Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Rishworth - Overnight Moths - 30th March - 50 moths and a couple of unknowns

 Everyone agree on Engrailed?

 Edit: I originally had this on for ID but after about 2hrs I have it as Oak Nycteoline, an excellent Garden first.

 A really good night last night, I have two unknowns. FYI I did trap on the night of the 29th but I lost my list :)

Moth Trap 30th March;

Chestnut x4

Common Quaker x13

Small Quaker x21

Water Carpet x1 [NFY]

Mottled Grey x6

Hebrew Character x10

Brindled Pug x7

Oak Beauty x4

Brown House Moth x1 [NFY]

Twin Spot Quaker x3

Clouded Drab x1

Red Green Carpet x1 [NFY]

Oak Nycteoline x1 [NFG]

30 march 2021

Oak nycteoline f notata

 Luddenden  290321

Oak Beauty  1

Common Quaker  8

Small Quaker  8

Twin-spot Quaker 3

Hebrew Character   6

Chestnut  1

Early Grey  2

Luddenden  303021

Double-striped Pug  1


Brindled Pug  3

Oak Beauty   2

Dotted Border  1


Pine Beauty  1

Small Quaker  7

Twin-spot Quaker  2

Early Grey 1

Chestnut  3

Hebrew Character  2

I don't know what happened to the Common Quakers last night


 





Tuesday, 30 March 2021

Lee Mount and Wheatley Valley 30th March

A good day yesterday with a new one for me us in the form of an Orange Underwing - just one flying around in an area of birch woodland in Shroggs Park overlooking Shroggs Road (thanks for the tip off AC and BL).

Also on the former landfill site and further up the Wheatley Valley on a lovely sunny afternoon a good show of two species of butterfly.
20+ Peacock
20+ Small Tortoiseshell  - several in cop

Also yesterday and last night - a few moths overnight and mostly in the trap this morning (31st)
Brindled Pug x 3
Hebrew Character x 3
Chestnut x 2
Common Quaker x 4
Agonopterix heracliana x 2
Early Grey x 3
Diurnia fagella x 1 (photo still to double check)
Pug sp still to check on x 1

30.March .2021

lots of reports today of , Brimstone , Small Tortoiseshell , Peacock , Comma and Orange Underwings...

Monday, 29 March 2021

Stainland.

I have a plume moth today, which I need some help with. The photo is not one of my better ones, sorry. I'm having a little trouble with my macro camera, so had to use one of my others with semi macro. It just isn't the same.

I think it's a Beautiful Plume - Amblyptilia acanthadactyla. It has banded legs and shading on the wing tips and on the leading edge of it's wings. It looks worn, so I'm not one hundred percent sure. 

 

Beautiful Plume TBC.

 

Sunday, 28 March 2021

Anomalous

 I was out in the field opposite the house last night, here is what I got: all larvae unless specified

Anomalous x11.          Autumnal Rustic x1

Square Spot Rustic x3

Adult mottled Grey x2



Wednesday, 24 March 2021

Stainland,

I heard the first Skylarks today, on Ovenden Moor, they are always a welcome sound. I was above Ogden. on the Millennium Way. Also, several grouse were calling and one lonely Blackbird.

Cromwell Bottom and Orange Underwings

HAd a quick walk round today , 3 Orange Underwing flying high up in the birches on lagoon 1 , 10 Orange Underwing were recorded in Hebden last weekend and also a few at Colden on Monday and 15 + in Knott wOOD , Comma , Small Tortoiseshell and a Peacock today and a Brimstone recorded from Elland , so 4 species of Butterfly so far this year......

Tuesday, 23 March 2021

Last Nights Moths 22/3/2021

Just two moths of two species last night which at least was an improvemnt on Sunday night when I got zilch :)

Hebrew Character x1

Oak Beauty x 1

Sunday, 21 March 2021

Lee Mount - 22 March

 This morning
 Early Grey x 1 was the only new one

Long stayers
Clouded Drab x 2
Oak Beauty x 1
March Moth x 4
Hebrew Character x 2
Small Quaker x 1
Twin-spotted Quaker x 1

Last Nights Moth 20/3/2021

After the glut of fives species the night before down to 1 Common Quaker last night. Given the gale blowing up here and the cold temps not surprising really

Saturday, 20 March 2021

Last Nights Moths 19/3/2021

A positive glut of moths last night with 5 in the trap this morning :)

1 Common Quaker

1 Small Quaker new to garden

1 Chestnut new to garden

1 Pale Brindled Beauty new to garden

1 Hebrew Character

None I think are repeats as I take them a couple of hundred yards from the house and let them go in some thick scrub. The trap site is out of view from the release site blocked by the farmhouse and barn and my MV is run behind a large fence so it does not disturb my next door neighbour. I feed the tweeters in the garden so I like to shift the moths well out of the way of hungry tits and sparrows :)

Lee Mount - 20th March

 Jut two new ones overnight (others recent ones still hanging on the fence by the trap)

Twin-spotted Quaker x1
Chestnut x 1
Chestnut

Twin-spotted Quaker

Friday, 19 March 2021

Lee Mount 18th March

 Three new moths this morning to add to the 'long stayers' from the last few days

Small Quaker x 1
Dotted Border x 1
Agonopterix ocellana

Initially thought possibly A. alstromeriana 
Revised now to A. ocellana - thanks Gordon.


