Brimstone Butterfly 31 08 10

Saw a Male Brimstone Butterfly at riverside near Todmorden Market today,1st ive seen locally for ages ! as anyone else seen many about locally ? regards Bri.

Black Darters

Lots of Black Darters about at the top end of Cragg Vale last week.

Cromwell Bottom Sun night....

A cold and clear night with some excellent net work keeping us warm. thanks to Bri ,marion ,Ian and Tina.

Acleris emargana 3

Straw Dot 1

Orange swift 1

Clouded border 1

Sq Spt Rustic 8

Flame Sh 1

Flame carpet 1

Canary Shouldered Thorn 2

Sallow 2

July Highflyer 1

Dark Barred Twin spot Carpet 1

Angle Striped sallow 1

Small Phoneix 1

Autumnal Rustic 2

Dotted Clay 1

LYU 6

Lesser YU 2

LBBYU 2

More Devon Carpets

Seems like Devon Carpet is well established at hardcastle craggs with more records from Elena this week.

Small Coppers

So I haven't seen any Small Coppers since I moved over here 5 years ago.....now I'm seeing them everywhere. After filming them first at Jay House Lane on thistles, followed by Tag Loop on White Clover , I found some at Oxenhope railway crossing just below the Railway Children 3-Chimneys house, and now I'm finding them at Roils Head. Here, they were feeding on Heather.
Red Admirals were also on heather at Roils Head - a first for me in Calderdale -  and loads of Speckled Woods.

More Purple Hairstreaks

Tricky little blighters to photo,only seem to fly in bright sunshine.reports today from Knot wood Heden Bridge and Only House wood Northowram.

Sallow

Sallow last night at Pellon.

Red Underwing

Allways nice to see Red Underwing not scarce just awesome..This Wall brown was in the greenhouse sheltering from the rain and some good moths about in the trap this week included my latest ever lesser swallow Prominent and Currant Pug also Sallow ,Centre barred sallow,Antler,Campion ,Lychins Copper and Svennsons Copper Underwings and Dark Marbled carpet

Purple Hairstreaks

Its there honest........

I watched about 5/6 Purple Hairstreaks today at Only House wood Northowram,from about 2.00 -2.30,did'nt manage to get any decent photos (see above) as they were up and around the canopy,two did come down to eye level but I was unable to get any decent shots.5 speckled woods,1 small copper and a Gatekeeper.Also seen were a Common carpet and Ypsolopha sequella flushed from a nettle patch.

Sunday 29th field Trip at Cromwell Bottom

Hi all planning a trip to Cromwell Bottom this Sunday night ,target species Wainscots.Meet 8.30 all welcome.

Devon Carpet

Many thanks to Elena GIacometti for the photos of this very rare moth in Yorkshire,It was taken at light in hardcastle Craggs and only the second record for yorkshire.

Langfield Edge

Some great local species last night,even though it went a bit clear and chilly,well worth the effort getting up there.pics of grey mountain carpet/neglected rustic.regards Bri,Andy,Marolyn,Ian,Tina.

Langfield Edge(sat night)

Small Wainscot

Lime - speck Pug (swept from thistles)

Another good night despite clear skies and cool n/w wind.

1 Broom Moth larvae feeding on juncuss

Antler 24

Small wainscot 1

Small fan - foot wave 1

Square spot rustic 8

Anomalouse 4 male 2 female

Lime speck Pug 1

Grey Mountain Caret 1

Lesser Y U 4

large Y U 8

Dark arches 5

Silver Y 1

Autumnal Rustic 1

Howarth's Minor 1

Neglected rustic 1

L/C Rustic 1

Luddenden Mothing

Flounced Rustic














Anomalous

August has been pretty good with a good variety of Moths as well as the usual mass of Large Yellow Underwings, with these being the pick of the bunch














Common Lutestring














Rosy Rustic














Centre Barred Sallow














Copper Underwing ?

Cloaked minor.??

Found this small macro on outside window just before dusk last night and ideas...Cloaked Minor.??

sat night

Hope this explains where to meet.

