Lowestoft Life - 24th-27th June 2025

With the warm weather continuing I trapped again on the night of the 23^rd but caught just 23 species which did include a rather green Bee Moth, Dusky Brocade and a nice Nutmeg.  The garden was alive with life again the next day but the number of Hoverflies seemed low and there I only saw a couple of Small White before we headed down to the Lighthouse Café to meet up with a couple of Andrea’s friends for brunch.  A walk along the front to Ness Point and back was required afterwards and it was warm and sunny and hundreds of Small Whites were coming in off the sea and gravitating to the Denes where the flowering Dittander near the Net Posts was providing a good refueling stop.

Dusky Brocade 

male Grey Dagger

Dittander 

Field Bindweed

Kittiwakes were busy coming and going but I could not find anything amongst the bigger loafing Gulls although two adult and a 2cy Med Gull were patrolling the beach.  A fisherman came down to the point with two buckets containing life bait that he needed to change the seawater for.  I can’t remember the specific species names but I think both were types of Lug Worms.  He ended up with vivid yellow hands afterwards as they exude iodine when threatened!  Fun fact for the day!

Lug Worms

Back at home the Swifts were performing at super low level between the houses and it was not too surprising the following morning when Patrick told me of a dead bird on his daughter’s car our front.  It was a Swift that had seemingly got things slightly wrong but it was amazing to be able to study it close up before adding it to my compost heap.

More mothing that night at home netted me 42 species including 43 Uncertain (about which I am sure…), Clancy’s Rustic, The Rustic, Satin and two news one with Rhodophaea formosa and Clepsis consimilana. 

Clepsis consimilana

Large Yellow Underwing

Pyrausta despicata

Rhodophaea formosa

Satin

Clay

I have been trying to catch up on sleep and rest this week to be honest and took the final two nights off from mothing at home to save the deliberate 4am arisings but I did join Antony on Friday to go and collect the traps that he set out on the Somerleyton Estate overnight.  We only had time to sift through one of them whilst there but it was fantastic with so many species that I do not get at home and quite a few that were new to me. 

We did not stay too long and bumped back out past Muntjac, Rabbits and Brown Hares and added my first Ruddy Darter of the year to the site list.  That evening the two trap lists were amalgamated and totalled 96 species which was pretty good for a non MV set up.  Antony had kept back any that were new for me.

Barred Red with only one real bar

normal Barred Red

Birdwing

Common Emerald

Crambus perlella

Engrailed

Isophrictis anthemidella 

Kent Black Arches

Lobesia abscisana 

Lozotaeniodes formosana 

Miller

Nutmeg

Ruby Tiger

Four Dotted Footman

Bufftip

Barred Straw

Brown Rustic

Swallowtail

Aethes cnicana 

Mompha raschkiella

Teleopsis diffinis 

Scoparia pyralella

True Lovers Knot

Southern Wainscot

Southern Wainscot

Exoteleia dodecella 

Thistle Ermine

To be honest his own trap was equally amazing and as dusk fell we released them all which included nearly 40 Elephant Hawk-moths!

Elephants!

I am now sitting in a hotel room in Lockerbie on my way to a week on Mull from tomorrow. As for the day of the week I am not quite sure.

Borneo for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 7 - 9th June 2025

Today we spent all day on the Kinabatangan river with three boat trips during the day.  To be honest it all got a bit blurry around the edges as to when we saw what but it was once again great to be out on the water.  I remember it beginning very well with our first Storm’s Stork perched up in distant trees as seen from the jetty and we were lucky enough to see several others during the day.  It felt a bit like a Black Stork with added eye makeup.  A spiral of 17 Lesser Adjutant circled over the woods and we got to see another couple were found perched up.

Storm’s Stork

Lesser Adjutants

Lesser Adjutant 

There was a good assortment of herony things again and at dusk we saw Eastern Cattle Egrets heading off to roost and Black-crowned Night-Herons heading out for dinner.  Wallace’s Hawk-Eagles we seen watching over the trees with vertical crests waving around and both Crested Serpent-Eagle and Crested Goshawks were seen perched up.  I presume that at some stage both these raptor lineages must have had common crested ancestors as it seems a feature of so many Asian raptors.

Great Egret

Black-crowned Night-Herons

Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle

Crested Serpent-Eagle

Crested Goshawks 

A White-bellied Sea-Eagle past low over us and Grey-headed Fish-Eagles kept an eye on proceedings and some of us at the back of the boat were fortunate enough to see at Bat Hawk after sundown just before we docked but it was quickly lost in the gloom.

White-bellied Sea-Eagle

Grey-headed Fish-Eagle

Green Imperial and Pink-necked Green Pigeons were noted and Blue-crowned Hanging-Parrots frustrated everyone with their erratic appearances! Bornean Ground-Cuckoo was one of the main targets but despite our best efforts we had to be content with hearing one powerfully singing of in the distance and although it came closer it was never ever going to appear next to the boat.

Agrionoptera insignis 

Euthalia merta apicalis - a rare form of the female apparently

A Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo really did look like a Drongo until you got to the front end and there was plenty of time during the day to study Swiftlets as they hawked low over the river.  Higher up huge Brown-backed Needletails scythed through effortlessly and both Stork-billed and Blue-eared Kingfishers were once again seen well.  A female Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher rocketed past the boat like a vibrant orange dart and while in the same cutting (waiting for the Ground-Cuckoo to come closer) a female Scarlet-rumped Trogon did the same.  We also saw Rufous-tailed Tailorbirds, White-chested Babblers, Crimson Sunbirds and a male White-crowned Shama whilst sitting there with our mosquito friends.

GA huge Woolly Aphid of some sort

I am calling this an Orange-throated Skink

We did very well on primates again with Long-tailed Macaques, Pro Bos and both Silver and gorgeous Red Leaf Monkeys and were just twenty minutes late in getting to where some Bornean Pygmy Elephants had been down to the river.  The piles of poo were practically steaming and the smell of fresh elephant was ripe in the air but they had melted away.  A solitary Salt Water Crocodile was lounging on a sandbank and was the only one we saw.

Red Leaf-Monkey

Red Leaf-Monkey

Long-tailed Macaques playing on the lodge roof at lunchtime

Saltwater Crocodile 

Saltwater Crocodile 

Bornean Pygmy Elephant - almost!

Blue-rumped Bee-eaters performed much better during the day and we found a Grey & Buff Woodpecker at a nest hole and a small party of squeaky Brown Barbets and a pair of vivid Black & Red Barbets which were one of my favourites.  Unsurprisingly there were Bulbuls too with Black-headed and Yellow-vented and the new Hairy-backed in olive and yellow.  Gangs of Long-tailed Parakeets and the odd raucous Sunda Crow were noted but the sky scanning was mainly about trying to find Hornbills and we did exceptionally well with groups of Bushy-crested, Black, Oriental Pied, fluffy headed White-crowned and enormous Wrinkled.  The pair of Rhinoceros Hornbills then reappeared in the dead trees as we headed back from the final trip of the day.

Bushy-crested Hornbills

Bushy-crested Hornbills

Bushy-crested Hornbills

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Wrinkled Hornbill

Wrinkled Hornbill

White-crowned Hornbill

White-crowned Hornbill