Dewick's Plusia

Most forms of natural history recording/surveying have been in someway disturbed by the recent lock down, but one that hasn't so much is moth trapping.  Moth'ers all over the country primarily trap in their gardens, which of course they can still do.  However I am stumped because I trap in my Mum and Dad's garden, my back garden sadly isn't secluded enough to run a 125w MV bulb all night.

Fran who lives just around the corner however is far better placed, and this morning she kindly left a moth outside her front door for me to take a look at...

A Dewick's Plusia!  An immigrant species that I have trapped only once before, so was delighted to get another look at one. This insect was slightly unusually marked on both wings, with some extra white marks on its right side...

And a split white mark, almost twin-spot, on it's left side...

Such a cracking moth, thanks Fran!  A birding update to follow within the next couple of days.

Merveille du Jour

74 macro moths of 16 species greeted me in the moth trap at Mum and Dad's on Tuesday morning.  No more Radford's Flame Shoulders sadly (Portland trapped an astonishing 11 the night before!), in fact the only immigrant I caught was one Delicate, but it was still an exciting catch...

If you're a birder you will understand completely the feeling you get from seeing your first Wheatear of the spring.  Well in late autumn I get a similar buzz when I see the first one of these of the season...

Merveille du Jour

A truly stunning moth

The other highlights were my first two Black Rustics of the year along with singles of Spruce Carpet and Dark Spectacle...

Black Rustic

Regular visitors to the blog may notice that I've had a bit of a blog revamp - think it has to be done every now and then. Hope you all like :-)

Radford's Flame Shoulder

I had drafted another post out to be my next, titled 'Beware of Hackers' (many of you am sure will be able to guess the content of this one!) but something far more exciting has come up...

I put the moth trap out late last night, it was well past sunset when I realised despite the drizzle the conditions were actually pretty moth-friendly with little wind and reasonably mild temperatures. This proved a good move as I was rewarded this morning with a new species for the garden and for me; Radford's Flame Shoulder!  

Described as a rare immigrant to the south coast, it's one I have been keeping my eye out for for years.  Any late Flame Shoulder is worth looking closely at as Radford's Flame Shoulder is generally found in the UK after the flight period for Flame Shoulder is over - although am sure some are overlooked during (or at least towards the end of) the Flame Shoulder flight period.  Anyway, when I saw a Flame Shoulder resting at the bottom of my trap this morning I potted it immediately.  After I'd gone through the rest of the trap I came back to it for a closer look, and it was ticking many of the boxes for Radford's.  As it is quite a tricky species to ID I asked for confirmation from the fantastic @MothIDUK on Twitter, and am pleased to say this was rapidly given :-)

The key ID features I noted were;

• Black streaks extending beyond kidney mark (almost producing a 'shear')
• Kidney and oval marks smaller than in FS 
• Dull brown ground colour 
• Sharp contrast between purple thorax and white patagia
• Clear white hindwing.

I have to be honest and say it didn't look that long-winged to me, but then again I've not seen a Flame Shoulder for maybe three weeks now so a direct comparison may well have given me a different conclusion.

Am ashamed to say the reason why the photos are so poor is because whilst trying to get a photo of its hindwing, I completely fluffed re-potting it and much to my despair it flew off high to a nearby tree! I would have taken far more photos were it not for this :-(

The full catch total ended up at 83 macro moths of 20 species - not at all bad for October.  A single Delicate and L-album Wainscot were the macro sub-highlights, along with fairly late individuals of Cypress Pug, Willow Beauty and Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing.  Lunar Underwings made up the bulk of the catch, with 25 in all.

Seeing as I've not done a moth post for a while, despite the fact I have done quite a bit of mothing, here's a few other moth pics that I've taken over the last few weeks.  I've not caught any other goodies but there are some really smart moths on the wing at this time of year, and here's three of the most vibrant;

Sallow

Centre-barred Sallow

Barred Sallows

I still haven't caught the two big immigrant moths that I'm after (The big Hawk and the one with blue underwings!) but have been getting a steady trickle of Silver Y's along with two Delicates.  Although I mostly steer clear of micros, I have noted plenty of Rusty-dot Pearls and a few Rush Veneers in recent weeks.

Delicate

This autumn there have been unusually high numbers of L-album Wainscots on the wing.  This is a species I catch every year but normally only in very small numbers.  One morning last week there were six in the trap, and I know several other sites are reporting much higher than usual counts...

