Pretty hopeless weather today, overcast with rain on and off so I've resorted to using flash for the three photos below. I think with the British weather a flash unit in the camera bag is fairly essential!
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Nuthatch |
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| Bank Vole |
Quiet on the bird front this week but trapped this Merveille du Jour last night. This must be one of our most attractive moths. especially when fresh like this one. I usually catch 2 or 3 each autumn at home, it's an oak feeder so well established in Clough Wood.
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| Merveille du Jour |
Brian Statham swept these two caterpillars off Scabious on Bonsall Moor three days ago and we are both struggling to identify them. It looks like they are the same species, it is not unusual to have green and brown forms of the same species.
Key clues to caterpillar identification are the month of the year and the food plant but neither lead to an obvious identification. Shaded Pug is one possibility but it does not appear to generally have the strong pale lines on the side and so far as we are aware has not been recorded in Derbyshire. I'll circulate the photos around some of the experts and see what comes up.
If Brian can keep them through pupation to emergence as the moth the mystery should be solved but that will be quite a wait.
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| mystery caterpillar |
James took this stag Fallow Deer with several hinds at Chatsworth.
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| Fallow Deer |
Another great photo from June Oliver, this time the diminutive Common Shrew.
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| Common Shrew |
This male Great Spotted Woodpecker sat for several minutes sheltering under the trunk of a small birch tree during a period of heavy rain today.
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
Just got news back on the Osprey from Roy Dennis, there was some confusion over the number until Ken Smith provided this fantastic photo of it taken on its last day in the area on13th September. Ken thinks the fish is Grayling.
The bird was rung as one of a brood of three on 4th July at Conon Bridge in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Perhaps it will return one Spring, the first summer is normally spent in the winter quarters so we'll have a bit of a wait.
First Fieldfare of the autumn this evening on Bent Lane.
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| Osprey - juvenile |
I have only rarely taken the adult Golden-rod Pug moth but the caterpillar is quite common on the food plant according to Brian Statham who took this caterpillar on the roadside by Flash Dam above Matlock. There are a number of moth families where the moth is easier to locate as a caterpillar than as the adult moth and many of the pugs fall in to this category. It's also a good aid to identification where the adults can be difficult to distinguish.
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| Golden-rod Pug |
Simon Roddis caught this Deep-brown Dart last night in Darley Dale. Last year at the very end of September Simon, Brian Statham and I caught one just this side of Hartington. The previous record for Derbyshire was 2006 as far as I could establish so this is a rare moth in the County. With the poor weather recently and low night time temperatures Simon has been rewarded for his persistence in running the trap.
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| Deep-brown Dart |
Nice views of a young Whinchat on Beeley Triangle this morning.
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| Whinchat - juvenile |
There are large numbers of Meadow Pipits moving south over the moor at the moment, some will be going as far as southern Spain for the winter. The increase in a potential food supply attracted this Sparrowhawk which was chasing the pipits on the moorland edge.
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| Sparrowhawk |
Well, it's always good news to see a Goshawk but this bird is a juvenile which will have fledged in the past few weeks. The good news would be if it was born in the Peak District. The Goshawk has suffered from persecution in its former stronghold in the upper Derwent Valley but hopefully it is still surviving as a breeding bird elsewhere in Derbyshire.
The bird was very distant hence the poor quality of the photos, interestingly I watched it climb high, perhaps 800 feet or more and then close its wings in a stoop on passing Wood Pigeons which were crossing the tree tops. It did it twice and was unsuccessful on both attempts giving a half hearted chase of the pigeon once it was at the same level.
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| Goshawk |
This Common or Viviparous Lizard as they are sometimes called due to the fact that the young are often born live as the egg bursts during delivery, was enjoying the early morning sunshine , it won't be long before they are hibernating for the winter.
Saw my first Pink-footed Geese of the autumn with a party of about twenty flying SW over the moor at around 9:30am. They generally leave the Southport area on the West coast at dawn and cross Beeley Moor and adjacent areas on their way to the Wash so it's typically mid-morning when they pass through.
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| Common Lizard |