Devon Carpet

A Devon carpet has been recorded in Hardcastle craggs ..which is a second for yorkshire and a first locally ....details to follow hopefully..

mothing on tuesday night

mothing on tuesday night with my dads new home-made moth trap! to say it was only out for about two hours but it still came out with some good results

antler moth, a local speciality! we even had one fly into the bathroom

sadly the rest are all a mystery to me. please could anybody help!

Micro ID

Found on a chestnut leaf, with numerous blotch mines, but this may be coincidental. Hampshire. Anyone know what this is ?

Langfield Common sat night

Meeting with Bri at the pub car park near langfield Common and running trap under cliffs at langfield edge on saturday night meet about 8.30 all welcome.

Wall Brown

There were two Wall browns in the garden today,along with 2 Small whites and 1 Meadow brown.They seem pretty scarce these days has any one else seen them this year.?

Anomalous Update 17 08 10

Brought both pots indoors on 14 08 10.Today 17 08 10 pot a the green larva, 1 male and 1 female emerged and non from pot b the brown larva as yet.but at least we can say that the 2 colour forms do not represent each sex ! obviously there must be some other reasons to explain why for example in a batch of eggs laid by the same female, some of the larva are green and some brown,and green larva can change to brown, when both are feeding on the exact same plant ! and its not a case of green when small changing to brown as they approach full size,as both colour forms reached fullsize before pupating. Bri.

Eggar question

As Northern Eggars have a two year life-cycle, does that mean you only see them on the wing in alternate years?

They were on the wing during the Twite survey on Midgely Moor last year (May/June?).
All postings on the blog this year relate to cats, with postings relating to adults all being from June 09.
I haven't seen any this year, but I haven't always been around suitable habitat.

Tag Loop Today & Help Wanted

A visit to Tag Loop today helped fill in some missing pieces. I was able to get much closer to the Small Coppers here than at Jay House Lane as I could lie down and stalk them with a close-up lens. Being so small and so flighty, it is quite difficult to get close enough to fill the frame with a standard lens, or even a long telephoto.
Whilst many at Jay House Lane colony were on the Creeping Thistle, the thistles at Tag Loop only yielded Meadow Browns, one with odd pale patches on the fore-wings.
The Small Coppers favoured a patch of White Clover along the desire line that leads through some trees towards the weir. They were also nectaring on another plant, amongst the clover,  that looks superficially like heather. A type of Milkweed maybe??? Can anyone put a name to this? Sorry, I don't have a stills camera..so no photo.
There were one or two Green-veined Whites kicking about, and one Peacock, with several Gatekeepers along the path, and the ubiquitous Speckled Woods near the trees.

I'm fairly sure that the plant that was crawling with insects yesterday at Jay House Lane was Black Knapweed, which is also present at the edge of Tag Loop, albeit with nothing on it today.

My next question is....anyone got a good site for Purple Hairstreak? I believe there is a spot at Park Wood, Exely,  but I don't know the details re access etc.

Midgley

Got the new Skinner trap working with an MBT lamp, had one of our best catches last night, 131 moths of 20 species as follows

Brimstone 1

Smoky Wainscot 3

Mother of Pearl 2

Antler Moth 4

Large Yellow Underwing 81

Lesser Yellow Underwing 2

Lesser broad bordered Yellow Underwing 4

Small fan footed Wave 1

Rosy Minor 2

Middle barred Minor 1

Dark Arches 9

Common Rustic agg 14

Burnished Brass 1

Dunbar 1

Six striped Rustic 1

Straw Dot 1

Square Spot Rustic 1

Plain Golden Y 1

Carpet sp? (see photo)

Heavily worn unknown (see top photo)

Any help with these last two greatly appreciated!

Other highlight of the night was the sudden appearance of 5 escaped Saddleback Pigs round the trap, quite a thing this new trap!!

I Have the Worlds Biggest Moth Trap!!

Well probably not but it got your attention, it's actually the Bus stop I visit each morning and below are photo's of some of the moths I have found there over the last few months and taken on my mobile. I know one is a Large Emerald but id help with the others is welcome (Yellow shell, as well?)