Had a short visit, via a circuitous A14 diversion to Grafham Water reservoir while the sun was shining, drove home in the rain. Intriguingly, there was a warning sign about not swimming and needed higher-spec buoyancy aids because the water is aerated and so, presumably, of lower, less buoyant density than normal water. Anyway, a few photos. Not of the sign.
Control Tower at Grafham WaterStarling in a treeWadersBoat anglers
Birdlife ticked on the morning; Tufted Duck, Great Black-backed Gull, Greylag Goose, Mandarin, Shelduck, Linnet, Robin, Wren, Starling, Stonechat, Meadow Pippet, Yellowhammer, Redwing, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Rook, Mute Swan, Common Buzzard (9 together!), Pied Wagtail, Kestrel, Red Kite, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Cormorant…Swallows (two, still actively feeding/drinking!)
Yellowhammer shaking off the drips after its bathPerched YellowhammerWren on fenceFemale StonechatMale StonechatOne of a couple of Great Black-backed GullsOne of nine Common Buzzards in a whirlA handful of dozen of Meadow PippitEven when they’re not watching, they can see you. Eurasian Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleusRed KiteOptimistic female House Sparrow at the picnic tablesEven more optimistic male House Sparrow at the picnic tables
Three species of butterfly: Small Tortoiseshell, European Peacock, Large White.
The Box-tree Moth, Cydalima perspectalis, is an Asian species of moth (usually seen in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and India), that is gradually spreading, presumably with the advent of box hedges on new housing estates, across the South East of England, and in East Anglia.
It would most likely have arrived as eggs/larvae on imported box plants(Buxus), and it was first recorded in the UK in 2007. Its larvae can rapidly eat their way through a box hedge. Another reason to go native when it comes to planting…although it is probably too late for native box now though.
Box-tree Moth larva, blurry record shot, 10 May 2023
I recorded my first Box-tree moth in July of 2019 and have seen dozens since. It is a quite beautiful, exotic-seeming moth. There is a dark melanistic, form, which is a common genetic aberration in lots of animals; see also the Industrial Evolution of the Peppered Moth.
Melanistic form of the Box-tree Moth to actinic light 13 Oct 2019, VC29
Wiki has more details on its recordings: first seen in Germany 2006, then Switzerland and The Netherlands in 2007, France and Austria in 2009, Hungary 2011, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. Also now in Slovakia, Belgium, and Croatia, and by 2016 Bosnia and Hercegovina. During the preparation to the 2014 Olympics in 2012 it was introduced from Italy to Sochi with the planting stock of Buxus sempervirens. A year later it was seen to be defoliating Buxus colchica. Now present in Toronto, Canada as of 2019.
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of pheromone traps hanging in trees close to a garden box hedge and even at a National Trust property. These traps are commonly used by moth-ers who place a pheromone lure in the trap, and draw in a target species for recording, examination, and photographing. All in the name of citizen science.
Unfortunately, this is not the way to deal with what box gardeners perceive as a pest. Indeed, hanging a lure in your garden will have the exact opposite effect of what you hoped. The females if they are in your area will be drawn to the box plants because that’s the food plant for their larvae. In the meantime, they will be pumping out sex pheromone into the air and drawing in the males who will mate as soon as they encounter the female. If you put out a pheromone lure, you are likely to be amplifying the sex signal and will draw in more males. You will trap some males but it really only takes one pairing on your box hedge for it to be devastated by box-tree moth larvae.
So, how do you deal with an infestation of Box-tree Moth larvae on your bushes? Well, you could go the nasty route and spray pesticide, but that will harm other beneficial invertebrate species. You could make a solution of washing-up liquid, but that’s unlikely to work well. You could pick off the caterpillar and…dispose of them. But, in this area, at least, I’d say your Box are doomed, perhaps better to find another native plant species to replace it for hedging.
If you see this species, there is a major project to record their spread and changing colour forms through the UK. You can record details here.
UPDATE: One Merv in the night and another to join it by morning!
