Four New Moths!

I finished work on Sunday and was absolutely shattered, my intentions were nothing but food and sofa-based. But then I noticed how still it was outside, how warm it felt, with the final straw being the Country File weather forecast telling me the rest of the week was windy... I had to get a moth trap out! And boy am I glad I did...

I set a trap up at Mum and Dad's and in the morning was greeted by 285 macro moths of 51 species. So far fewer than the 'Mental Moth Night' of the week before, but the variety was impressive and included an amazing THREE new species for the garden and I!  I've been trapping here on and off for almost ten years, so as you can imagine new species don't crop off all that often - so three in one go is astonishing! 

One of them was really quite special, and actually not in the trap - I found it about 4 feet away in long grass.  Jersey Mocha is a proper 'moth mega', first UK record was in Dorset in 2003 and there's not been that many since, including only a couple in Devon as far as I'm aware...

Jersey Mocha - such a speckly moth!

Less nationally exciting, but for me equally exciting due to their amazing markings, were two stunning examples of The Mocha.  Although supposedly widely distributed in woodland habitat in the south, I've not had the pleasure of one before - what a beautiful little beast and here's both of them...

The Mocha # 1

The Mocha # 2

And the last newbie, but no means least, was a Least Carpet.  A tiny moth but again beautifully marked, and possibly another pretty good record as they're suppose to be largely restricted to the south east of the UK... 

Least Carpet with a Common Footman for size

There were a couple more immigrant species in the trap as well, with singles of Silver Y and my first Dark Sword Grass of the year...

Dark Sword Grass

Other notables from the trap included Scarce Footman, Four-spotted Footman, Cabbage Moth, Lychnis, Scorched Carpet and three Jersey Tigers.

As the title suggests there was a fourth new moth for me that day, thanks to Fran.  It was her first solo trapping attempt but thankfully she kept hold of the Broad-barred White.  Although apparently not a scarce species, I've never caught one before...

Broad-barred White; such a striking moth!

And again - another great moth!

Have a bit of bird news to post up, and some Odonata pics from the other day - but will leave all this for another day as it's time to hit the sack! Night all.

Being Left Behind...

We (not just the patch, but Devon as a whole - in fact to a certain extent the south west!) have been left behind by the rest of the UK. The east coast has seen yet another superb influx of migrants, scarcities and rarities but very few have reached us.   I thought the Lower Bruckland Yellow-browed Warblers a fortnight ago were going to be the start of a cracking spell of birding for us - but that wasn't the case.

Although I haven't had much time to go birding, I've forced myself to look along the Estuary and river valley at least once a day. And every couple of days I've given either Beer Head, Axe Cliff or the marshes a good look.  The highlight of what should be one of the best times of year has been...a Brent Goose!  Yes - that's how bad and frustrating it's been.

The cold northerly winds that closed last week shouted Whooper Swan or grey goose to me. Annoyingly the Whooper Swans decided to fly back north a little to the west of us (yes you guessed it - Dawlish Warren had three on Friday morning) and the goose wasn't a grey one, but as I've already mentioned a Brent. I thought the 90 Canada Geese would attract something but I was hoping for something a bit better.  Wildfowl are clearly on the move at the moment, a few days ago I had three Shoveler fly past at sea, and this morning a lovely juv Pintail was on Lower Bruckland Ponds.

Black-headed and Common Gull numbers are also increasing, with two Med Gulls (a first and second-winter) on Saturday morning and an adult this morning.  Waders have been trickling though with a few Ruff still about (apparently five this morning), 15 Dunlin and a lingering Greenshank.

Vis mig hasn't been spectacular but there's been some ok days with good numbers of the expected species passing over. Have had several Reed Buntings, Grey Wags and Siskins go through, and my first Redpoll of the autumn with two over Black Hole on 6th Oct.  Considering the number of Redwings in the UK I'm amazed to say I've not actually seen one!  I've heard a few going over in the night but a day time bird has so far eluded me.

Because I've seen no decent birds I've taken no photos of birds. Well that's except for a Swallow I spied this morning - I'm starting to note down any hirundines I see now as they are getting few and far between. If I didn't tell you I took this photo this morning, it could easily be a late March pic of the first returning male Swallow...

You better get going mate!

I was pleased to get the moth trap out a few times before the weather turned cooler. One of the nights isn't worth talking about, but the other - 8th Oct - certainly is!  In the trap the next morning were 69 moths of 19 species. This included plenty of immigrants, such as...

Two Vestals, only caught one before in the garden ever!

My third Clancy's Rustic

A Delicate

And my highest ever count of Dark Sword Grass, four.

And that's that. I'm afraid this long awaited blog post wasn't worth waiting for. Hopefully things will get better soon...