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.