Some cracking moths & the Hampshire Dipper's.

Saturday 4th June 2022.

Scorched Wing was added to my year list as was all the moth photos here on this entry to my blog.  

It was a trip down to Romsey this morning for the well documented Dippers that have bred on the river there and although the weather forecast was not looking good, we were lucky enough to have a dry trip to this part of Hampshire. However, Andy had his moth box on overnight despite some heavy rain showers overnight and there were a few nice surprises in store.

Small Square-spot.

Treble-lines.

Knot Grass.

Among a reasonable total here within the moth egg trays, there were two nice ‘year-ticks’ that included a Scorched Wing, Knot Grass, Treble Lines and a Small Square-spot. A lot of Andy’s moths have to run the gauntlet of the spiders that live in the back door room and a Giant House Spider lurking close to the back door most certainly didn’t help!

• 5 Common Marbled Carpet
• 1 Scorched Wing
• 1 Knot Grass
• 1 Treble Lines
• 3 Heart & Dart
• 1 Light Emerald
• 2 Vines Rustic
• 1 Square-spot Rustic
• 1 Pale Mottled Willow
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 2 Double-striped Pug 
• 3 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Celypha striana

My Sat Nav took us right to the spot on where to view the Dippers and for the sake of protecting these birds, I shall not give the exact location on my blog, but thankfully, it was disclosed to us and after parking up, we joined fellow ‘Lazee Birders’,  Andy Tew and Graeme Loader, who kindly put us on to the juvenile Dippers resting on a rock by the river. Dippers have not bred on a Hampshire river for some 16 years and I certainly have not seen any in Hampshire before and therefore made the most of the opportunity in being here. 

The juvenile Dippers waiting to be fed by their parents this morning. 

From our viewpoint, we had reasonable views of the juvenile Dipper's being occasionally bred by the adults, though the adults briefly popped in to feed the birds and then flew off to hunt more aquatic insects. It was later in the morning that from the same viewpoint, we had an adult bathing on the edge of the river and I managed to grab a few photos and some film footage of our Hampshire Dippers. The last time I saw this species was five years ago on the River Dart, in Devon, where Andy and myself were coming back from East Prawle.

Photos of the adult Dipper on the river. It was bathing & preening for while and then went hunting underwater.

While chatting to Andy Tew, I heard the distinctive song of a Firecrest overhead and sure enough, I saw the bird flitting about the branches above us and quickly pointed it out to the guys. A nice support act. After a good hour here and enjoying a superb species, it was time to go home as I had to get back early as friends of mine were coming over for lunch. I was hoping yesterday’s Glossy Ibis were still at Posbrook Floods, but there was no news on Birdguides and so I went straight back home after dropping Andy off. It turned out they were still at Posbrook Floods after all and so another good species has gone begging for my year list. Nevertheless, the 190th species for the year was achieved today.  On the way back along the M27, there were sightings of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Kestrel and Common Buzzard flying over the motorway. Below, some film footage of the adult Dipper on the river.