L-album Wainscot - a real favourite of mine

And another - such a beautifully marked moth, especially considering it's a Wainscot!

I'll end this post with some (real) bird news. Clive did well to turn up a Spotted Crake on Black Hole Marsh late this afternoon, although sadly I couldn't react to the news.  Our fifth in recent years I believe, but seeing as there aren't many in the country this year it's extra good value.  I've not been here for most of today, but did have a nice little surprise whilst filling up with fuel at the Tower Services this morning. It didn't take me long to pin down a sharp sounding crest in the bushes on the edge of the neighbouring chalet park - and as I thought it was my first Firecrest of the autumn. Always a delight.

Many Moths!

Just a quick moth update - be nice to have this blog fully up-to-date!

Since my last mothing post I have run the trap at Mum and Dad's on five nights. And as to be expected with the nights cooling off and the year progressing, overall numbers are dropping but there's still heaps of variety and plenty of potential.  I'm ever hopeful of a garden Convolvulus Hawkmoth so don't expect any less trapping to take place over the next month - fingers crossed this is my year!

First up was the night of 22nd August which gave me 178 moths of 28 species. Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Vine's Rustic and Large Yellow Underwing were the top three species quantity-wise, with the pick of the catch quality-wise being two Orange Swift (don't see many of these here), Mocha and my first Canary-shouldered Thorn of the year...

Orange Swift

Canary-shouldered Thorn

My next trapping night was 25th August which gave me 184 moths of 28 species. Top three species in numbers same as the last catch (although in a different order, Vine's Rustic now top), with the highlights being singles of Dark Sword Grass, Mocha, L-album Wainscot, Chinese Character and three Silver Y....

Dark Sword-Grass

Chinese Character

I trapped the following night too because the weather looked so promising, this produced a much better 226 moths of 35 species.  Same top three species quantity-wise, with 75 Large Yellow Underwings making up a large percentage of the catch.  The highlight was, incredibly, my second Jersey Mocha in under a month (first HERE), along with singles of Maiden's Blush, Four-spotted Footman and Dark Sword Grass.

Jersey Mocha #2.  Although more battered around the edges than my first, what is there is brighter and fresher.

Maiden's Blush

Roll forward to 29th August (after a spell of poor weather) and 101 moths of 21 species trapped.  Setaceous Hebrew Character replaced Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing as the third most numerous species, with some nice snippets of quality from singles of Four-spotted Footman, Maiden's Blush, Silver Y, Small Mottled Willow and a lovely Portland Ribbon Wave...

Portland Ribbon Wave

Male Four-spotted Footman, not caught any females this year

Small Mottled Willow

And finally we come to my most recent catch, the night of 2nd September and the 176 moths of 22 species this gave me the following morning.  Same top three as the last catch and the highlights were singles of Silver Y, Dark Spectacle and Pale Mottled Willow...

An awful photo of a Pale Mottled Willow - sorry it's so rubbish, I was going to take more but it flew off!

Dark Spectacle - a classic example of one (and note three separate kidney marks, in Spectacle the two nearest the head are usually merged to make one big one)

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...

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.

More Yellow-legged Gulls and More Moths!

The biggest group of gulls on the Axe yesterday evening were distant, but I soon picked out my third juvenile Yellow-legged Gull of the year...

Despite the distance clearly a classic juv YLG - the pattern of streaking on the breast and neck is really striking and typical.

I wasn't however expecting to then pick out a first-summer Yellow-legged Gull as well, probably the rarest age class here and it's only the third non-juvenile Yellow-legged Gull that I've ever seen on the Axe in the late summer months.

Just like the juvenile it was distant, in fact it was often stood next to the juvenile.  Thankfully it allowed prolonged views though...

First-summer Yellow-legged Gull (video grab so shocking quality!)

And again, with the juvenile next to it facing away looking right.  Note the similarities in shape, size and structure between the two.

With last nights overnight high temperatures I knew I had to have a moth trap out - so Fran kindly allowed one in her back garden again (which is very handy as it's only about six doors up from me!).

We were well rewarded with an excellent and varied catch of 271 macros moths of 61 species, which included a first for me - and one that looks so much better in the flesh than it does in the books...

