Ampthill Park

I hope you don't mind me going 'off-piste' for a post...from natural history to archaeological history, in fact! It's always been known that there used to be a castle in Ampthill Park, most famous for the time when Katherine of Aragon was residing/being detained (!) there whilst her divorce to King Henry VIII was being finalised down the road at Dunstable Priory. But there never have been any archaeological excavations of the shovel & trowel (& JCB) variety carried out to confirm just what this castle/palace looked like. So there's a lot of excitement in Ampthill at the moment as a team started digging 4 trenches this week, an excavation that will culminate on Ampthill's bi-annual Aragon Day a week on Saturday. The funding includes a local community element, and I took the opportunity to volunteer a few hours this morning.



I was really excited at what we might find. Yesterday the stonework above was uncovered...probably a bit of late medieval doodling!



During this early part of the dig, we focused on an area in what was probably the inner courtyard of the castle. This was my 'tray' after a mornings work. The items in the main consist of half a cow!!



But this little piece of pottery was fascinating. I unearthed it in the bottom of the trench and, at first glance, it's believed to be the bottom of a pottery vessel of some kind, probably the sort that was used to bring wine from the Rhineland in the late 16th/early 17th century! Wow, Indiana Jones eat your heart out!

I can't wait to see what turns up, and I'll try to go over the Park when I can to catch up with the progress of the dig. There will be an on-site talk each day at 4pm by one of the archaeologists, but they don't mind anyone wandering up and asking questions. So do visit if you can find the time.

What I'm hoping for is concrete evidence for a castle on site that goes right back to Norman times...here's hoping!

Flitwick Tescos.

Common Broomrape (Orobanche minor) is not that common in Bedfordshire...at least it's not commonly found, though I guess a number of plants are probably hidden away under the foliage of any taller plants in the immediate vicinity. It's a parasitic plant and 'plugs in' to the roots of clovers and other herbaceous plants in order to extract various nutrients. There is quite a show of the plant in one of the car park flower beds at Tesco's in Flitwick. It's been there for a few years and there were at least 50 specimens - probably a lot more - when I looked late this afternoon after taking my son to tennis. It's a good idea to look out for Waxwings in supermarket car parks in the winter....but Common Broomrape in the summer is not a bad find, either!

Maulden Wood

I went for a walk from Green End to the meadows west of the 'Round House' early this evening.



There are a lot of Ringlet butterflies around now. As they flutter past they look a lot darker than the Meadow Browns. Other butterflies seen were Small Heath, Large Skipper, Small Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral.



The Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) have been out in force in the sunshine this week. I love the colours of this female against the delicate pinks and whites of the Field Bindweed.



This balloon race remnant was the only bit of rubbish on a mammal path through the centre of a field...an ideal location for a local Fox to advertise his presence!



Can you spot two owls on this Green End roof? The owner obviously has a thing about owls. Interestingly, a real Tawny Owl was calling as I noticed them!

Maulden Wood & Chandos Road, Ampthill.

Last night I joined Andy & Melissa Banthorpe, who were running 3 lights in the southern half of Maulden Woods. Any people with mottephobia - a real fear of moths - just wouldn't have coped, because there were so many flying around, let alone those settled on the sheet or in the traps. They were landing in our hair, fluttering in our ears....and I even managed to swallow a few! But what a fantastic evening as one species after another made an appearance.

Andy & Melissa reckon that it will beat their previous best ever night, when they managed a haul of some 123 separate species! My favourite was the Pine Hawkmoth - my 9th Hawkmoth species, but there were plenty of others with that special something, too: the wonderful green hue of the Large Emerald, for instance, or some of the tiny bright golden micros! And then there was the strange Leopard Moth that suddenly appeared and took our breath away. I took him home to get a photo.....



...only to find two in my own back garden moth-trap!!

What a fantastic creature! Mind you, so is a Bullfinch and, like a Bullfinch, the Leopard Moth is not appreciated by people who like their fruit trees, because the larvae of this moth will spend a few years chomping its way down the middle of an apple or pear branch, both weakening it and making it more susceptible to disease.

But we haven't got any fruit trees in our garden, and these beauties are welcome to pop by anytime!

