Spring Moths

A great night at the Craggs last nigt with a total of 70 moths of 10 species.Thanks to Colin for the photos.....


March Moth       33
Common Quaker 2
Chestnut              9
Oak Beauty         2
Yellow Horned   1
Pale brindled Beauty  4
Dotted Border             5
Satellite                      1
Agonoptrix Her          3
Tortricodes alternella   10



 Local weather Still Full Moon Dark 6:30 Temp 10 Deg Sky Clear

 Thanks to Brian Andy and ALL in the group for help with light etc

2258 The Chestnut Conistra vaccinii

 1926 Pale Brindled Beauty Phigalia pilosaria

 1930  Oak Beauty Biston strataria

2 Specimens varying in band and colour

1663 March Moth Alsophila aescularia

Antennae March Moth

 1934 Dotted Border Agriopis marginaria 

1934 Melanic Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria f. fuscata)

1659 Yellow Horned Achlya flavicornis

2187 Common Quaker Orthosia cerasi 

Wings recently inflated

1025 Winter Shades Tortricodes alternella

Dotted Border Left Pale brindled Beauty Right

 Non Lepidoptera

 Dung Fly

Spider Trochosa sp likely .T. terricola./ ruricola

SAT NIGHT

If the weather is good(or even ok) we will be at Hardcastle Craggs at about 6.30 on Sat ...All welcome

The Craggs

Good to be out and a few moths about in the cold....
Dotted Border      22+
Spring Usher          1
Chestnut                 1
Pale Brindled Beauty    1


Happy Birthday Bri................

Hardcastle Craggs Friday 20th Feb

Meeting at 6 in Hardcastle Craggs , gonna run the trap for a few hours and do some tree searching.All welcome , if anyone needs a lift leave a message.....

Peacock

I got a report  from Nigel G of a Peacock Butterfly sunbathing near Lumb Falls in Crimsworth Dean on 30th November. A nice late record.

Mega Moths...........

Last night saw in the region of 7,500 Winter Moths in Only House Wood one tree have over 200 individuals on it..A few Scarce Umber and many female Winter moths..............have a look in your local wood....!!!!

Only House Wood

Down the woods again tonight with Steve Cummings in tow with all his camera equipment. Steve set up and started filming Winter Moths in cop and emerging from the leaf litter.
   I had a good look round the rest of the wood, as many as 500 + Winter Moths and 10 pairs in cop  , 2 Scarce Umber , 10 Mottled Umber  and  5 Northern Winter Moths

Down the woods

Popped down into the local beech wood last night , ---
200 + Winter moths
24       Mottled Umber
1 female Mottled Umber

Memories of Summer

Forgot to post this in the summer when I spotted this fine example of a really fresh White-letter Hairstreak Satyrium w-album. This is only the second one I have seen near the town centre.

Lee Mount

It was a surprise this afternoon after a cool overcast day with drizzle and very little sunshine to find a very worn Red Admiral on the Erysimum. Also a Comma, but it disappeared before I could get a photo.

Various !

In the garden last 2 days, at least 7 Red Admirals and 2 Speckled Woods on the Erysimum. and Sedum

Walk over Ovenden Moor, Fly Flatts and Ogden today
c6 Speckled Woods and 2 Red Admirals along the track from Ogden car park this morning.
c20 Red Admirals seen over Ovenden Moor along with 1 Small Tortoiseshell
6+ Speckled Woods along the edge of the tree belt by the golf course this afternoon and c4 Red Admirals with 1 Comma by the former Res'r keepers cottage.

Red Admiral on Sedum

High Brown Knoll

Walking over the highest point in Calderdale yesterday and spotted quite a few Red Admirals in the patchy sun ant this very handsome Cat. Cat someone id it for me please?

Recent news

Lots of Red Admirals about this week along with Small Tortoiseshell ,Small and large Whites ,Speckled woods and a Peacock around the house. Black Rustics seem to having a good year along with Brown Spot Pinion. Lots of Common Marbled Carpets , Lunar underwings and the last of the large yellow underwings.

Ogden (Fox Moth ?)

We found several af these large caterpillars at the lower end of the golf course yesterday in and area of grassland, billberry and heather. They are at least 2 and a half inches long and curl up when disturbed. We think they are Fox Moth caterpillars but would be glad for someone to confirm if our
 i d is correct - or otherwise!.

Lee Mount

A Humming Bird Hawk Moth on Tuesday afternoon was feeding on and around an Erysimum plant in the garden for around 20 minutes. Unfortunately I could not get a photo of it but I am on the lookout for it returning !
This is the only second sighting of this species we have had in the garden since we moved here in 1974 so we made the most of it  while it was here.

Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' - this plant seems to flower for ever in summer and winter given a reasonably sunny spot (but gets knocked back in winter with hard frosts) a great plant for insects.

Also on the plant there have been numerous Bees and Hover Flies, 4 Red Admirals together, just 1 Small Tortoiseshell and up to 3 Speckled Woods have been around. Several Speckled Woods also seen this week near the Ski-slope at Ploughcroft.

This week in the trap.............

The recent warm nights and easterly winds have not sent us any migrants as yet , but this week , Black Rustic , Lunar Underwing , Red Barred Tortrix , , Beautiful Plume , Blairs Shoulder Knot , Autumnal Rustic and the highlight here a Beaded Chestnut.................

RFI Ghost Moth records

Hi guys, I am trying to collate any info regarding local (West Yorks.) Ghost Moth populations and would welcome any info regarding dates, locations and numbers. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Painted Lady

1 Painted lady , 3 Small Copper , 4 peacock , 20 + Speckled Wood and a large White today at Northowram.in the moth trap last night a Rosy Rustic, Salllow and 33 LYUnderwings.

Cromwell Bottom 30th August moth Night

The friends of  Cromwell Bottom will be running a moth night on sat , usual place by the lagoon, would be nice to see some local moffers there, I will be there from 10ish, the light will be put on at dusk.

Manchester Moth

Sorry AndyC I have belatedly answered your query in the comments box of 'The Manchester Moth' of 20th July, if you care to have a look.

Vapourer

Was walking up above North Dean Woods yesterday and heading back on Scholes Lane and saw a moth going bananas, decided it was worth a look and to see if it landed. Glad I did it was a male Vaporer with a female and cocoon that then started to mate.It was on the wall just before Scholes Farm heading from Greetland.

Painted lady

On the 8th August I found a freshly emerged Painted lady at Northowram , its wings were still unformed as it climbed a large grass stem. After a few minutes its wings started to inflate. A rare local sighting.

Pepper Hill / Claremount

 Wall Brown

 Small Copper

Small Copper and Small Skipper

 

 

What a week or two for butterflies, its been amazing - rounded off today with a walk along Hag Lane at the back of the Ploughcroft  ski-slope and along the track to Claremount and the hillside above Horley Green.

 

We thought we were doing well near Black Boy Farm on a small patch of weeds with Peacocks, Small Skippers and Gatekeepers as well as Small Tortoiseshells when we came across this Small Copper. we watched it with real pleasure.

 

Then as we walked further around the hillside facing over Halifax we had a possible Wall Brown but couldn't confirm it, then we found another two and managed a poor photo but it was enough to confirm identification. We came home well satisfied - as good as birding ! (well nearly)

Also a good number of Speckled Woods in that area too.



Butterfly Count / Wall brown ??

The Big Butterfly count is on at the moment and only takes a few minutes to submit your records.
https://www.bigbutterflycount.org/species


With good numbers of butterfly's recorded in Calderdale over the last couple of years and new species being added over the last couple decades (Ringlet ,Speckled Wood and Gatekeeper etc)  its odd how the Wall Brown is becoming very scarce , 3 years ago I would have had 3 /4 in the garden at this time of year but since then I have had only one sighting in the last 3 years. Has any one seen a Wall Brown this year in Calderdale..??

Lee Mount

We have a small garden and over the last year or two we have planted a Buddliea and a few other insect loving plants such as Cotoneaster horizontalis, Sedum spectabile and Erysimum (Bowles Mauve) - the latter is the best plant we have found for attracting insects over a long period - in fact this last winter it flowered all winter and has never stopped all summer long.
In the last few weeks we have had an unprecedented selection of butterflies
Lots of Small Tortoiseshells
A good number of Meadow Browns
A similar number of Ringlets
2 Commas
1 Gatekeeper (a first)
Several Small Skippers
Speckled Woods most days
A few Peacocks - but not many Red Admirals
Large, Small and Green-veined Whites
Occasional Orange Tips (several weeks ago)

Erysimum

Sedum - coming into flower

Painted Lady

Came across this Painted Lady whilst birding at Roils Had today.

Mile Cross Road

Been pleseantly surprised at the new home with some good moths in the last week or so,Lempkes Gold Spot, Dagger, Heart and Dart but not sure about the last one, any ideas????

St Matthews Churchyard - Lightcliffe

An quick meeting at St Matthew's Churchyard, Lightcliffe this lunchtime met with 7 species of butterfly in 20 mins. Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Large White, Green-veined White, Comma & Ringlet. Wonder what the moth population is like?

The Manchester Moth

No, I haven't found one! But you may find this story interesting.

