Insects Galore

It's been a good week, which started in great form finding my first ever patch Purple Hairstreak!  I noticed there seems to be good numbers of the species about this year, and had my eyes on a few Oak trees on the edge of some woodland in Colyton at the end of Jobble's Lane...

For some reason these caught my eye

And on my first time of checking earlier this week, ten minutes into scanning I picked one up!  I saw it several times over the course of the next five minutes before it flew deeper into the woods - love it when a plan works out!  No pics I'm afraid as no settled views, but such a thrill to see.

I have had three mothing nights this week, starting with a trap at Mum and Dad's on Sunday night.  Early on Monday morning there were 142 macro moths of 42 species for me to look at, with the highlights being...

Scarce Footman - haven't caught many of these at all

Scarce and Common Footman

The Herald - a stunning moth

Black Arches - common but was my first this year so needed a photo!

The next night my moth trap was at Fran's house where 121 macro moths of 32 species were caught, with one clear highlight for me...

Male Drinker - such a beast!

On Tuesday night it was back up to Mum and Dad's again, 104 macro moths of 28 species were waiting for me the following morning and included one of my favourite moths...

Male Four-spotted Footman

And again with a Common Footman

Also among the catch were...

Maybe common but always beautiful - Burnished Brass

Pine Carpet - don't catch loads of these

Small Blood-vein

Phew. And that's the insects done!  No notable birds to mention so will go straight to the lunar activity of the last few days.  The moon has been pretty impressive all week as it is, and here's it rising on Monday night...

Taken during another unsuccessful Quail hunt!

But of course the highlight was the amazing partial lunar eclipse on Tuesday evening...

21:30

22:30. Look at the colour of it!!

Hopefully there will be some more feathered content in my next post...

A New Moth For The Garden

Sadly it is not a very exciting one though! In fact its a very common and rather drab moth, and I have no idea how I haven't managed to catch one here before now. The Common Lutestring was one of 76 moths of 35 species in the trap on Monday night...

Some of the smarter moths included...

Crescent Dart - a local speciality

Phoenix

Blood-vein

Burnished Brass

There's a few more birds turning up locally now, with a few waders on Black Hole Marsh and Black-headed Gull numbers increasing by the day (including my first juvs a few days ago).  I keep bumping into Crossbills locally too, with at least two this morning feeding high up in conifers at Bovey Down amongst a large mixed flock of birds.

Moth Mayhem

I said in my last post I was going to put the moth trap out on Monday night. I did indeed, and on Tuesday morning I had myself a whopping 266 moths of 56 species!  I wont list them all, just summarise..

Dark Arches were the most numerous, with 39 of these, followed by Heart and Dart (22).  The third most numerous species was Elephant Hawkmoth, with 19 in the trap! It was a good showing of Hawkmoth in fact, with four Poplar and three Eyed making a total of 26 Hawkmoths in the trap!

All three on this egg box

A better shot of an Eyed Hawkmoth

Some of the other highlights included:

True Lovers Knot

Green Silver-lines (had three of these)

Burnished Brass

Flame Carpet

Figure of Eighty

Lobster Moth

Common Emerald (with a Dot Moth to the left)

Plain Golden Y

The Plain Golden Y with a Silver Y

And these, although common species, were good to see for the first time this year...

Swallowtail

Light Emerald

Coronet - doesn't that look like a skull!

Even the small macros can be smart, like this Small Yellow Wave...

It's tiny but beautiful

And how about this Small Seraphim...

....what do you mean you can't see it? Try this....

...still struggling!? Well this is as close as I could get the camera...

How about that for camouflage!

I'll have the trap out again maybe tomorrow night. If not Friday night for sure. I might try a new trapping location too which is exciting!  

Since my last post about Black Hole Marsh autumn really has kicked off on the Axe. Although I've not seen any of it there's been a couple of Little Ringed Plovers, a Ruff and an Osprey.  Hopefully there's a biggy around the corner and hopefully I see it!

Some Exciting News And A Load Of Moths!

There's not been much on this blog lately; I've been busy filling out forms, ordering things, setting things up, downloading things...

My bird ringing box

And in this box - as you can see - are rings, and - as you can't see - mist nets... and these are mine! Oh yes - I am the proud owner of a BTO C Permit! :-)

I want to get used to ringing alone first off, so this morning put a net in the front garden. In two hours I caught 13 birds, including a stunning male Bullfinch and two Goldfinches - so a bit of a result really!

Most people said to me ringing alone for the first time will be nerve wracking - but I really enjoyed it! It was 'odd' though - I can only describe it as being like driving on your own for the first time after you've passsed your driving test!

OK, now to moths. I put the Robinson in the front garden last night, and was rewarded with an awesome haul of 129 moths of 34 species!

One of these was a first for the garden - and what a first it was....

Lime Hawkmoth!

The rest of the catch looked like this (new species for the year in blue):

4 Figure of Eighty
1 Buff-tip
1 Lobster Moth
1 Garden Carpet
1 Sandy Carpet
2 Common Marbled Carpet
2 Pug sp.
1 Clouded Silver
1 Small Waved Umber
5 Willow Beauty
2 Brimstone
1 Light Emerald
1 Pale Tussock
1 Peppered Moth
1 Privet Hawkmoth
1 Elephant Hawkmoth
2 Flame Shoulder
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
68 Heart and Dart
6 Vine's Rustic
2 Marbler Minor
6 Treble Lines
2 Lychnis
2 Ingrailed Clay
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character
1 Bright-line Brown-eye
1 Dark Arches
2 Large Yellow Underwing
1 Small Angle Shades
2 Miller
1 Straw Dot
1 Burnished Brass
2 Spectacle

And here's a few more pics...

This morning's trio of Hawkmoths

Burnished Brass

Small Angle Shades

Miller

I've got the trap out again tonight, check back tomorrow to see how I get on...