Sunday 30 June 2013

Massive night in the garden

Last night, I decided to run my 80W MV bulb on my trap all night. And boy was it worth it!

I've got a bunch of  pots in the fridge yet to be identified, but with the things I have done 115 moths of 51 species.

One lifer, a few new for the year list (NFY), a few new for the garden year list, and a few new for the all-time garden list (NFG).

Ash Bud Moth (Lifer)
Green Pug (NFY)
Clouded Silver
Elephant Hawk-moth (NFY)
Buff-tip
Lobster
Pebble Prominent (NFY)
Figure of Eighty (NFY and NFG)
Beautiful Golden Y
Beautiful Hook-tip
Double Square Spot (NFY)
Flame Shoulder
Straw Dot (NFG)
Marbled White-spot (NFG)
Small Fan-foot (NFY)
Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix

Figure of Eighty

Saturday 29 June 2013

Lifers!

A great night's two-site trapping session in a couple of local woodlands. In total, we caught over 200 moths of 65 species, using a 50W MV and 20W actinic - not too bad I thought especially given recent catches!

I won't list everything, just the highlights, which for me usually means species either new for the site, the year (NFY), or all-time (Lifer).

Agapeta hamana - NFY
Brown China-mark -NFY
Green Oak Tortrix - NFY
White-pinion Spotted
Light Emerald - NFY (over 40 individuals!)
Large Yellow Underwing - NFY
Spectacle
Small White Wave
Small Yellow Wave - Lifer
Nutmeg - NFY
Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix - NFY
Perinephela lancealis - NFY
Blotched Emerald - NFY
Treble Brown Spot - NFY
Mottled Beauty - NFY
Coronet
Bird's Wing - Lifer
Beautiful Golden Y

Bird's Wing

Friday 28 June 2013

...and a wet week

The weather really hasn't been good this week in Bucks, although hopefully things will pick up over the next week. Please??!!!

The garden trap has been pretty much empty, although most of what has bothered to show up has been new for the year, including Riband Wave, Clouded Brindle, Uncertain, Snout, Ingrailed Clay, Small Magpie and Olindia schumacherana (a lifer!). That list makes things look a lot better than they were!

Olindia schumacherana

Also checked the weekly trap and security lights at the local woodland burial park, which is proving a most productive spot. This weeks highlights were Pretty Chalk Carpet, Rustic Shoulder-knot, and Gold Swift (another lifer!)

Gold Swift

Monday 24 June 2013

Oh dear :(

The calendar says that summer has started, but the number of moths appearing at my trap over the weekend suggest otherwise. Lets hope that the coming week is a bit more productive; it's not particularly warm but at least it's dry!

On Friday night, a new species for the garden year list in my GMS catch with a well-hidden Buff Ermine, and last night's only moth was at least a new one for my total year list - Ingrailed Clay.

Ingrailed Clay

Thursday 20 June 2013

100 species!!

Last night was a half-century of moths and also it produced my 100th garden species of the year.

I had sent off a bunch of micros to an expert for identification, and the results came back yesterday evening, adding 6 to my garden year list, and 7 to my life list (some came from other South Bucks sites).

I was so pleased to get my first garden hawk-moths of the year, in the shape of a brace of Small Elephant Hawk-moths. Since this species includes Rosebay Willowherb amongst it's food plants, I shall leave my fruit cage unweeded this year...

The trap was rather colourful in fact with the yellow of a Brimstone and the bright green of 3 Green Silver-lines. The rest were not so bright, but the new species were:

Small Elephant Hawk-moth
Udea olivalis
Peppered Moth
Codling
Heart & Club
Coronet
White-spotted Pug

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Still Improving!

A catch of over 40 moths of over 20 species last night was far and away the best of the year so far, and included 7 species of carpet, and a few new-for-year species.

The species new for this year's garden list are as follows:

Celypha lacunana
Pale Mottled Willow
Willow Beauty
Spectacle

Pale Mottled Willow

Monday 17 June 2013

More lifers!

Things have been busy on the moth front in the chilterns, although not quite as busy as was hoped!

I attended an trapping event with a few experts on Saturday night, in beech woodland close to Stokenchurch. It had been exceedingly wet all day, and the drizzle continued on and off into the night, but there were at least some moths around, including a couple of lifers for me. A few were taken away for proper id...

