (brief, but bibrosalo!), Black-throated Green Warbler (also brief) and Brown Creeper (yawn). I also found a Great Crested Flycatcher ("wheep") and tons more Yellow-rumped, including the confiding individual photographed here.

So, a bit of success and we went back to the hotel for a surprisingly crap breakfast! Then out again up to Braddock State Park. The Cranberry Trail was also not dripping with birds, but some fine Red-bellied WPs, Yellowthroat and a tick Least Flycatcher. Back by the raptor count platform we had a useful chat with Luke Tiller who gave us loads of useful gen - thanks Luke. Raptor passage was very slow today (just a few TVs) but other local birds included Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Caspian Tern, Brown Thrasher (only one of the trip), Swamp Sparrow, Northern Mockingbird, American Kestrel, Eastern Kingbird, Bonaparte's Gull and Field Sparrow. A Camberwell Beauty (aka Mourning Cloak) was also seen.

One good bit of gen of Luke's was where the nearest shop was for drinks and chocolate, i.e. at the end of the road, so we headed up there, stocked up and looked out onto Lake Ontario. We were somewhat surprised to see loads of Long-tailed Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers as well as Great Northern Diver and Slavonian Grebe (also known as ... oh forget it, this is an English blog!) I was also interested to see lots of Red Dead-nettle and Ground-ivy, which I presumed were probably introduced weeds. [Googling just now, I presumed right!] After this we went off to check out our planned motel for the night, at Brockport, although we got somewhat misdirected by a roadsign for a B&B which apparently didn't exist.

Anyway, after checking out the motel for the night, which looked fine (and far less fancy and expensive than Rochester), we headed back up to the coast. First stop was a jetty on the north side of Braddock Bay, where we added Forster's and Common Terns (good opportunity to compare them!), along with a pair of Lesser Scaup and a Ring-necked Duck. We then birded the West Spit at the mouth of the bay. Late afternoon and fairly quiet, but we did manage to identify (somewhat by process of elimination) our only Prairie Warbler of the trip, plus two mega-skulky Lincoln's Sparrows, another Luke tip, and a useful one. The next Luke tip was somewhat less spectacular though - he'd told us of three restaurants nearby at Salmon Creek. We ended up a Nick Tahoe's which is apparently legendary for being dangerous, as well as dreadful food. We survived, but the food was very slow in arriving, and rather rubbish. Not only this, but I failed to exploit a perfect opportunity to employ the legendary Rick Andrews beer line (Waitress: "do you want a pitcher of beer"; Customer: "no it's OK, we know what beer looks like"). Feeble of me, I blame lack of sleep.

Eventually, the food arrived, we bolted down what we could stomach, then legged it up to the Owl Woods at dusk. We yomped through the woods to the open area (where they catch raptors for banding, and where we indulged in the apparently traditional pursuit of tripping over the strings...) A guy here told us how there'd been 8-9 Whip-poor-wills the previous night, but these had obviously continued migrating. However, we couldn't really complain on seeing a perched/flying Great Horned Owl, 3+ crazily displaying American Woodcocks, and hearing a single (but ultra-distinctive) burst from a Whip-poor-will. Fantastic stuff. We returned to the car and drove to the motel to crash out.

Trip list 97: lifers 10 today, 15 total.

Baltimore Oriole, Cranberry Trail - pretty, maybe a bit too gaudy?!

Northern Flicker, Fire House Woods

Question Mark Polygonia interrogationis (I think), Cranberry Trail

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Island Cottage Woods - one of my favourite birds!

4th May

Big overseas trips don't happen to me very often, so definitely worth one blog post per day. I was travelling with BTO colleagues Andy Clements, Iain Downie and Karen Wright to visit our US counterparts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, upstate New York on a three-day fact-finding mission. However, we'd allowed ourselves a couple of extra days at either end for sampling some New England spring birding. Warblers were very much the target!

We flew Heathrow to Detroit, watching The Big Year on the way to get us in the mood. At Detroit, just picked up a few Purple Martins, Barn Swallows and Starlings around the terminal, then three Killdeers as we taxied along the runway again to make the much shorter hop to Syracuse. From here, we picked up a hire car and set off west again, noting a few common species along the way, including Turkey Vulture, Osprey and Great Blue Heron amongst others; also a few Groundhogs by Syracuse airport, of which we saw very few more later on.

In about an hour we made it to Montezuma National Refuge, at the north end of Cayuga Lake. We were to be coming here later in the week, but it was a good stop-off, and an opportunity to get some birding under our belts before dark. As would be expected, a fair blizzard of birds proving almost overwhelming at first - so many alien sounds! I had recorded most of the species elsewhere previously, although it was great to reacquaint myself with Cedar Waxwings, Tree and Rough-winged Swallows, Song Sparrows, Eastern Bluebird, Yellow Warbler and White-crowned Sparrow. Baltimore Oriole was my first lifer of the trip - these proved to be common during the week, but always spectacular. The second tick was a real lucky one though; I picked up two American Bitterns in an extended flight across the huge reedbeds here - brilliant!

