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! 

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...

 

Migrant Moths

With good numbers of immigrant moths being record across the UK within the past few days, I have had the moth trap out in the front garden for the past couple of nights. I was hoping for a Convolvulus Hawkmoth or two, but failed yet again!

On Sunday night I caught 105 moths of 18 species, and last night trapped 125 moths of 22 species.

The migrants have included a garden first, with a single Vestal each night...

This was last nights one

I've also had three Silver Y's, two Turnip Moth, and singles of Dark Sword Grass and Scarce Bordered Straw....

My second for the garden

The most numerous resident moths I caught, in order of abundance were; Beaded Chestnut, Large Yellow Underwing, Lunar Underwing, Feathered Ranunculus and Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Notable non-immigrant moths included my first ever Large Wainscot...

Large it was too!

And two of these beauts....

So nice to see Merveille du Jour again!

So although I didn't get what I really wanted - I still got some nice moths.

I haven't done as much birding as I should have done over the last couple of days, but a sweep of the Estuary today showed a few Bar-tailed Godwits, a Knot, but no Semipalmated Sandpiper.

I'll finish this post with a picture of Seaton Beach and Semi-P twitchers/photographers on Saturday morning...

Pity it seems to have gone now