UPDATE: 159 moths confirmed from Maulden Wood so far, with 5 yet to be identified (I was fortunate to see most of these)!!! The list looks something like this:

16 Gold Swift 1
130 Incurvaria masculella 1
161 Leopard Moth 1
246 Tinea semifulvella 1
410 Argyresthia brockeella 1
411 Argyresthia goedartella 1
415 Argyresthia retinella 1
417 Argyresthia spinosella 1
420 Argyresthia pruniella 1
424 Yponomeuta evonymella 2
442 Cedestis gysseleniella 1
462 Ypsolopha sequella 2
464 Diamond-back Moth 5
640 Batia lunaris 1
642 Batia unitella 2
658 Carcina quercana 2
688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
756 Parachronistis albiceps 1
765 Teleiodes vulgella 1
774 Teleiodes luculella 1
874 Blastobasis lacticolella 1
925 Phtheochroa rugosana 1
946 Aethes rubigana 1
966 Cochylis atricapitana 2
970 Pandemis cerasana 2
972 Pandemis heperana 1
977 Archips podana 1
980 Archips xylosteana 1
987 Ptycholomoides aeriferanus 1
1001 Lozotaenoides formosanus 10
1010 Ditula angustiorana 1
1032 Aleimma loeflingiana 20
1036 Acleris forsskaleana 1
1076 Celypha lacunana 1
1082 Hedya pruniana 1
1083 Hedya nubiferana 1
1169 Gypsonoma dealbana 1
1175 Epiblema uddmanniana 5
1200 Eucosma hohenwartiana 1
1201 Eucosma cana 5
1205 Spilonota ocellana 1
1211 Rhyacionia pinicolana 5
1272 Pammene aurana 2
1293 Chrysoteuchia culmella 10
1334 Scoparia Ambigualis 10
1345 Brown China-mark 5
1376 Small Magpie 5
1377 Perinephela lancealis 1
1390 Udea prunalis 1
1392 Udea olivalis 2
1405 Mother of Pearl 10
1413 Gold Triangle 2
1428 Bee Moth 1
1436 Conobathra repandana 2
1495 Marasmarcha lunadactyla 1
1513 White Plume Moth 1
1640 The Drinker 1
1647 Barred Hook-tip 1
1648 Pebble Hook-tip 1
1652 Peach Blossom 25
1653 Buff Arches 30
1655 Poplar Lutestring 1
1657 Common Lutestring 4
1666 Large Emerald 5
1667 Blotched Emerald 1
1669 Common Emerald 10
1681 Clay Triple-lines 30
1682 Blood-vein 2
1702 Small Fan-footed Wave 5
1708 Single-dotted Wave 1
1713 Riband Wave 30
1726 Large Twin-spot Carpet 10
1727 Silver-ground Carpet 1
1758 Barred Straw 1
1765 Barred Yellow 2
1768 Grey Pine Carpet 3
1784 Pretty Chalk Carpet 1
1791 Brown Scallop 2
1792 Dark Umber 1
1803 Small Rivulet 2
1811 Slender Pug 1 dissected
1816 Toadflax Pug 1
1819 Mottled Pug 2 dissected
1830 Wormwood Pug 1 dissected
1837 Grey Pug 1 dissected
1856 Larch Pug 2 dissected
1858 V-pug 8
1859 Sloe Pug 2
1860 Green Pug 1
1862 Double-striped Pug 2
1874 Dingy Shell 1
1876 Small Yellow Wave 3
1887 Clouded Border 3
1893 Tawny-barred Angle 20
1902 Brown Silver-line 5
1906 Brimstone Moth 5
1922 Swallow-tailed Moth 1
1931 Peppered Moth 8
1937 Willow Beauty 2
1941 Mottled Beauty 30
1944 Pale Oak Beauty 1
1947 The Engrailed 2
1950 Brindled White-spot 1
1954 Bordered White 5
1955 Common White Wave 5
1956 Common Wave 1
1958 Clouded Silver 3
1961 Light Emerald 5
1962 Barred Red 5
1978 Pine Hawk-moth 1
1991 Elephant Hawk-moth 1
1994 Buff-tip 7
2009 Maple Prominent 25
2030 Yellow-tail 2
2037 Rosy Footman 20
2044 Dingy Footman 5
2047 Scarce Footman 2
2049 Buff Footman 2
2050 Common Footman 1
2061 Buff Ermine 2
2088 Heart & Club 2
2098 The Flame 2
2102 Flame Shoulder 2
2107 Large Yellow Underwing 2
2120 Ingrailed Clay 2
2128 Double Square-spot 5
2150 Grey Arches 4
2155 Dot Moth 1
2160 Bright-line Brown-eye 2
2192 Brown-line Bright-eye 1
2198 Smoky Wainscot 5
2278 Poplar Grey 1
2279 The Sycamore 1
2280 Miller 1
2284 Grey Dagger 1 gen checked on male
2301 Bird's Wing 1
2302 Brown Rustic 5
2305 Small Angle-shades 1
2318 The Dun-bar 1
2319 Lunar-spotted Pinion 1
2321 Dark Arches 5
2326 Clouded-bordered Brindle 1
2330 Dusky Brocade 1
2337 Oligia strigilis agg. 5
2341 Cloaked Minor 1
2349 Mere Wainscot 1
2381 The Uncertain 5
2387 Mottled Rustic 5
2410 Marbled White Spot 10
2423 Oak Nycteoline 4
2425 Nut-tree Tussock 2
2441 Silver Y 1
2442 Beautiful Golden Y 1
2466 The Blackneck 1
2473 Beautiful Hook-tip 3
2474 Straw Dot 3
2477 The Snout 2
2489 Fan-foot 2
2492 Small Fan-foot 5