Dusky Sallow - a striking beast

A different view - such a beautifully marked moth

Other highlights included...

Iron Prominent

Swallow Prominent

Magpie Moth

Sharp-angled Peacock

Ruby Tiger

Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet

Got another trap out tonight at Mum and Dad's so am looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings!

Mental Moth Night and Juv Yellow-legged Gulls

Had a trap out at Mum and Dad's last night, and this morning was greeted by probably my busiest ever moth trap!  Fog had descended on Seaton, presumably in the early hours of the morning, which I thought may have killed off any moth activity - but it seemed to have had the opposite effect! What a haul...

The inside of my moth trap this morning!

Every side of every egg box looked something like this!

Inside (and outside of) my trap were an outstanding 559 macro moths of 70 species!  And bear-in-mind this was from just one Skinner-type trap, my Robinson is still out of action and a Robinson will often hold a huge number more moths than any Skinner-type (maybe 50 - 70% more moths in my experience!).  Because it was such an impressive haul, I'm going make all your day's by listing them all and their numbers;

Large Yellow Underwing - 81
Heart and Dart - 63
Uncertain/Rustic - 39
Bright-line Brown-eye - 37
Dark Arches - 36
Common/Lesser Rustic - 33
Elephant Hawkmoth - 27 (so much pink!)
Common Footman - 22
Shuttle-shaped Dart - 17
Dingy Footman - 13
Willow Beauty - 12
Clay - 11
Mottled Rustic - 10
Four-spotted Footman - 9 (an incredible count and all males!)
Peppered Moth - 7
Buff Ermine - 7
Poplar Hawkmoth - 6
Buff Arches - 6
Rosy Footman - 6
Brussels Lace - 6
Lesser Yellow Underwing - 5
Coronet - 5
Knot Grass - 5
Swallow-tailed Moth - 4
V-pug - 4
Brimstone - 4
Ruby Tiger - 4
Nut-tree Tussock - 4
Double Square-spot - 4
Early Thorn - 3
Common Carpet - 3
Riband Wave -3
Buff-tip - 3 
Scalloped Oak - 3
Crescent Dart - 3 (my highest count of the local speciality)
Flame-shoulder - 3
Dot Moth - 3
Pug sp. - 3
Minor sp. - 3 
Privet Hawkmoth - 2
Light Emerald - 2 
Small Emerald - 2
July Highflyer - 2
Small Fan-footed Wave - 2
Smoky Wainscot - 2
Marbled Green - 2
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing - 2
Silver Y - 2 (yeah immigrants at last!)
Small Fan-foot - 2 
Spectacle - 2
Jersey Tiger - 1
Single-dotted Wave - 1
Clouded Silver - 1
Common Emerald - 1
Engrailed - 1
Yellow Shell - 1
Small Rivulet - 1
Scorched Carpet - 1 (always nice!)
Garden Carpet - 1
Ruddy Carpet - 1
Snout - 1
Black Arches - 1
Leopard Moth - 1 (not caught too many of these - stunning)
Pebble Prominent - 1
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing - 1
Herald - 1
Dog's Tooth - 1 (a bit worn but don't catch these all too often)
Green Arches - 1
Grey Dagger - 1
Poplar Grey - 1

And here's some more photo evidence...

Leopard Moth - must remember to photograph moths in the spot in future as love the look of the lichen!

Male Crescent Dart

Herald, Four-spotted Footman, Privet Hawkmoth (and Heart and Dart). A nice view!

Scorched Carpet - such a well named moth

Ruddy Carpet

Dog's Tooth (and Dingy Footman and Heart and Dart)

Marbled Green - the weakest marked of the two, but the other stayed high up on a wall!

.....and just when you thought this blog post couldn't get any better, you remember seeing "Juv Yellow-legged Gulls" in the title :-)  

Yes I saw my first juvenile Yellow-legged Gull of the season last Friday, it was brief, distant and quickly flew off.  The weather was awful on Friday though, so I thought this was just going to prove my first one of the day, but I was wrong.  No more - well until tonight when this lovely big, long and pale brute stuck out like a flashing beacon north of Coronation Corner.  Again it was distant but it was crying out to be papped...

Juv Yellow-legged Gull from one angle

...and from another view point - which basically offered the same view just of the other side of the bird!

After writing all this I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to going to bed!  Night all.