New garden moths

Treble Brown Spot

The Spinach


Barred Yellow

White Plume Moth
These four species were new for the garden last night. Treble Brown Spot and The Spinach are both regarded as 'local' in VC32 (Northamptonshire and Peterborough). Personally, I think the Barred Yellow was the nicest looking one, though.

Sanderling at Maxey

The end of May is a traditional time for bumping into late spring waders, such as Sanderling. There have been a lot around the country today, and Will Bowell and I fancied our chances in the drizzle (and rain) at Maxey Pits, this afternoon. We found this lovely spring-plumaged bird with six Dunlin and a Ringed Plover. Number 160 for my PBC year list.

Ravens eating Moose

Brown Bear, Kuhmo, Finland

In mid-May, I was lucky enough to be reinvited to the Boreal Wildlife Centre, near Kuhmo, Finland. Having been there in March and seen little other than snow and a single Siberian Jay, it was like visiting a whole new place in May. With the melting of the snow, the Brown Bears come out of hibernation and the forest was full of birds.

Best of all was the chance to watch and photograph Brown Bears from the hides. I love these animals. Jaane and Kari from the BWC put out salmon and dry dog food to supplement the roadkill Moose which the have previously placed in the open clearing. So, after 6pm the action started, and the smallish bear featured in this video was the first to visit on each of the two nights I was there.

This Brown Bear was one of a pair of siblings (the other being the one with the blond patch near its shoulders), which were perhaps three years old, and regular visitors to the feeding area in mid May.

This video was taken with my new Canon Powershot S95 though my usual digiscoping scope, the Kowa TSN-823 Prominar + 32xW.

Bears, bears, bears

Swift rescue

Yesterday, we were heading off to go swimming and Eddie announced "There's a dead Blackbird in the road". We thought it had been hit by a car, but when I glanced up, it wasn't a Blackbird, but a Swift lying there, wings on the road, tail up in the air, moving as if blowing in the wind. It didn't look particularly injured, but neither did it look like it could take off.
So, I went and picked it up, and we took it through to the back garden to see if it could fly. I could feel it had a good grip on my hand and the wings seemed intact and it wanted to flap. So, I raised it up and let it go and off it flew strongly. Excellent.

Finnish bears

When a big drooling beefcake comes sniffing, it is usually best to make yourself scarce

Backlit bear

Follow the bear!

Some recent garden moths

Mother Shipton

Green Pug
Buff Eermine



Esperia sulphurella

Waved Umber of form fuscata

Bear Bum (& other digiscoped bears)

Almost certainly siblings, perhaps three years old

Scarface

Blondie, a distinctive bear, one of the siblings




Views of Scarface

The cute sibling

Old Randy Drooler

Hiding behind a tree...

Jack Snipe

More bears (Finland, digiscoped)

Hawthorn Shieldbug

This little fella was in my moth trap this morning

...through the trees

Digiscoped Greenshank

Big Brown Bear, Finland

Lekking Black Grouse