Wow!!

Chandos Road, Ampthill.

I know that there have been a lot of posts on this Blog concerning moths over the past few weeks. I was given a free moth-trap after agreeing to take part in the Garden Moth Scheme. I record the moths caught every Thursday evening and the results are collated with those of hundreds of other amateur enthusiasts across the country. I've also been putting the moth-trap out on other nights and attending various events so that I can learn as much as I can. The exciting thing is that you never know what's going to turn up. Last night at Maulden Wood was a case in point (see above)...and there were other goodies like a Southern Hawker dragonfly and Volucella pellucens hoverfly attracted to the lights, too!

But the star of the night at Chandos Road turns out to have been this relatively non-descript creature...



If the Leopard Moth (above) is the equivalent of the avian Bullfinch, then this is Lepidoptera's equivalent of the Garden Warbler...the fact that there's not many defining features goes a long way to defining it!

It's a Fen Wainscot and, much to my amazement, it turns out to be a scarce species and is only the 15th record in Bedfordshire!

And to think that I almost didn't bother to try and identify it!!

The Firs Lower School, Ampthill.

Thankfully, the moth trap at The Firs contained a number of moth species this morning, though not the Hawkmoths - with their 'wow' factor - that I had been hoping for. But the 'wow' factor was definitely there, nevertheless. I had planned to spend an hour or so at the school to show the catch to any children who happened to be around, but Sue, the Assistant Head, asked if I'd mind all the classes coming to see them. So I set up in one of the empty classrooms and spent the next 4 hours or so entertaining one group after another. They all loved the Buff-tip perched on the end of my finger ("It's a stick with legs!"), and I was really encouraged by how easily they picked up the significance of the patterning of Peppered Moths, both now and in the grimy days of the Industrial Revolution.

After doing a few visits this afternoon I crashed out - teachers have my total respect for doing this day after day...but it was great to witness the fascinated faces as they passed the pots around containing the various species, and I can't wait to do it again!

Species List: Riband Wave (5); Common Footman (2) ("It looks like a seed"); Silver Y; Buff-tip (2); The Flame (2); Pug (1); Grass Veneer (5); Peppered (2); Grey Dagger; Heart & Dart (3); Dot ("It looks like a bird has pooed on the wing!"); Mottled Beauty; Emmelina monodactyla; Miller; Dark Arches (3); Uncertain (2); Large Yellow Underwing; Coxcomb Prominent; Dunbar.

Ampthill - dusk.

Having told Carole that, 'how I Exercise is as important as what I Eat when it comes to losing a bit of weight', I thought I'd better practice what I preach and went for a dusk walk around the Ampthill area.

Lots of Chafers were blundering about just above the tree-tops and a male Kestrel was catching them in mid-flight just a few metres away from where I was standing. The pitiful scream of a rabbit signalled its demise...almost certainly supper for one of the local stoats. A heron was calling close by.

I stopped off at a Badger sett that I'd discovered a few months ago to see if there was any sign of activity. Within a couple of minutes the familiar white blaze appeared as a large Badger left its home and trundled up the hill, returning about 10 minutes later.

There were lots of moths flying about as I made my way home. I've left the trap over The Firs Lower School this evening. Hopefully there'll be lots of exciting moths to show the children in the morning.