Abraham Stansfield, lived in Todmorden and then moved to Kersal Moor at Salford in 1858. He was a poet/naturalist. I was researching him when I found this fascinating reference to a now extinct moth. The Manchester Moth, Euclemsia woodiella.

Why was this moth confined to Kersal Moor and why has the Australian museum got a specimen?

The moral is--do not leave moth specimens with landladies!

Read the fascinating tale here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclemensia_woodiella

Tachystola acroxantha.

After a message from Andy I had a wander round to Sean Johnston's place in the Heath area of Halifax to check out a potentially rare moth for Yorkshire. As suspected it was a rather fresh looking specimen of Tachystola acroxantha, a suspected Australian adventive. It was only added to the Yorkshire list in 2012 and as of yet it not listed on the Yorkshire Moths database (Terry, are you reading this? :-)

Sean's trap was still brimming with all manner of species so I helped myself to a couple of micros which turned out to be Dipleurina lacustrata and below, a rather worn Paraswammerdamia nebulella (I think), only the second one I've seen.

KEEP AN EYE OUT for................

In the last few days a few Scarce Tortoiseshell Butterfly have turned up on the east coast of England. There has been a massive invasion of this species into the Netherlands which had no previous records. So it would be worth checking any "Small Tortoiseshells" as they might be something a great deal less common
  IN Northowram today on my local walk ,----
Small Tortoiseshell      134(checked all of them)
Meadow Brown             87
Ringlet                           35
Gatekeeper                      2
Purple Hairstreak            2
Comma                           1
Large White                   1
Small White                   2
large Skipper                  1
Small Skipper                2
Speckled Wood             1

Ringlets

Dave's observation of ringlets in Withins Clough echoes what I saw on Monday this week and I posted this on the Calderdale Wildlife blog:-

"This year seems a good one for Ringlets and there are reasonable numbers up Tod.
But I was in a wet sphagnum field in a woodland clearing up Crag Vale this morning, (upstream from the Hinchcliffe), and at a guess there must have been into the hundreds of ringlets; plus some Small Skippers and Meadow Browns. Wonderful to see."

Withens Clough, Cragg Vale

On Wednesday this week there were quite a number of Ringlet butterflies on the grass next to the car park just below the res'r though I couldn't get any decent photo's - they were very active along with a few Meadow Browns and Small Heaths.

Bird-cherry Ermines - Cunnery wood.

Following up on Chris' find I soon located the webs - not easy to miss. With just one or two larvae visible I took one of the nests home to determine the species. 

On closer examination of the nest it soon became apparent there was a nucleus of many pupal cocoons. Opening one up revealed a healthy looking moth pupa - all bodes well.

Two days on and two moths had emerged - on day three their numbers had swelled to nearly 30 individuals, they were continuously emerging before my eyes. Time to leave them outside in the garden!

The finished article - as the tree was re-identified as a Bird Cherry it's safe to assume the moths are indeed Bird-cherry Ermines. Both the size and five rows of dots also indicate this species. 

Ogden Water

Our WATCH group meeting today was on bumblebees, but when we headed out to look for them the butterflies took over! We hunted on the little bit of moorland to the top side of the house on the other side of the reservoir. Not a bad selection for 40 minutes of hunting. If anyone can identify the top photo then I would appreciate it.

Our list
1526 Small Skipper
1574 Common Blue (2nd photo) lots of them, including some mating
1614 Speckeld Wood
1626 Meadow Brown
1629 Ringlet
1638 Fox moth caterpillar - we think (3rd photo)
1738 Common Carpet

Also had a visit to Cunnery Wood with
1614 Speckled Wood
1742 Yellow Shell

2221 The Mullein Shargacucullia verbasci

A  Mullien Moth caterpillar has been found this week in Todmorden (*thanks Ross) and a Eyed Hawkmoth has been seen in The Tod area (thanks Portia).All the local butterfly species have been seen in good numbers this week . Small Tortoiseshell have emerged from some cats I found at Lightcliffe quarries today , loads and loads of cats on nettles at Northowram and Adults seen copulating yesterday will surely make for another great summer for this species.

Cunnery Wood caterpillar nests

Found these in Cunnery Wood on the willow trees. They are normally there this time of year, could anyone identify them for me? Thanks.

Skinner moth trap and 80W MV set up

Greetings from the east Coast :) We are considering upgrading to a Robinson trap with 125W MV, if we did this we would have a Skinner trap plus 80W MV set up (and spare bulb) to sell, anyone know about how much to charge?

Cat identification

Look at this group of synchronised cats feeding on rose, tails in the air in my daughter's neighbours garden down in Somerset. Any ideas before they strip the plants entirely?