Small Quaker

Long stayers still on the garden fence.
Oak Beauty x 1, March Moth x 4, Hebrew Character x 2, Agonopterix heracliana x 1, 
Clouded Drab x 1.

Last Nights Moths 18/3/2021

Just two moths in the trap again last night but at least another new species for the garden :)

2 x Common Quaker Orthosia cerasi

My garden is at around 250 AMSL so way higher than our last place in Elland Park rd. Very little woodland nearby and the only mature trees nearby are a large Beech, Sycamore and an Oak some 25 mtrs away. Otherwise its all rough pasture with a stream and some woodland bordering it on either side about 500 yards away running down the valley towards Millbank. We are surrounded by open moorland so I am hoping for some upland species in the trap as the year progresses. But my main interest is in actively looking for moths in all stages by searching rather than trapping, and as this is "virgin territory" for me I am hoping to find some new to me species up here. The garden will be cleared and planted with insect attracting plants over the next year or two and hopefully this mini oasis of nectar sources will attracting some new species into feed. I have plans to create a small wildlife pond and bog area so this I hope will also draw in new insects if not lepidoptera. At Park rd in around 5 years of trapping and finding butterflies by day I recorded around 460 species of lepidoptera in our tiny garden. I strongly suspect that up here the list might be much shorter but at least I will enjoying the recording of new species rather than counting out 150 Large Yellow Underwing morning after morning before work :) All in all I am looking forward to a full years bug hunting up here and though I hope lockdown ends soon its not going to curtail my entomolgy this year at all if it does not :)

Thursday, 18 March 2021

Rishworth - 18th March - Overnight Moths - A spring celebration!

 The trap was absolutely brimming with moths last night, a spring moth festival.


Moth trap 18th March

Oak Beauty X3

Common Quaker x5

Small Quaker x5 (NFY)

Hebrew Character x4 (NFY)

Dotted Border x1 (NFG)

Twin Spot Quaker x1 (NFY)

Yellow Horned x1

Mottled Grey x3

March Moth x1

Chestnut x4

Satellite x1


KITCHEN WINDOW

Brindled Pug x1 (NFY)


Lower Burnt Moor 17/3/2021

After yesterdays first moths of the year in the trap I got optimistic and ran it again last night :)

Sadly only one moth in the trap this morning , but at least its a new species for the site :)

Hebrew Character Orthosia gothica

Update just found a March Moth on the patio doors near the trap so double my list for the night :)

Rishworth - 17th March - Overnight Moths - At Long Last...

 I finally got a Common Quaker!


Moth trap 17th March 

Oak Beauty x1 (yet another different one, they are all different)

Mottled Grey x1

Common Quaker x1 (NFY)


Wednesday, 17 March 2021

Lee Mount 16th and 17th March

These moths arrived overnight on 16th and all still there on the fence tonight, 17th. They are not for moving !

Oak Beauty x 1
Common Quaker x 1
Clouded Drab x 1
Hebrew Character x 2
March Moth x 4
Agonopterix heracliana/ciliella x 1
Unidentified micro x 1 - to look at later when I can check the photos.

First of the Year

Just two moths in the trap last night here at Lower Burnt Moor

1 Yellow Horned Achlya flavicornis,

1 Brindled Beauty Lycia hirtaria

This is the 7th time I have run the trap this year and the first moths in the trap last night at last.

Tuesday, 16 March 2021

Rishworth - Overnight Moths - 16th March - All Change

 Not bad last night, but the title "All Change" is because every one of the moths are different to yesterday's. Fantastic! 5 mayn't seem lot but it's good to get more than one at this time in the year!

MOTH TRAP 16th March

Oak Beauty X3

Chestnut x2



Stainland.

I saw my first bumble bee of the year this afternoon, it was like a flying mouse. They're always a welcome sight. It's been a beautiful day, just like Spring. I hope it's a harbinger of things to come.

15th March 2021

The first bright day for 2 weeks produced the first Small Tortoiseshell in the garden a welcome sight after all that gloom..... Ran the trap all night.. Oak Beauty x 1 Grey Shoulder knot x 1 Common Quaker x 1 Clouded Drab x 1 Early Grey x 1 Hebden Bridge....Oak Beauty x 6 . Yellow Horned x 1 and 1 Satellite ...thanks Winston P...
Grey Shoulder Knot (3rd local record)

Rishworth - Overnight Moths - 15th March - If only a dozen.

 Fantastic night here on the trap's first all nighter of the year.

MOTH TRAP 15th March

Oak Beauty x11

Mottled Grey x3

Chestnut x2

Yellow Horned x1

Satellite x1

Tortricodes Alternella x1

March Moth x1










Tuesday, 9 March 2021

Small magpie

 Small Magpie in the house today

Thursday, 4 March 2021

Stainland.

1 x Dotted Border. 

 

This is a different one to the other day. The one I have today is very worn.

Wednesday, 3 March 2021

Rishworth 18th Feb

 A very belated post but I have got round to getting this on


Moth Trap 18th February:

March Moth x1 [NFY]

Pale B B x2

1 f monocharia

1 normal

Tuesday, 2 March 2021

Summer Supplies


 Got these today from Anglian lepidopterist supplies , should keep me busy in May , June and July.....Well worth a go if anyone has a bit of spare time.....