There were some decent pools with a selection of waterbirds. Amongst numerous Green-winged and Blue-winged Teals, there were a few American Wigeon and a single female Bufflehead. Waders included mostly Lesser Yellowlegs and Dunlin, but also a single Greater Yellowlegs, several Spotted Sands, two Pecs and two long-overdue lifers: Least Sandpiper and Solitary Sandpiper. Other good birds along the wildlife drive included Northern Harrier, Double-crested Cormorants, Belted Kingfisher, Bald Eagle, Pied-billed Grebe, Wood Duck and Marsh Wren. A few Muskrat nests were visible too.

At the northwest corner of the marsh we found a hedge that had some warblers in it. Really exciting as we found our first Palm Warblers, a good number of storming Yellow-rumped Warblers and a single Common Yellowthroat. By now it was getting dusky, and we were getting tired with the jet lag. We drove on to Rochester on Lake Ontario and had an Italian-ish meal, although this is now rather hazy as we were very tired. No obvious cheap places to stay so we had to use the Holiday Inn. Very overpriced, particularly as we weren't planning on staying long. But good to be able to crash out at last!

Red-winged Blackbird at Montezuma, one of the most numerous birds of the trip. They don't half make a lot of noise, and can be surprisingly tedious very quickly!

30th April - 3rd May

Thu 3rd - set off to London for Living Landscapes meeting, then afterwards went to hotel near Heathrow, rather than coming back in the evening before a mega early start. Not a great night's sleep though in the end.

Wed 2nd - London all day for meetings about Buzzards. Had to get packed up for the the trip to New York...

Tue 1st - 3 House Martins now at home, inspecting nests here and next door.

Mon 30th - 2 House Martins back around the house and Whitethroat singing by the ford. Also in the garden, lots of Sloe Bug, Orange-tip, German Wasp, an early nymph Dark Bush-cricket, Eristalis pertinax and a few bees t.b.a.

Eristalis pertinax, Tendaba

23rd-29th April

Sun 29th - the boys and I had a walk around the whole Strumpshaw loop in the rain in the morning. Best bird got away - just as I looked out of the reception hide, I picked up a distant ringtail harrier that I couldn't pin down to species - gut feeling was Hen but good date for Montagu's obviously. A few year-ticks though - Reed and Garden Warblers and Common Tern.  In the late afternoon, I walked around the village when the rain stopped and was rewarded by a Hobby over Hawes Green - brilliant!

Sat 28th - a quick look at Whitlingham produced my first Swifts of the year. A male Whitethroat was present all afternoon in the garden, but the rain kept it from singing - presumably the one that subsequently set up territory. Little Egret on the common was a mild surprise - thought they'd all gone.

Fri 27th - a long-awaited Nunnery tick as a male Marsh Harrier flew north over as I arrived for work - no. 154 for the Nunnery! Another very poor night for moths at home - singles of Red Chestnut, Clouded Drab, Early Grey and Shuttle-shaped Dart.

Wed 25th - quick walk into Smeeth Wood for the Nightingale survey - again none, but nice to see some Ramsons here plus Wood Sedge and Wood Sorrel.

Ramsons, Smeeth Wood

Mon 23rd - got up early to whizz round three tetrads for the Nightingale survey. No luck with the target species, as expected, but I did see a Cuckoo at Postwick. Later, lots of female Anthophora plumipes nesting in the wall at the Nunnery, plus Sedge Warblers and House Martins at the Nunnery Lakes. In the evening, an in-house micro moth proved to be the tineid Nemopogon cloacella.

16th-22nd April

Sunday 22nd - took Duncan to play rugby at Browick Rd in Wymondham which gave me the opportunity to try out my new found bee skills. Collected a fair few but will now need to find the time to work through them (not managed three weeks later, at time of writing!) Did identify Anthophora plumipes, Bombus pascuorum, Bombus lapidarius, Andrena fulva, Incurvaria masculella, Orange-tip, Brimstone, Sloe Bug and variety of other things I really should be able to put a name to. In the afternoon, a scout meeting in Fressingfield, Suffolk, produced a nice Nomada bee for later identification (hopefully!) In evening, a Stoat on the common.

Saturday 21st - Swallow on Shotesham Common, first back here - also Reed Bunting still singing. Then went up to Sheringham Park for a super day learning how to identify solitary bees. Dull weather so not many active, but was shown Andrena nitida and A. dorsata. At least one singing Firecrest here too was a bonus. On the way home, a Peregrine flew over by Caistor Fort. In the evening, relocated the case-bearing micro Luffia ferchaultella in the village on the wall opposite All Saints. Feeble night in the moth-trap - one Hebrew Character!

Friday 20th - three Stone-curlews in the Brecks.

Wednesday 18th - two newly arriving migrants at the Nunnery Lakes: a Whitethroat and five House Martins. Also 30 Swallows and a Cream-spot Ladybird. Early Forget-me-not by the office (checked with microscope).

Tuesday 17th - put some pitfall traps in garden and identified the centipede Lithobius forficatus and the woodlice Porcelio scaber, Philoscia muscorum and Armadillidium vulgare. All dead common. At work, netted the hoverflies Syrphus ribesii and Cheilosia urbana (previously C. praecox) - the latter a new one for me. Back home, Small-flowered Cranesbill found on verge (5 out of 10 stamens with anthers).

No photos yet - some still to add though when/if I get round to it...