New moths for my year included:

Map-winged Swift (Lifer)
Hypochalcia ahenella (Lifer)
Purple Bar
Foxglove Pug
White-pinion Spotted
Clouded Silver
Small Elephant Hawk-moth
Common Wainscot
Marbled White Spot
Beautiful Golden Y
Straw Dot

My garden produced a reasonable haul last night as well (again, expectations are considerably diminished at the moment!). Quite a few species which were new for my garden year list:

Incurvaria ohelmanniella
Pebble Hook-tip
Foxglove Pug
Freyer's Pug (new for all-time garden list)
Middle-barred Minor
Green Silver-lines

Foxglove Pug

Friday 14 June 2013

A few lifers!

Quite a bust week moth-wise, having taken part in a bioblitz filmed for the One Show (no I won't be on TV!), run the weekly trap at the local woodland burial park, and of course run my own garden trap.

For various reasons, the catches were not as high as hoped (still fuming...) but at least I had some lifers - mainly micros - and a handful of new species for the year list.

The highlights from the three sites were as follows:

NFY - new for year
NFG - new for garden all-time list

Broken-barred Carpet (NFY)
Grey Pug (NFY and NFG)
Dwarf Pug (NFY)
Coxcomb Prominent
Heart & Dart (NFY)
Lesser Swallow Prominent
Great Prominent
Pale Oak Beauty
Incurvaria oehlmanniella (Lifer)
Nettle-tap Moth (NFY)
Alabonia geoffrella (NFY)
Ptycholoma lecheana (Lifer)
Plum Tortrix (NFY)
Epinotia bilunana  (NFY)
Spotted Shoot Moth (Lifer)
Pammene germmana (Lifer)
Udea olivalis (NFY)
May Highflyer
Bordered White (Lifer)
Pyrausta aurata (Lifer)

 Coxcomb Prominent
 Bordered White
Epinotia bilunana

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Garden First!

Although it was wet this morning, and cold, and still hardly any moths appearing, I was pleased to find a garden first this morning resting on the wiring.

I also found a new-for-year micro whilst mowing the lawn.

The "full" list was:

1 x Epiblema cynosbatella (NFY)

3 x Garden Carpet
1 x Mottled Pug
2 x Common Pug
1 x Shears
3 x Treble Lines
1 x Lime-speck Pug (NFG)

Lime-speck Pug

Monday 10 June 2013

Where are the moths??

OK, so I've had a few in the garden over the last couple of nights, with a couple of newly-emerged beauties for the year list, but it does seem to be a common theme in this part of the country sadly.

My weekend catch was as follows:

Scoparia ambigualis - 1
Garden Carpet - 4
Yellow-barred Brindle - 5
Mottled Pug - 3
Common Marbled Carpet - 2
Flame Carpet - 1
Spruce Carpet - 1
White Ermine - 1
Shears - 1

and a micros, so small and brown, I doubt I'll ever know what it is!

Shears

Saturday 8 June 2013

Woodland Trips

With a friend, we ran a couple of traps in two local woodlands last night. It's nice to see that, in spite of my poor garden catches this year, there are at least some moths out there. The total list, which includes a couple of species caught by netting, or seen whilst setting and collecting the traps is as follows:

Phyllonorycter harrisella - 2
Eulia ministrana - 8 (NFY)
Bee Moth - 1
Pebble Hook-tip - 2
Peach Blossom - 1 (NFY)
Clay Triple-lines - 1
Silver-ground Carpet - 2
Small Phoenix - 1
Common Marbled Carpet - 1
Green Carpet - 6
May Highflyer - 3 (Lifer)
Clouded Border - 1
Common Pug - 2
Dingy Shell - 3 (NFY)
Yellow-barred Brindle - 1
Scorched Carpet - 1
Tawny-barred Angle - 1
Peacock Moth - 1 (Lifer)
Brown Silver-line - 15
Scorched Wing - 11
Speckled Yellow - 4 (NFY)
Peppered Moth - 1 (NFY)
Brindled Beauty - 1 (Lifer)
Pale Oak Beauty - 1 (Lifer)
Grey Birch - 2
Common White Wave - 1
Common Wave - 3
Poplar Hawk-moth - 3 (NFY)
Iron Prominent - 2
Great Prominent - 2
Coxcomb Prominent - 3
Marbled Brown - 26
Pale Tussock - 12
Orange Footman - 4
Buff Ermine - 2 (NFY)
White Ermine - 2 (NFY)
Cinnabar - 3
Flame Shoulder - 4
Angle Shades - 1
Treble Lines - 9
Mottled Rustic - 1 (NFY)
Green Silver-lines - 3 (NFY)
Nut-tree Tussock - 9
Burnished Brass - 1 (NFY)

