Fox watching

Some people count sheep before they go to sleep but I count foxes.  I think there may be more than four cubs in the family but it is very difficult to tell as they are not all here together and they don't keep still.  This is quite a busy post but I wanted to show you something of what goes on each evening.  The first video shows how things are much of the time - just foxes chewing peanuts.  In this picture are the alpha male (front), alpha female (back), yearling vixen (back left), and two cubs (centre).

Here is an example of what happens when the alpha vixen arrives.  The cubs are beside themselves with excitement while the two yearling vixens carry on eating.

On another night when the vixen approached the cubs again got very excited and ran to meet her.  The yearling played it cool and sat and watched.

A few moments later the dog fox arrived.  He is often here first but if not he always makes an entrance to make sure all the others know how important he is.  He bounds in and sometimes some or all of the cubs run off.  On this occasion they stayed (initially at least) and there was a lot of excitement and furious tail-wagging.

I can often hear other interactions going on out of view on the audio tracks of the videos, even with six foxes in view.  I may risk a couple of trail cameras to get a different view although the foxes in the past have been wary of them in the garden.

More moths

I think I have pinned down almost all the identities of the moths I caught last week.  Here are the rest.

Gold Spot

A rather faded Green Carpet

Straw Dot

Peppered Moth

The Gothic

Buff Arches

Double Square Spot

Bird Cherry Ermine

Double Lobed

Plain Golden Y

Riband Wave (I posted one of these last time but this one is strikingly different)

Common Rustic

Swallow Prominent

Short-cloaked Moth

Common Wainscot

And last, one of the best of the night, Burnished Brass

As before, please let me know if any of the IDs is incorrect.  This seems to me an amazing variety of moths from one night with the moth trap and is by far the best I have had.  I'll have another go while the weather holds and post any new findings.

A successful night with the moth trap

Inspired by seeing the lunar hornet moth last week I set up the moth trap again.  My previous attempts haven't been very successful - on one occasion there was only one moth in the trap all night.  This time was different.  When I went to check the trap in the morning there were moths everywhere - on the lawn, on the surrounding plants and on the outside of the trap.  Inside this time there were over 100 moths and I reckon there were about 30 species, although I haven't quite identified all of them.

The largest, and perhaps the most exciting was a Poplar Hawk-moth, an easy one for me to identify.

I did recognise one or two others but I got a lot of help from Butterfly Conservation's section on moths (https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths).  Also very useful was a website What's Flying Tonight (https://shiny-apps.ceh.ac.uk/whats_flying_tonight/).  Using the date and a postcode it shows the 50 most likely species and did fairly well with mine.  With these and my Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland, illustrated by Richard Lewington, I think I have managed to identify most of them.

The most numerous, but not predicted by What's Flying Tonight's top 50, was Common Footman.

Others in random order included:

July Highflyer

Coxcomb Prominent

Dark Arches

Beautiful Golden Y

Brimstone

True Lover's Knot

Gold Spangle

Heart & Dart

Light emerald.  It was fascinating to see that this one flew to the underside of a leaf where its markings would provide camouflage.

Large yellow underwing

Scalloped Oak

Poplar Grey

Riband Wave

That's probably enough for one post.  I'll post the others as soon as I have identified as many as I can.  If any of the identities is wrong please let me know.

News from OtterCam

Over the past few weeks the camera has seen a lone otter going through the culvert about twice a week.  At the beginning of last week we had quite a lot of rain and the water once again spilled over the sluice gate.  Twice in the same day the camera recorded something I haven't seen before - an otter fishing in the culvert.  I reckon this is the dog and it is fascinating to see how he systematically sweeps from side to side looking for fish.

The lone otter detected the next time was a cub, which was surprising.  The camera records for only 20s in infrared mode so we don't quite see it make it up the ramp but I presume it did as there was no subsequent recording.  Quite why it was on its own isn't clear but I expect mother was nearby.

Two hours later the camera briefly glimpsed a small otter coming back through the pipe - detecting a small cold wet otter in water isn't easy for the sensor.  Another two hours later mother appeared with both cubs, again heading north. The cubs are slow though the fast-flowing water and the camera's 20s cut-off means we don't see them get up the ramp.  They were too far away to trigger a second recording.

Two days ago they went through again, this time in much shallower water, although it is very slippery.  And yesterday a large solo otter went through, presumably the dog.  He walks slowly to make sure he doesn't slip.

The lunar hornet moth

This is another wonderful day-flying moth that can be attracted to a pheromone lure - the lunar hornet moth (Sesia bembeciformis).  I was privileged to join Andy Atkinson, our local moth expert, to look for this moth in Gosforth Nature Reserve.  It lives in damp areas of willow and sallow so Andy headed for an area of coppiced willow at the edge of the wetland.  The lure comes in a small capsule which is inserted into the top of the trap which is then hung on a branch. Male moths are attracted by the scent and may enter the trap or be netted as they fly around it.

In the second spot Andy tried a moth appeared after a few minutes and was expertly netted.

After release it posed for a photo before flying off.

Moments later there was a second moth, slightly smaller than the first.

It also allowed me a photo after release.

The female moth lays her eggs on the willow bark and the larvae burrow into the wood.  They spend two years eating willow wood before emerging as adults.  Paul Drummond, the reserve warden, showed us a section of coppiced willow containing a lunar hornet tunnel.

This particular larva had not made it to adulthood as it had been predated by a woodpecker.

The lunar hornet moth is one of several similar moths known as "clearwings" that mimic other insects.  It looks more like a queen wasp than a hornet and even flies like a wasp, a very convincing example of Batesian mimicry.  The adult moth may trick the birds into avoiding it but that obviously doesn't always work for the larvae.