This week we returned for a few days to Curry Farm, a 65 acre private nature reserve near Bradwell-on-Sea on the Blackwater estuary in Essex:

Stephen Dewick and his wife Jean live at Curry farm today but it was Stephen’s late father who bought the farm back in 1932 and apples and then cereals were grown there until the early 1990s. Now, however, the land is totally given over to wildlife conservation. Stephen, like his father before him, has been extremely interested in macro moths his entire life and, incredibly, a moth trap has been run at Curry Farm on an almost nightly basis since 1946

But it is a moth trap like no other that I have seen before. It is apparently the largest moth trap in the country – a walk-in building with soil banked up around it to keep it cool and a 400 watt metal halide bulb shining on its roof to bring the moths in.

There is a funnel below the bulb into which the moths tumble, eventually ending up in the room below:

As it gets dark the next evening, the moths are allowed to escape for a couple of hours before the door is once more shut and the light on the roof goes back on as the next night’s mothing commences.

Stephen’s father, Bob Dewick, is famous in mothing circles because, in 1951, he discovered a species at Curry Farm that was new to Britain. The moth was given the common name Dewick’s plusia in his honour. After its discovery, the moth remained a very rare immigrant for many years, but has now started breeding in this country and numbers have increased significantly.

I had never seen a Dewick’s plusia before, but this week | saw four of them in the walk-in trap one morning. How very fitting to have seen my first Dewick’s plusia whilst standing next to a Dewick.

All the photos taken in the moth trap come out very orange because of the light in there, but here are two of the Dewick’s plusia moths that I saw this week:

Stephen catches far too many moths every day to count and report them all, so he only records rarities, interesting aberrations, first-sighting-of-the-years and migrant moths.

In this hot weather, he has already been getting lots of migrants. This is a bordered straw which doesn’t breed in this country:

And nor does the Vestal:

The eyed hawk-moth is not a migrant but I include it below because of the face, with eyes and long nose, that it flashes when threatened by a potential predator. This face been proven to deter insectivorous birds:

But, for me, the most astounding thing I saw in the trap was not a moth at all. The great silver water beetle, Hydrophilus piceus, is very large indeed, reaching a length of around 5cm. It is rare in the UK, only being found in a few places such as East Anglia and the Somerset levels. It lives in ponds and ditches but can fly to disperse and is attracted to light so does occasionally turn up in the Curry Farm moth trap:

We also saw lesser stag beetles out on the reserve, which was a new species for me as well:

On the underside of the stag beetle were some hitch-hiking mites which are harmless to the beetle and are simply clinging on so that they can be transported to new food sources:

The 65 acre reserve was looking as parched as our meadows are back home. Dave nearly trod on a large grass snake that was basking on one of the paths and apparently there are adders on the reserve as well:

We noticed quite a few wild plum trees that were dripping with ripe fruit at this time of year:

There was plenty of evidence that these plums were being eaten by the foxes:

Badgers will also be eating these plums as they drop to the ground, and we realised that this fruit must be a valuable food source for them in high summer when the ground is hard and worms are unavailable. On returning home I have immediately ordered three container-grown cherry plum trees to plant out in the meadows this coming autumn. Not only will the cherry plum be the first tree to flower each spring, providing energy-rich nectar for early bees and butterflies, they will also help to feed the badgers in late summer as they await the autumn rains.

We had a gentle few days in Essex in the high temperatures and with our elderly dog in tow, but we really enjoyed it and are planning on returning for a third visit next year.

Back in the meadows, winged ants have been taking to the air to disperse from the hundreds, if not thousands, of ant nests here. Large numbers of black-headed gulls arrive seemingly from nowhere and fly round and round trying to catch them. It is an annual spectacle that we look forward to:

The two swift chicks in the nest box attached to the side of the house are growing fast and I’m delighted to report that both parents are still in attendance:

The ringed kestrel has been a regular visitor to the meadows since 2019. Bringing up three chicks this year has taken its toll and she is definitely looking a bit ropey at the moment. But she has also now embarked on her annual moult, which will progress slowly so that she is still able to effectively hunt throughout. Before too long she should look smart once more:

She has her back to us here as she takes a cooling bath with the male:

And here is one of their young:

Many birds are now moulting following the hard work of the breeding season:

I’m pleased to see both badger cubs still going strong and are out with their mother here:

This week a badger dug a small latrine near the garden and very accurately deposited some dung in it:

They excavated a wasp nest one night to get at the combs full of protein-rich larvae. This is the best photo I got the next morning because there were still lots of very angry wasps buzzing around it and I decided not to get too close:

Over in the wood, another animal that likes to eat wasp larvae has returned to the same shallow pool:

Elsewhere in the wood a common buzzard arrives for a drink:

And I love this photo below of water cascading down from its beak:

Dave recently took this photo of two stock dove chicks that were being raised in the tawny owl nest box:

Five days later we met John, the bird ringer, at the wood so that he could ring them. It hadn’t been very long at all but they had developed so much:

The eclipse on Wednesday evening brought Dave and I out into the meadows wearing our wacky cardboard eclipse glasses:

I have now seen some fantastic images that some people managed to capture of the eclipse, and my best effort below definitely isn’t one of these. However, it is a record shot of a very memorable event

But there was a second significant event in the meadows this week when the partner of our youngest child, Lizzie, told us he wanted to have a picnic in the meadows at which he planned to propose to her. Dave and I did what we could to prepare a magical space for them, setting up the picnic at the top of the meadows with views over the Channel and across to the white cliffs of France:

There was a slight hiccup when he got down on one knee and presented her with a small box that unexpectedly turned out to be completely empty of a ring, and for this he will forever be teased. However, she said yes regardless.

We are now looking forward to a family wedding in 2027.