Blue Eyed Birder: Lowestoft Life - 25th July

Having some time off while the weather is so nice is a double edged do doh at the moment as it is so hot and dry here on the Suffolk coast that seeking out wildlife has been somewhat tiring. The tragic fire on Dunwich Heath just proves the point that we are living in troubling times. There was a certain inevitability about fires raging across the drought stricken countryside.

Dunwich Heath - Antony Wren (who worked tirelessly for days with his colleagues to stop it spreading to Westeton Heath)

Since the New Forest, my attentions have been somewhat tied up with playing catch up with my blog, trip reports tax returns and future planning but I have made time to get my garden in order. With little space between the planting the front garden and back borders are looking remarkably good but the meadow lawn needed some work to thin out some of the already withered grass, going to seed Yellow Rattle and deadheading the Knapweed and selectively taking off Ragwort heads before they go to seed.

The latter are still the major nectar source for the local Dasypoda hitirpes with many males whizzing too and fro. Gatekeepers are prolific with just a few Small Whites and Holly Blue around and the occasional visit for a Red Admiral and Painted Lady. The first Migrant Hawkers appeared at dusk and I was pleased to seen several Bee-wolves hunting Honeybees around the Buddleia.

There have been a couple of adult Common Frogs in the ponds but there are no offspring this year and I have seen a couple of evening Toads

It was very sad to hear of the passing of Bill Oddie on the 25^th July. Like many my age, he was part of our youth both in The Goodies and then as the Birder we all wanted to be. The Little Black Bird Book was a treasured possession and, yes, I still have my copy and it introduced us young ornithologists to the world of the potential CMF…

Way back in time, I think it was April 1985 – possibly even my 13th birthday, our Redbridge YOC group had the chance to go on Saturday Superstore with Peter Holden and his YOC group and be part of the show and meet Bill. I can remember being in a rough and ready BBC studio with Sarah Greene, Keith Chegwin & Mike Read as the hosts and David Icke (before he went weird) on the sports desk and John Craven on the Newsround desk.

The benches were splintery and uncomfortable as we sat behind the presenters while Dead or Alive in full punky hair, makeup and platforms performed ‘You Spin Me Round’. I have no idea if it was live or not! The plan was that I would come down the front with for the migration interview with Bill and Peter but when Cheggers came to get me, he said that I was ‘too red’ and took my younger brother Russell instead! We still got to meet Bill afterwards. Happy days.

A few years later I bumped into Bill at Cley on 22^nd October 1988. It was a dark and blustery day and I had been dropped off there by my parents. I saw a chap staring almost at his feet at the ditch by the car park and walked over. It was Bill and he showed me my very first Pallas’s Warbler as it flicked, hovered and flashed that lemon rump in the reeds just a few inches off the ground.

Fast forward to RSPB Rainham Marshes where Bill opened the new visitors centre and access to the public in November 2006 but he was on much better form when he returned for our tenth anniversary in July 2010. I remember him talking so enthusiastically to the audience of funders, senior staff and local dignitaries that the event overran by an hour. We had a good chat that day. He knew that Sam Shippey and I had found the White-tailed Lapwing just four days before and congratulated me before regaling tales of getting in to see the first for Britain at Packington, Warwickshire way back in July 1975.

I last saw Bill in August 2015 at the after Bird Fair lecture where he went head to head with the mighty DIM Wallace (along with Adam and Lucy) for the best birding tales. Both these great birding men of my formative years wove and spun stories of their favourite migration days that kept us all in rapt attention – Ian won that day. It was my last encounter with both these ornithological icons.

And so back to the present where Mothage has taken up quite a bit of my time, both in my garden and managing to see some of the fabulous extras caught around the corner by Antony. Amongst these were some brand new ones for me as well as boosting my slowly progressing garden tally. I simply do not have the energy to trap every night and so choose my days before having a gap again. I am not in competition with anyone so I take the enjoyment simply from what I find when I do so. And before you ask, yes, everything gets recorded with the Suffolk Moth website.

Maple Prominent

Pale Prominent

Swallow Prominent

Caloptilia cuculipennella

Two very different Marbled Greens

Vestal

Webb's Wainscot

Broad Barred White

Clouded Border

Coronet

Cydia amplana

The Miller

Misutima nitidalis

Plain Pug - stooopid nmae

Small Mottled Willow

Tree Lichen Beauty

Buttoned Snout

Sharp-angled Peacock

Cabbage

Gypsy

Poplar Grey

Straw Underwing

Bordered Straw

Buff Ermine

True Lover's Knot - all of the above where in my garden

Beautiful Marbled - AW

A stunning rich brown morph Poplar Hawkmoth - AW

Borkhausenia fuscescens - AW

Marbled Clover - AW

Rosy Minor

Twin Spotted Wainscot - AW - and all of these ones were from Antony's own garden

The full moon changed colour as it rose over the town

I have pottered out a few time locally but I have never seen the countryside so dry and the trees looking so sorry for themselves with drooping, flaccid leaves and already gappy canopies. I have seen little insect life while on these ambles with just a few Browns and Whites and the odd Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow in the butterfly department. Those blooms that have been seen like Wild Carrot, Trefoil and Thistles have largely been devoid of any insect attendants.

On the 2nd Adrian and Lou Dally visited and Mr D picked up an adult Caspian Gull above my house and two Crossbills flew north but the two Black Storks that came up the coast on the 4th almost made it to town before veering inland and avoiding all of us garden sky watchers - again.