The Moths

As promised, here's a summary of what a bright light has attracted in the front garden of my Mum and Dads during the last month...

In general, September was an excellent month for moth immigration in the UK, especially early in the month. I set the trap every night of the week beginning the 7th hoping for something big like a Convolvulus Hawkmoth or possibly even the holy grail that is the Clifton Nonpareil - but sadly neither greeted me on any of the mornings.  It was though nice to see some of the usual late summer species along with a few (of the smaller) immigrant species.

The night of 7th/8th gave me 117 moths of 18 species, with migrants in the form of White-point and two Silver Y.  

The night of 8th/9th gave 117 moths of 15 species, no immigrants but a Feathered Gothic was a new one for the garden, and it was nice to see my first Canary-shouldered Thorn of the season.

Feathered Gothic

The night of 9th/10th produced 134 moths of 16 species, with the highlight being my fourth Hoary Footman for the garden.

Hoary Footman - I love their pale silvery grey hind wings

And finally was National Moth Night, the night of 10th/11th. This proved the biggest catch of the week with 147 moths of 19 species, and immigrants including a Vestal, a Silver Y and three Rush Veneer.

Vestal

I'll wind up this post with a one more photo showing my last couple of Hawkmoths of 2015 - always sad to see the Hawkmoth season end...

Elephant and Privet Hawkmoths

Fear not folks, strictly birds in the next post I promise. Until then I have two words.... Coal Tits! 

Migrants Flood In

...just a pity I've not been able to see any of them!

Actually that's a lie, a visit to Seaton Marshes today showed 13 Wheatear and a Whinchat (a patch year tick so a worthwhile visit) but I have been missing out on all the goodies in the Beer area.  I know I'm always moaning about this, but it's amazing how decent falls nearly always coincide with the weekend!  Beer Head has been a real struggle over the last two weeks, a lot of looking for the odd migrant.  Oh well, at least I've not missed a year tick.

I did see a few passerine migrants last week that I've not had chance to blog about. Wednesday I had a Tree Pipit over Colyford Common, and on Friday Yellow Wagtails were suddenly seemingly abundant, with multiple birds over several locations.  Also on Friday Little Stint made it on to the year list after Phil found a juv on Black Hole Marsh - there's now two and a Curlew Sand. What a place!

Brief sea watches on Friday morning and today both showed single juv Med Gulls, with Friday giving two lovely close Balearic Shearwaters east.

In other birdie news, Wood Sand has made the house list.  On Saturday evening (about 19:30) what I presume to be the lingering juvenile was very vocal and easily audible from my back garden.  

I was very pleased to be able to get the moth trap out last Thursday night, as it gave me 231 moths of 52 species. Amongst the haul was a first for the garden, an eagerly awaited one as I love the Prominent moths...

Coxcombe Prominent

I had several garden scarcities too, the best of these being two Hoary Footman (my third and fourth for the garden)...

Quite a local species

And these...

Dark Spectacle

Flame Carpet

Lime-speck Pug

Sharp-angled Peacock

Finally there was this.  The Kittens are part of the Prominent moths, and they are stunning, but I do find them (well two of them) quite tricky to ID. I think the ones I catch are mostly Sallow Kittens, but one I caught the year before last looked like a Poplar to me (see HERE). This one though I'm really not sure about, it was a large one, but the markings look almost a bit of both to me...

Kitten help required...

A Catch Up

And I'll try and keep it as brief as possible...

Early morning visits to Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday and Wednesday failed to reveal the biggy, but the Tuesday visit did show; 28 Teal, 25 Blackwits, 23 Dunlin, 11 Common Sands, four Green Sands, four Ringed Plover, two Lapwing, a Whimbrel and a Wheatear. On Wednesday it was slightly different with; 28 Teal, 24 Blackwits, 24 Dunlin, 15 Common Sands, 14 Green Sands (my biggest count of 2012), nine Ringed Plover, two Gadwall, a Redshank and a Snipe.

The two Gadwall

The Dunlin flock right in front of the hide!

Another look over Black Hole Marsh on Friday (I was a 'Guide in the Hide' for three hours) showed lower numbers of everything, but an adult Med Gull was my first in the valley for several weeks.

I've done a bit of sea watching since my last post too, although a twenty minute watch on Wednesday morning was the only one worth talking about, as a Balearic and 24 Manx Sheartwaters flew east.

That leaves me with today to mutter about. My phone was busy this morning, with Beer showing good numbers of grounded migrants. So I decided it would be a great idea to take Jess for a walk around the Beer Cemetery Fields :-). Lots of Willow Warblers about, along with four Spot Flies and a nice male Redstart. Sadly no shrikes or rare warblers though.

And now for moths! Although the total of 134 moths of 35 species wasn't very impressive at all, some of the species were...

Best of all was a new species for the garden, there were two of them in fact...

Hoary Footman - ok it may not look great, but they certainly made my day!

These represented one of the four species of Footman in the trap, with the other three species being Buff, Common, and this...

Male Four-spotted Footman - one of my favourites

There was also one of these...

Crescent Dart

Two of these...

Iron Prominents

And four Silver Y, including this very black individual...

The blackest one I've ever seen!

I will not leave it so long until my next post I promise!!!