I only started mothing with a scientific trap a little over a year ago (24 Jul 2018, to be precise) but have logged and photographed well over 300 different species since then.
I heard about Griposia aprilina, aka the Merveille du Jour, a few weeks after I started and thought it would be a nice specimen to see. But, its larvae feed on oaks and as far as I know, there are none particularly close to our garden. I was ever hopeful of seeing this little marvel but I didn’t hold out much hope of it ever making an appearance.
This beautifully marked green (and black and white) moth usually emerges in adult form in early October to fly and mate. This time last year, I hadn’t seen one and even though I lit up all the way through the autumnal and winter moth season up to mid-December or thereabouts, Merv never showed.
After our recent wildlife, yoga, and sightseeing trip to the Greek Island of Kythira, I got back to lighting up only a couple of nights ago. Tonight, I was about to head for bed, but thought I would check the trap for Thorns and Sallows only to be rewarded with the little wonder that is the Merveille du Jour. It’s odd that some British moth-ers tend to call it a “Wonder of the Day” when they translate its obviously French name, using the Germanic “wonder”. Either way, it’s a marvellous and wonderful moth.
A trip to the Greek capital Athens and the island of Kythira yielded some good times, lovely views, lots of laughs with new(ish) friends, and sightings of quite a few species of bird, invertebrates and plantlife we’d not all “ticked” before. Here are a few snaps of the various species:
Scarce SwallowtailMarginated TortoiseDark Bush Cricket, Pholidoptera griseoapteraStriped Shieldbug, Graphosoma lineatumEgyptian Grasshopper, Anacridium aegyptium with its striped eyes on mulleinLesser Kestrel, Falco naumanniGrayling on Sea SquillBlue-winged-Grasshopper, Oedipoda caerulescensMediterranean Skipper, Gegenes nostrodamusOriental Hornet, Vespa orientalisEuropean “Preying” Mantis, Mantis religiosa (juvenile)
Common Raven, Corvus corax
Western Marsh Harrier, Circus aeruginosus
Long-tailed Blue, or Pea Blue, Lampides boeticusEuropean Bee eater, Merops apiaster, on a feeding break during migratory passageFemale Sardinian warbler, Sylvia melanocephalaMale Sardinian warbler, Sylvia melanocephalaBlue Rock Thrush, Monticola solitarius (an old-world flycatcher, not Turdidae)Grayling, Hipparchia semeleSea daffodil, Pancratium maritimum, Aghios Nikolaos bay, below Moudari LighthouseTamarisk, or Salt Cedar, over The Aegean Sea, KythiraHummingbird hawk-moth, Macroglossum stellatarumSouthern Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina janiraPristine Swallowtail on Bourgainvillea in MylopotamosMediterranean Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria sp., MylopotamosLarge White, Pieris brassicae, along the river in MylopotamosMastikha, Pistacia lentiscus, plant on which Sardinian Warbler thrivesFemale Praying Mantis joins our yoga class on KytheraYellow-legged Gull, Larus michahellis, one of only a couple of gulls we sawAfrican Monarch, Plain Tiger, African Queen, Danaus chrysippusToxic Drimia maritima, Sea Squill, Sea Onion, Maritime SquillCommon Buzzard, Buteo buteo, on the goat track between Karavas and Platia AmmosEleonora’s Falcon, Falco eleonorae, along the goat track, we had seen them beforeRed-rumped Swallow, Cecropis daurica, one of several flocks, of up to 20, migrating southSouthern Skimmer, Orthetrum brunneumDistant Black Stork, Ciconia nigraFemale Violet Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa violaceaMale Violet Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa violaceaTwo-tailed Pasha, aka the Foxy Emperor, Charaxes jasiusYellow Grecian flower of unknown IDBlackcap, Sylvia atricapilla, feeding in a fig tree, Green Chafer aboveSpotted flycatcher, Muscicapa striata, happy to be photographed by end of week.