 Burnished Brass
 Buff Ermine
 Clay Triple-lines
 Cinnabar
 Great Prominent
 Pebble Hook-tip
 Peacock Moth
 Peppered Moth
 Treble Lines
 White Ermine

I wont even mention my garden catch for the GMS last night as it was so poor, but I have sessions at two sites new to me on Wednesday and Saturday so fingers crossed for something interesting!

Thursday 6 June 2013

A couple more for the list...

Still getting tiny numbers of moths in spite of the warm weather (then again, it's very clear at night, so not ideal...). I have the consolation of three woodland sessions during the next 10 days to keep me going, but meanwhile, at home...

1 x White-shouldered House Moth (indoors)
1 x Oak Hook-tip (new for garden year list)
1 x Scalloped Hazel
1 x Maidens Blush (new for garden year list)
1 x Grey Pine Carpet
1 x Treble Lines
1 x very faded pug, probably Brindled...

Oak Hook-tip

Wednesday 5 June 2013

400

My 400th moth in the garden this year! Whoopee!

This time last year I'd had 1244 in the same period.

At least two of the catch over the last two nights were new for the garden year least, although not the most exciting species. I'm seeing others getting lots of summer noctuids and hawk moths. All I seem to be getting is pugs and carpets...

Oh well, the list:

1 x White-shouldered House Moth (new for garden year list)
1 x Bee Moth
1 x Garden Carpet
1 x Spruce Carpet
2 x Yellow-barred Brindle
1 x Mottled Pug (new for garden year list)
1 x Common Pug
1 x Brimstone
2 x Muslin
2 x Treble Lines

Mottled Pug

Monday 3 June 2013

A few new ones for the garden

Still not getting anything like the numbers of moths as this time last year, but stuff does seem to be emerging, so hopefully things will pick up!

Last nights catch included:

1 x Garden Carpet
2 x Brimstone
1 x Common Pug
2 x Common Marbled Carpet
1 x Pale Tussock  (new for garden year list)

1 x Treble Lines (new for garden year list)

Common Marbled Carpet

A moth-filled weekend!

My garden trap has been a little quiet over the last few nights in spite of the improving weather. But that's not the highlight of the weekend.

A group of 8 people (4 proper experts and the rest of us) ran a total of 9 lights at Pitlands Wood about 5 mins away from my house. The area is formerly ancient woodland, although many years of planting and chopping have left very few ancient trees. The site is now a woodland burial park and is being managed almost as a nature reserve, which is excellent!

During the day, a general insect survey was carried out, with a few moths found. Most were micros but we had:

Brown Silver-lines
Small Yellow Underwing
Green Carpet
Spruce Carpet

The evening session caught over 40 species; again some micros and pugs have been taken away for id, but some new species for my year list included:

Phyllonorycter harrisella
Cochylis atricapitana
Syndemis musculana
Oak Hook-tip
Clay Triple-lines
Red Twin-spot Carpet
Silver Ground Carpet
Clouded Border
Scorched Wing
Common White Wave
Common Wave
Lobster
Pale Prominent
Flame Shoulder
Treble Lines

 Scorched Wing
Barred Hook-tip

Saturday 1 June 2013

Return of the Chocolate-tip

After being annoyed with myself yesterday for not getting a chance to photograph my lifer Chocolate-tip, it returned last night to make sure I saw it again!. I am concerned, though, that I am chuffed with a catch of 7 moths of 7 species, as this time last year I was getting 3-4 times as many...

1 x Bee Moth
1 x Common Swift (new for year)
1 x Yellow-barred Brindle
1 x Orange Footman
1 x Garden Carpet (new for year)
1 x Common Pug
1 x Chocolate-tip

Chocolate-tip