Shibden Valley

Caterpillar - ? Fox Moth

Stainland.

I had one Angle Shades moth on the door and one Angle Shades caterpillar sheltering in a bright red, cup-shaped pansy. I suppose the caterpillar was colour blind, as it was visible from a distance. :-) I've never seen both forms at the same time before,.There is no reason why one shouldn't see that however.

 Luddenden - the end of March

It's been quite but steady this last week with small numbers of the usual Moths nightly. The only different Moth was this rather early Grey Birch, only my third here and the first for 13 years

Puss Moth

Not bad for my first moth of the year. It was reared from this larvae feeding on Aspen found at Hollin Hall, Hardcastle Crags last June.

Stainland.

Sunday night 24 March;

1 X Angle Shades Caterpillar.

Angle Shades  cat.

Lee Mount micro

This smart looking Caloptilia micro showed up this week. Couldn't decide between elongella or betulicola. Yorkshire Moths suggested gen.det. so checked with CF - correct options, but can't reliably tell them apart without dissection. The moth has gone now !

Lee Mount - 17th /18th March

Slight improvement....

Dotted Border x 1

Hebrew Character x 5

March Moth x 1

Common  Plume x 1

Brindled Pug x 1

Agonopterix heracliana x 2

Stainland.

 Happy St. Patricks Day!

I hope everyone is well and looking forward to a lovely, moth-filled Spring.

What a good day to celebrate my first moth sighting since last year. I have 1 Common plume on the door.

 Luddenden 12th - 16th March

It's been pretty good these last four nights despite the windy and often wet weather

These are the totals for the last four nights

March Moth  7   5 on the 12th

Pine Beauty 1   12th

Yellow Horned  1  12th

Early Grey 1   12th

Oak Beauty  8   5 on the 15th

Common Quaker  68   23 on the 14th

Small Quaker  3

Twin-spot Quaker  1   14th

Hebrew Character  27   7 on the 14th

Clouded Drab  5

Chestnut  8

Satellite - orange spotted 1

Yellow Horned

Oak Beauty

Pine Beauty

Ringby Lane and Lee Mount

First butterfly of the year for me with this Small Tortoiseshell this morning on the one small clump of Daffodils on Ringby top. Just lucky as no other flowers on the top other than a few scattered Coltsfoot flowers.

Five moths in /around the trap between 14th and 15th

One each - Clouded Drab, Common Plume, Hebrew Character and a Common Quaker along with an Agonopterix heracliana

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Common Plume

Hebrew Character

Lee Mount

Just four moths this last week. Common Quaker (4th and 7th), Oak Beauty (5th) and a March Moth (7th).

March Moth

Two shots of the same Oak Beauty

Whiteholme

Unidentified caterpillar

Lee Mount - 4th March

 Just the one moth - Common Quaker in the trap this morning.

Lee Mount - 29th February

Always put the light on if conditions allow. Even then I was surprised to find a March Moth on the fence by the light but that was it - light out.

Luddenden Moths February 2024 so far

 LUDDENDEN Feb 2024 so far

Off to a slow but steady start this year in Luddenden, the first Moth was 2 Pale Bridled Beauty on the 3rd. Since then we have had

Pale Bridled Beauty  20

Oak Beauty  2  14th & 15th - earliest record here

March Moth  6  1st on the 11th 

Chestnut 6

Common Quaker  5  1st on the 14th

Hebrew Character  2  1st on the 16th - earliest record here

Pale Brindled Beauty

Pale Brindled Beauty

March Moth

                                              Oak Beauty 

 

Lee Mount -17th and 19th Feb

Light on till the heavy drizzle, turned the light off at 11 pm - nothing doing. 

In the trap this morning (17th) a Satellite was a nice surprise.

(19th) - Dotted Border and (20th) 2 March Moths

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 Dotted Border

Lee Mount - 14th Feb

At last some mild weather but then the rain set in so it curtailed matters.

Pale Brindled Beauty x 3 (typical forms)

March Moth x 1

Agonopterix heracliana x 4

Tortricodes alternella x 1

Lee Mount - 28th Jan to10th Feb

 A nice surprise to start the moth year off after I put the trap on for an hour or so in the slightly milder conditions.

Pale Brindled Beauty

Another dark form as below on 2nd February and another typical one on 3rd and another new one on 6th with a 'monacharia' on 10th Feb.

Lee Mount - 17th Nov

 At last...... 2 moths...One each - Mottled Umber and a Winter Moth

Mottled Umber

Byron Edge

Red Admiral:  1 south

Early October

 Some great moths about in early October , Grey Shoulder Knot ,Streak ,  Merville du Jour , Barred Sallow , Green - brindled Cresent , Dark sword grass , Large Wainscot , Feathered Thorn ,Red and Yellow lined Quakers and a very late Golden rod Pug

Cold Edge

Red Admiral:  3 SW 

Byron Edge

Red Admiral: 2 south

Byron Edge

Red Admiral: 1 flying south

Stainland.

 Sorry, I'm having a longish, troublesome, health issue. I don't think I'll be able to put whatever moths I found in September. on the blog. I'll be bouncing back at some point.