Birds
Alpine Swift
Barn Swallow
Bee Eater
Black Stork
Blackbird
Blackcap
Blue Rock Thrush
Blue tit
Booted Eagle
Cetti’s Warbler
Collared Dove
Common Buzzard
Common sparrowhawk
Eleanora’s Falcon
Great tit
Grey Wagtail
Hobby
Honey buzzard
Kestrel
Kingfisher
Lesser Kestrel
Levant sparrowhawk
Marsh Harrier
Peregrine
Raven
Red-rumped Swallow
Redstart
Robin
Sardinian Warbler
Scops owl
Spotted Flycatcher
Swift
Willow Warbler
Yellow-legged Gull
Butterflies
African Monarch
Blue-winged grasshopper
Cleopatra
Clouded Yellow
European Swallowtail
Grayling
Large Tortoiseshell
Long-tailed Blue
Mediterranean Skipper
Mediterranean Speckled Wood
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
Scarce Swallowtail
Southern Meadow Brown
Two-tailed Pasha
Other invertebrates
Ants
Cicada
Common Plume
Dark Bush Cricket
Scoliid Wasp, Scolia hirta
Dragonflies
Egyptian Grasshopper
Hummingbird Hawk-moth
Oriental Hornet
Praying Mantis
Red-winged grasshopper
Silver Y moth
Small Dusty Wave moth
Southern Skimmer
Striped Shieldbug
Turnip Moth
Violet Carpenter Bee
Plants
Almond-leafed wild pear
Carob
Cypress, funereal, male and female
Fig
Giant fennel
Giant Reed
Juniper
Kephalonian pine
Kermes Oak
Large Mediterranean Spurge
Lemon
Lime
Maiden hair spleen wort
Maritime pine
Mastika
Mulberry
Mullein
Norfolk island pine
Oleander
Olive
Oriental plane
Pomegranate
Portuguese laurel
Prickly Pear
Rock samphire
Sea daffodil
Sea holly
Sea squill
Sharp-leaved rush
Smilax
Spiny asparagus
Strawberry tree
Tamarisk
Tree heather
Umbrella pine
Vertebrates
Brown Rat (deceased)
Cat
Cattle
Dog
Fish
Goat
Lizards (No ID: brown/green, large/small)
Sheep
Six days of yoga, walking, swimming, sightseeing, wildlife (mostly birds and invertebrates), Greek food, and beer on the island of Kythira; what could be better?
Kythira, Cythera, Kythera, and Kithira. In Greek: Κυθηρα
You can’t miss the tallest peak in Athens, no not the one with The Parthenon at the top (68 metres elevation), but Mount Lycabettus, also known as Lycabettos, Lykabettos or Lykavittos. In Greek, it’s pronounced “likavi’tos”, so the first three syllables flow as a triplet and the emphasis is on the final beat. It stands at 264 metres.
Mount Lycabettus across Athens viewed from Acropolis
Second full day on our trip to Athens, we took the funicular railway to the top to see the 19th Century St George’s Chapel and take in the views over the city. I’d have chosen to climb to the top, despite the heat, if I’d realised it was in a tunnel. But, we did walk down and then circumnavigate the pine woodland the begins about half way down and stretches to the base.
One of the things I found intriguing about the name of this hill is the “lika/lyco” prefix, that I thought must refer to wolves in some way, but a couple of Athenians I asked didn’t seem to think so. On Wikipedia, there’s a suggestion that it had an ancient name Lucabetu meaning a mastoid hill, but Wiki also says that the modern name means “walked by wolves”.
