Bedstraw Hawkmoth

Thursday night was the first time since my last blog post that I've had a moth trap out (at Mum and Dad's) and would you believe it there was another garden first in there! A spectacular one at that...

Bedstraw Hawkmoth!

Wow - just wow! I actually felt it before I saw it, as it was resting on the underside of one of the egg boxes. My fingers went to pinch the box to grip it so I could turn it over, but my thumb brushed against something that was clearly large and soft!  When I did turn the box over I could hardly believe my eyes -  BEDSTRAW HAWKMOTH!!!!!

This is the ninth species of Hawkmoth recorded in the garden, and follows on nicely from the two Striped Hawkmoths I caught in June 2015.  So what will number ten be?  Well there's one immigrant species that I don't quite now how I haven't caught yet - Convolvulus Hawkmoth. But there's also a UK resident species I haven't had yet, despite pine trees not all that far away - Pine Hawkmoth.  The flight period for Pine is almost over now, so if it's going to happen this year chances are it's going to be the former - unless of course something more unexpected comes along!?  Seems like my Bedstraw Hawk was the front runner of a influx of this species, with several trapped in the UK last night - great that there's some proper moth immigration underway!  And presumably linked to this fresh wave of Painted Lady butterflies?

Anyway, back to the Bedstraw, and here's some more photos of this cracker.  It was quite active when out in the fresh air so I didn't have long for proper pics...

Love the white above the face

Just about to take off

The Bedstraw was accompanied by another 234 macro moths of 40 species in the trap on Thursday night, and came with five Silver Y for company in the immigrant moth department.  Other notables were singles of Four-spotted Footman, Crescent Dart, Dog's Tooth, Mocha (is there something going on with this species this summer!? My third ever but all the space of a week!), Iron Prominent, Small Waved Umber and four Jersey Tigers.

Another male Crescent Dart - looking a bit faded though this one

Dog's Tooth - a well marked moth and showing that distinctive black 'tooth' marking

Iron Prominent. The Prominent moths are never numerous, but I tend to catch one or two most nights

And that's that.  The bird news from the last few days I will roll on to my next blog post...

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!!!