An Oleander scare

It's been raining for 36 hours now though its mostly that fine drizzle that gets everywhere but doesn't threaten to flood. The wind is now a South-easterly so things will begin to move despite the weather I reckon. It's already started this morning with small groups of thrushes, both Redwing and Fieldfare flying over and a few Chaffinches which I suspect are also immigrants. There were 3 Goldcrest now by the railway station so perhaps these are also non-local birds.
I heard that a friend of a friend had photographed a big moth last week and would I like to see the picture to see if I knew what it was. I said yes why not but nearly fainted when I saw the photo of a superb Oleander Hawkmoth. Then the penny dropped. 'Was this taken in Turkey where they were last week?' I asked. 'Yeah of course, you don't get big moths around here' was the reply. Oh b@**£&

Oleander Hawkmoth - not something you get in Waldridge [But I can dream]

Quite a few of the Aqueligias are sporting leaf-mines at the moment in the garden. After keying them out, they belong to a Leaf-mining Fly, the Columbine leaf miner (Phytomyza minuscula), a common species but not something I have noticed before.

Still nowt

A Silver Y and two Light Brown Apple Moth was all that bothered to enter the moth trap overnight.  The birds were only slightly better with another Grey Wagtail and 3 groups of Redwing flying over this morning and a Goldcrest in the trees by the railway station tonight.

Last night's Silver Y

Nowt about

I've seen very little the past few days, more to do with the weather than anything I suspect. The moth trap was out on Friday night but was completely empty when I checked it the following morning. The complete zero.
A Red Admiral in the garden on Friday was the best thing of the last few days. Today all I did was have a watch from the garden. The wind and rain put paid to most things but a few birds were seen flying over. The few that did brave the conditions were, little groups of 11 and 12 Redwing flying over, my first of the autumn, together with 10 Skylark, a handful of Meadow Pipit and a Grey Wagtail. That was it.

Not quite at Waldridge

Last Sunday I left my patch, even if it was only a few miles away, to have a scout around Ravensworth Fell in Gateshead. I was lucky enough to flush a Short-eared Owl which gave good views and I managed to get a few pictures. It's been a while since I had one in Waldridge but this wasn't far away and seems to be a good year for them, so fingers crossed. In fact I could see the fell in the distance  as I watched this  bird, but that still doesn't count.

A nice Short-eared Owl at Burdon Moor

The weather has deteriorated dramatically and so as the natural history. Very little around for the last few days and last night it was cold and windy so not surprising that this morning there was only 10 moths of 5 species in the moth trap. Luckily, included was my first Red-line Quaker of the autumn (and year) but the rest was the usual late autumn fare.

My first Red-line Quaker of the year

A nibbling spider

October arrived during the night but it was uncharacteristically warm, never dropping below 17.3C. It was a clear night and the time of year was never going to produce a big count. 20 moths of 12 species was the result including my first Garden Rose Tortrix of the year (I never get many), my latest ever Ypsolopha sequella, the first of the autumn's Chestnut, a Silver Y and another Flounced Chestnut. A couple of 7-spotted Ladybird also their way in.

A late Ypsolopha sequella

Garden Rose Tortrix

Single House Martin and Skylark flew over and Nuthatch and Great spotted Woodpecker called just outside the garden. In the garden a couple of Syrphus ribesii hoverflies and more Seven-spot Ladybirds were around the last of the Lilies.

Indoors a very large Giant House Spider (Tegenaria duellica) was caught, a female by the size of it. The latter can have body lengths of up to 18mm. A 1p piece has a diameter of 20.32mm so as can be seen this one was at the upper end of the range. This species is the only one of its family that can bite through human skin. I could just feel her biting but she did not get through my callously fingers.

Giant House Spider

Which flies faster - Sandhill Crane or Cory's Shearwater?

The moth trap was out overnight and I had 16 moths of 9 species, nothing new and probably just what could be expected on a late September night. The full list was

4 Light Brown Apple Moth
3 Spruce Carpet
1 Pine Carpet
1 Garden Carpet
3 Red-green Carpet
1 Blair's Shoulder-knot
1 Rosy Rustic
1 Green-brindled Crescent
1 Silver Y

A Great spotted Woodpecker bounded over the garden as I cleared things up.

On the way to work 4 juvenile House Martin were over the Front street in the town, feeding over the shop roofs and not showing any sign of heading south.

Off patch, a very rare Sandhill Crane that had been present in Scotland earlier in the week headed south and was seen at various spots on the Northumberland coast. I perched myself up on the roof at work waiting for it to fly over. Though a bit of a heat haze, there was an excellent panoramic view where I was, and if (when) it went past,  I should see it well.  After 5 minutes it was reported at Marsden heading south, I had made the right decision, it wouldn't be long ....... wrong.
One hour, thirteen minutes later it came on the Rare Bird pager, it was going over Hartlepool Docks, 17 miles to the south! I have no idea how it managed to sneak past me, or other people at spots down the coast. Apart from the resident birds, all I had was one lonesome Swallow heading south.

It was a bit like 2 weeks ago  when I was at Saltholme, Teesmouth and a Cory's Shearwater was heading south past Marsden/Whitburn. We reckoned it would take about an hour to get to Hartlepool but by the time the message had appeared it was going to be tight. A mad dash got us there 51 minutes after it had been seen at Whitburn, but we had missed it by a minute, it had just gone 'round the corner'.

So what have I learned, basically Cory's Shearwaters fly faster than Sandhill Cranes.

Quality not quantity

Though not the 'Indian Summer'  they said it was going to be, it was quite warm yesterday so I stuck the moth trap out again last night. The temperature dropped to single figures, just, 9.7C so wasn't surprised to see only a few moths in the trap. In fact there were only seven, of six species,  but three rather nice ones with

Canary-shouldered Thorn - one of the most photogenic of UK moths

Flounced Chestnut only ever caught about half a dozen of these

Green-brindled Crescent - with only a hint of green, but also new for the year.

together with a single Sallow and Garden Carpet and two Red-Green Carpet,  I was well pleased as it was certainly quality as opposed to quantity.