Gordon,

Lee Mount - 27th Sep

 Puzzling over this one - thought at first I was on for a new Species for here in Dark Chestnut but I'm leaning now towards a dark looking Chestnut - but I'm not sure at all. 

Any thoughts ?

Lee Mount

Last few days, not much doing at all. Actinic 22w does not seem to have pulled many in other than a 2 Mouse Moths, 2 Common Marbled Carpets, 2 Silver Y's, 1 Large Yellow Underwing, 1 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 1 Copper Underwing agg, 1 Red-green Carpet and a couple of Black Rustics. 

Micros Ypsolopha sylvella x 2 and Tachystola acroxantha x 2

Best of the bunch was this Barred Sallow

Setaceous Hebrew Character

 Always been a  regarded as a common moth in most of Yorkshire but never in Calderdale I have recorded 53 since 2003 and no records at all between  2000 - 2002 .... till this year with over 115 so far,??

Numbers to Northowram Moth trap......

21st Aug ...1

31st Aug ..2 

3rd Sept ...4

7th Sept ..21

8th Sept ..15 

9th Sept ..22 

10th Sept ...16

13th Sept ....12

20th Sept ...2

Delicate

 

  Another excellent moth The Delicate recorded by Anthony Arak at his Barkisland trap ,another migrant to add to  Calderdales growing list ...Astonishing the number of migrant moths that make it to the Pennine hills .....

Lee Mount - last few days...

 Not a lot doing at all and with all the rain I knocked the trap off. Back on again for a short while tonight 19th and see what the weather is going to do after today's full day of rain.

Been puzzling this micro since 9th Sept but couldn't work it out - even with it's rather strange stance. 

CF confirmed identification soon after I thought of drawing a blank over it !

Zelleria hepariella (NFS)

Just a Common Marbled Carpet on a window and a Silver Y each evening just on dusk - nectering on Verbena bonariensis.

Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood at Ogden yesterday.

Clifden Nonpareil at Clock Face quarry

One to light in Anthony Arak's trap yesterday!

Enough to put a smile on anyone's face on a dull and damp autumn morning!

Beacon Hill

Small Copper 1,  Red Admiral 1,  Speckled Wood 3

Copper Underwing - differences !

A good few Copper Underwing to the trap in recent weeks with a max of  9 at any one time. I always log these as Copper Underwing agg as the differences are, I find, pretty tricky to differentiate between the two similar species. Even more difficult to check live moths !!

In the local church tower last week I found some recently dead ones so selected the best two and decided it might be worth checking the underside of the underwings to see if this was, as advised, the best way of separating the two species. I think I was just lucky as the two I looked at were different.

Copper Underwing

and below Svenssson's Copper Underwing

Early September

Quick summary 150 +  moths of 30 + species most nights in early September, 1st - 12th

 Setaceous Heberew Character x 22 ,9th Sept (dont think I've had that many in the last 10 years..!!)

Black Rustic x 17 on the 11th 

Silve Y x 18 on the 11th 

Ruby Tiger x 1 ,,,,,,,,,7th September

Vines Rustic x 2 7th 

Dusky Thorn ..x 1 ...3rd

Vestal x 1... 8th 

Wax Moth x 1 8th

Red Green , Flame , Green , Spruce , Grey Pine ,  Common Marbled , Common , Garden Carpets ....7th

Brown Spot Pinion , Beaded Chestnut , Black Rustic , Angle Striped Sallow , Barred Sallow , Frosted Orange   and Autumnal Rustic...

Copper Underwing agg.....20 + ....

Still getting 60 + LYU....

Small Autumnal Moth x 1 

Light Emerald on the 10th 

Speckled Woods Stainland.

 We have been away for  while. We got home to a computer / Internet connection problem, which took several days to resolve. THEN, I came down with a bug of some sort. Life can be so very varied and interesting. I have a few days of moths to report, I'll make a start on them tomorrow, 

For now, here is the butterfly count which I collected On Carr Hall Lane yesterday.

1 x Wall Brown

1 x Large White

35 x Speckled Woods, something of a record for me.

]

Speckled Woods

Bank Top 1,  Beacon Hill 5

Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey

WCBS - managed to find a decent day for this survey covering part of Cold Edge and Ovenden Moor - 24c but there was quite a breeze.

38 from 7 species. Surprisingly the most common butterfly was Wall Brown x 17, then Red Admiral x 9, Speckled Wood x 4, Peacock x 3, Small Copper x 3, Small Tortoiseshell x 1 Small White x 1

Lee Mount

Last few days - not a great deal doing other than a continuing stream of Large yellow Underwings and afew Lesser Yellow Underwings, Mouse Moths, Square-spot Rustics etc and last night Copper Underwing agg x 8.

At dusk there has been 2 Silver Y's nectering on Verbena but they 'leg it' as soon as I get the camera on them. They don't seem to come when it's totally dark either.

Otherwise the best of the bunch has been these four........

Purple Bar

Acleris emargana

 

Buff Footman - only 5th record for here

Stenolechia gemmella

New Bank

Painted Lady 1,  Red Admiral 4