Could the original name of this hill be the etymology of the Greek word for wolf, lykos, because that’s where the early Athenians most frequently encountered them? In a similar context, the word lyceum, is definitely connected to the Greek word for wolf, alluding to wolfishness, but referring to a garden of the god Apollo who was said to be wolfish in Greek mythology…
Near-expert friend, Penelope Wilson, tells me she can corroborate, or perhaps, rather complicate! For Lycabettus, apart from the mastoid suggestion others have proposed something to do with luke (light), obviously also associated with Apollo. But, the Ancient Greeks were very good at holding more than one meaning in their heads at a time, and there are puns on Apollo Lukeios as meaning (born from/slayer of) wolves and as god of light. Anyway, she tells me, wolves are definitely there, etymology is attested from classical times. The hill itself was only named or identified with ancient Lycabettus in the 19th C it was previously known as Hill of St George or Mount Aghesmos.
That latter point suggests that the etymology is of the hill’s name not of the word wolf, in that case, but wolfishness is definitely part of the play. It’s still more complicated as Dr Wilson expands via a link to the page for the Lycabettus Run.
Myself and Mrs Sciencebase finally made it back to Greece after far too long a break from that beautiful country. The trip was to be yoga, walking, and wildlife, with plenty of wonderful food, a lot of Greek beer, and far too many photographs. I took the equivalent of eight 36-exposure reels on average each day of a ten-day trip, thank goodness for digital and 64 gigabyte SD cards. Anyway, before we hit the island of Kithira for the aforementioned R&R, we spent three nights in Athens, a place we had meant to visit properly back in the early 1990s, but a trip we missed out on because of ferry delays, force 6 gales, and a 10-30 metre swell!
Here are a few of my snaps from our first couple of days in the Greek capital
The White Stork, Ciconia ciconia, is a scientific tautonym, its binomial being duplicated to indicate that ciconia is the “type”, the archetype, of the family Ciconia. This is the bird of birth myth, the one that bears the infant baby to the homes of expectant parents. Perhaps the myth arose because they build great nests of straw on chimneys in the summer.
Anyway, the White Stork is rarely seen in The British Isles. You might see them nesting on rooftops in Germany, Poland, Finland, and beyond. They are relatively common across Europe and not of conservation concern, wintering in southern Africa and breeding far and wide into Europe and Asia. They need thermals to soar and so cross from Africa via the Straits of Gibraltar and “The Levant” rather than attempting to navigate the Mediterranean Sea, which obviously doesn’t produce the thermals they need.
There was much excitement among Cambridgeshire birders when a ringed bird was spotted at a couple of RSPB sites, Ouse Fen and Fen Drayton, in April 2018 and another (the same one?) sighted in various places across the county in early 2019.
There is a small flock of captive, ringed White Storks at Johnson’s Farm in Old Hurst, the farm with the crocodiles. My photos on this blog post were all snapped at the farm on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2019. Aharrgh.
It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, which holds a special place in the hearts of Mrs Sciencebase and myself that has nothing to do with Dubloons, wooden legs, nor eyepatches. Nevertheless, a day out at a local farm seemed a sensible way to celebrate, hahah. So, we headed into deepest, darkest Huntingdonshire, we met no one on the way to St Ives (not that one), flew around RAF Wyton, headed for Pidley (birthplace of our long-gone feline) and took a sharp left after a U-turn to Johnson’s Farm in Old Hurst.
Now, Johnson’s farm has sheep and cows, a butchery, and a farm shop and cafe. But, it also has Macaws and Emus, Meerkat(s), Capybara, giant rabbits, and (not seen) Wallabies. It also has a flock of about 7 or 8 Storks, a bird species that like the Gene Genie loves chimney stacks, but usually those of continental central and eastern Europe rather than the British Isles. Johnson’s also has some tropical birds, a boa constrictor, oh and there is something else…crocodiles.
The crocodiles are I believe part of a conservation, breeding programme, but from the aforementioned working farm and butchery point of view, they are the most efficient means of disposing of the tons of butchery waste generated each year. which has crocodiles…I don’t know if any of them have a ticking alarm clock in their stomach.
They’re not quite as cute as the Horsey seals, maybe not quite as watchable as the birds I photograph, and definitely not as up-close-and-serious as the moths. But, they are, you must admit, rather photogenic in an almost tropical prehistoric way…needles to say, I got a few snaps.
