A Good Moth Night

On Friday evening it was great to have a moth trap out at Mum and Dad's. I haven't trapped here for a few years now, after a couple of years of fairly intense trapping - so I do feel like I know the site quite well. 

The weather was perfect, and although there was no evidence of any long-distant migration it was a super catch with 427 macro moths of 44 species.  Absolutely no surprise that the most numerous three species were Heart and Dart (129), Dark Arches (102) and Large Yellow Underwing (42).  Pleasingly Hawkmoths were well represented with 18 of four species...

L to R; Poplar Hawk, Elephant Hawk, Small Elephant Hawk and Privet Hawk.

Two Privet Hawks were a bit of a surprise because I've only ever caught five here before!

Privet Hawks are so HUGE!

Poplar Hawks have the fluffiest of heads!

Elephant and Small Elephant Hawks

Same as above but a different view

Out of the rest of the catch a White Satin was the pick of the bunch. On the first night I ever moth trapped in the garden (29th June 2009) I caught five of these, so at the time thought I may have stumbled upon a local population - but no - not a sniff of another until this one on Friday night...

Silky white wings and those zebra striped legs make this moth a bit of a cracker in my books!

Hoping to get my Robinson trap repaired soon, so you have been warned - moth content is set to rise on the blog if that does happen...

Moth Overload!

First of all, thanks to all the texts/tweets/phonecalls/emails about yesterday's TV first. If you missed it I will put up a link to the BBC iplayer page, it is worth watching for the stunning Hoopoe footage.

Now if you are a tweeter, you would have seen most of these photos already, so I apologies. And if you really don't like moths, this post won't interest you (but please give it a look!). Also if you are a moth expert there's nothing that's going to set the world alight coming up, but I just get SO MUCH excitement from these critters - I have to share it! Each moth is stunning in its own right (well most of them anyway!) so please just scroll through and enjoy the variety.

I trapped at Mum and Dads on Tuesday and Wednesday night this week. With the muggy and still conditions there's no way I couldn't - perfect moth weather.  The numbers were lower than I expected, but overall I still managed 150 moths of 42 species.

And here's some of the best. Starting with the big guns...

Elephant Hawkmoth

Eyed Hawkmoth

Only the garden's second ever Lime Hawkmoth

The Lime Hawk with a Poplar Hawkmoth (Pop's are HUGE!)

Here's some of my other favourite macro moths that I caught...

Starting with the smallest, this isn't a bird dropping it's a Chinese Character!

Another white one, a Clouded Silver

Cream-spot Tiger, a relation to the Jersey Tiger that is a moth that can often be seen by day around here

Another view of the Cream-spot Tiger - it's a very colourful beast!

There are few distinctive Pugs, but this Foxglove Pug is one of them!

A not very Green, Green Carpet

Pale Tussock

Peppered Moth - black and white always does it for me!

Love the name of this one, Scorched Wing

Small Waved Umber, compare to last week's Waved Umber

White Ermine - Buff Ermine are far more regular for me but I've not had one yet this year

Alder Moth

 I was pleased to get an immigrant species too. No surprise that it was one of these though...

A Silver Y ready to fly!

And although (as yet) I don't really 'do' micro moths, I did notice this - another immigrant species...

Rush Veener

Ok moth-haters/moth-pro's, you can look again now! Post done. 

Three Moth Nights

Well it's high time I got this blog back on track really isn't it!? So I shall tidy up all my mothing news since my return from Scotland (which seems like ages ago!)

There has been three Fridays since Scotland, so that's three nights of mothing for me.

During the night of the 15th I caught 40 moths of 14 species, and they were:

1 Scorched Carpet
1 Water Carpet
3 Double-striped Pug
2 Brimstone
2 Early Thorn
6 Brindled Beauty
1 Muslin Moth
1 Small Quaker
11 Common Quaker
3 Clouded Drab
1 Twin-spotted Quaker
7 Hebrew Character
1 Mullein Moth
2 Early Grey

Mullein Moth

Water Carpet

The variation in Brindled Beauties!

On the 22nd I caught 32 moths of 15 species...

1 Garden Carpet
1 Small Phoenix
1 Small Rivulet
1 V-Pug
2 Double-striped Pug
1 Waved Umber
4 Brimstone
1 Lunar Marbled Brown
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Flame Shoulder
8 Common Quaker
1 Clouded Drab
6 Hebrew Character
1 Early Grey
2 Nut-tree Tussock

And finally on the 29th I trapped 17 moths of 13 species...

1 Common Swift
1 Red Twin-spot Carpet
1 Garden Carpet
2 Common Carpet
1 Waved Umber
2 Brimstone
1 Poplar Hawkmoth
1 Pale Tussock
1 Heart and Dart
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Common Quaker
2 Hebrew Character
2 Nut-tree Tussock

Poplar Hawkmoth

Common Swift

To round off all my insect news, I've had several looks around Lower Bruckland Ponds during the past few weeks hoping for a Vagrant Emperor or two - I've found Lesser Emp here so would love to complete the set! So far I have had no luck (and was VERY gripped tonight when I looked HERE), although there are good numbers of Odonata on the wing.

The highlight of my visits here was actually a butterfly - this Dingy Skipper...

A site first for me

I really hope I get to see a nice spring Pom this year... I suppose it would help if I actually looked at the sea though...