Still good friends on OtterCam

I first read Tarka the Otter about 60 years ago.  When I re-read it last year I had forgotten how much it is to do with otter hounds and hunting (the book was published in 1927 and otter hunting in England wasn't banned until 1978).  The other surprising thing (to me) was how often Tarka met up with and socialised with other otters as I have read elsewhere that otters are solitary creatures, outside courtship and mating.  That fits with what I have seen on the trail cameras over the past few years but recently things have been different.  The resident female split from her cubs just about two months ago and immediately embarked on courting the local dog otter. She was encouraging him very noisily for three nights (courtship is said to last 3-5 days)  but they were still going around together 19 days later.  After that the cameras were recording only solo otters, until now.  Just one video in this post but, 53 days after courtship began, here they are again together.  First the dog, closely followed by the female.  She returned alone five minutes later.  It is difficult to judge from the video but if all goes well cubs should be born very soon.

May moths

I don't think I am cut out to be a moth trapper.  Not diligent or organised enough.  I set the trap on the last day of May, so a month ago, and it has taken me until now to sort out (some of) the results.  It was all a bit overwhelming with over 100 moths of dozens of species.  All I could do was to photograph them, or at least the ones that didn't fly off, and I did recognise some as I went through them.  Since then there has been so much else going on that I have only just got round to looking through the photos.  As ever, I found the medium-sized greyish-brown ones quite tricky but this time I got a lot of help from the Obsidentify app which appears to be very accurate and is certainly very confident.

There were several real beauties in the box and some I hadn't seen before so here are a few of the best.

First a Poplar Kitten, new to me.

Also Swallow Prominent,

Pebble Prominent,

Iron Prominent,

Gold Spot,

White Ermine,

Green Silver-lines,

Elephant Hawk-moth, there were two of these,

Poplar Hawk-moth, four of these,

Blood-vein, another two,

and Peppered Moth.

There were also four Orange Ladybirds, the ladybird most commonly attracted to light,

and a couple of ichneumons, probably Ophion sp.

After all that I shall set the trap again tonight and try to be a bit more organised.  Results to follow, I hope.

Shy birds on OtterCam

OtterCam is in a quiet phase at the moment.  Single otters wander past every now and then, both the dog and the resident female as far as I can tell, but they don't do anything interesting.  I hope new cubs will be born in the first half of next month but, if so, we won't see them on camera for another three months or so.

The cameras are still in position, however, clocking up dozens of recordings a day, mostly of birds.  Young water rails, moorhens and mallards predominate, along with robins and wood pigeons.  There were also two notable recordings last week.

The water rail has a reputation of being a shy bird but it certainly isn't camera-shy.  It is usually heard rather than seen and makes a weird un-bird-like sound, often described as like a piglet squealing.  This one put on a show in front of two of the cameras.

Next another bird that is usually seen but not heard.  I previously posted videos of a common snipe and a badger, both with a Cetti's warbler singing in the background.  The video below shows the first time a Cetti's warbler has appeared on camera.  Cetti's warbler was previously a rare bird, having first bred in Kent in the 1970s and described in my (2016) field guide as a "scarce and local resident, mainly in southern England".  Since then it has been spreading north and for the past year or so there have been several in the reserve - I now hear one singing nearly every time I go in.  Unfortunately this one didn't sing to the cameras and the bird in the background is a reed warbler.

You can hear the Cetti's warbler's song here.

Summer ladybirds

There is always more to learn.  I manage to identify most adult ladybirds and have come to recognise urban cemeteries as good places to find them in the winter.  In summer there are larvae and pupae to find and it turns out that, for some at least, cemeteries are a good place to look as well.

Ladybird larvae moult as they grow and go through four instars (stages).  They get easier to identify as they get bigger.  Some of those I have seen recently are 18-spot Ladybird,

Cream-streaked Ladybird,

Eyed Ladybird (also in the header photo),

Cream-spot Ladybird,

and Harlequin Ladybird, seen here alongside a pupa,

Pupae can often be identified but some species are very similar.  This is an Eyed Ladybird.

this one is a Cream-spot Ladybird

and this is a Harlequin Ladybird.

When the new ladybirds emerge from the pupal cases they are very often very pale without the characteristic colours and markings which take hours or sometimes longer to develop.  This is a just-emerged Harlequin Ladybird which hasn't yet hardened and folded its wings.

This is a 10-spot Ladybird f. bimaculata to show how much it changes.

This is an Eyed Ladybird, just starting to colour up.

After a day or so the new ladybirds are also very bright and shiny.  This is a Harlequin Ladybird.

And an 18-spot Ladybird.

An unusually dark Cream-streaked Ladybird.

I also found a few Water Ladybirds in their summer colours at a local pond (in winter they are beige with black spots).  They move a lot faster in summer as well.

There will be more larvae, pupae and newly emerged ladybirds throughout the summer so I'll keep an eye out for anything interesting.

The next generation of woodpeckers

It's the second week of June, so time for a post on young woodpeckers.  I always look out for them in early June, or more correctly listen out for them as I hear them first when they arrive in the garden, but this year the first one arrived on 31st May, probably the earliest ever here.  I don't take so many bird photos these days but I always enjoy this subject.  These few were distilled down from several hundred photos taken through the kitchen window in the past few days.

The honeymoon is over on OtterCam

Well it was fun while it lasted.  The courtship began in early May, only two nights after the cameras last saw the mother and cubs together.  The female was very excited and noisy and seemed to be leading the male on.  The noisy phase lasted for three nights but my cameras are in only two positions and so we don't know what was going on elsewhere.  As I reported last time the male and female otters were still going around together after eight nights and seemed very comfortable in each other's company.

After 13 nights they turned up again, still very much a couple, and 15 minutes later one of the cubs appeared, still calling for his mother.

Then after 19 days they were still together, this time in daylight, rolling around on all the willow catkins and looking very relaxed.

The last time I saw them together was 22 days after courtship began but this time one was chasing the other and I expect they have now gone their separate ways.  It isn't easy to tell who is chasing who.  The first one seems to have a broader head and so may be the male.

The cameras now show only single otters although on occasion they are only a few minutes apart.

Paul Chanin's book Otters says courtship lasts for "four or five days", after which they split up and resume a solitary existence.  In previous years that is what I have seen on the trail cameras so the prolonged time these two spent together is a surprise.  I think both cubs have now moved on and I no longer see a rather lost and squeaking otter.  I hope new cubs will be born in July (the otter's gestation is 63 days) and I'll be looking out for them in October.  News here when I have it.