Shroggs reclaimed landfill site - 28th May

 Spent an hour or so on the site. Not a lot but it's enjoyable to look, and it's a start !

Speckled Wood x 1

Green-veined White x 2 (it's a shame the grass stem got in the way)

Also Peacock x 2

Chamomile Shark

 Only 2 moths last night this beautiful Chamomile Shark and a Poplar Hawkmoth

BARRYS MOTH NIGHT THIS SATURDAY AT CROMWELL BOTTOM ,ALL WELCOME

Stainland.

 One Bee Moth this morning. 

The moths are starting to come, slowly.  Once the weather starts to warm up, it should get more lively.

Rishworth last night

 Spectacle x1 (NFY) 

Double Striped Pug x1 (NFY)

Brown Silver Lines x1 (NFY)

Finally some vaguely summery moths and weather!

Lee Mount - 27th May

Flame Carpet x 1 in the trap this morning and nothing else. Hopefully  a start of better things to come if the temperature starts to increase !

Flame Carpet

Cold Edge dams this afternoon - Common Carpet x 2 - both on/around dandelion flowers. Also a few Orange-tip butterflies but a total lack of any other species.

Common Carpet

Bits and bats

 Nettle tap on pink forget me nots now here in the garden. Green hairstreak on great manshead 2wks ago. trap will be on tonight for the first time in what feels like ages

Stainland.

 My first Garden Carpet of the year.

Garden Carpet

Stainland.

 A new moth for me, (whatever it is). I have spent several hours trying to get an ID on this. I think It's a Flame Carpet - Xanthorhoe designata. Could someone please ID it for me? Thanks.

 

All about Dragonflies and Damselflies.

There is a book titled, "Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Natrural History by Dennis Paulson", £25 now £10. It's available from :

www.bibliophilebooks.com

It's in this months Bibliophile Books catalogue. The book covers them from all over the world, as well as UK. It's described as comprensive and beautifully illustrated. It covers classification, evolution, place in the food chain, mating, life cycle, and their relationship with humans. It's a comprehensive natural history resource, (it says here).

It sounds like a bargin.

Oak Eggar from Walshaw Dean

 

Not a moth but...

I have been trying to get a a photo of these camara shy creatures for 5 years. Finally, I found one sleeping in the hall. I got five shots before it flew off. Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for, (or not), a Moth Fly - Psychodidae, which is a family of true flies.

As the blog is quiet just now and one of the common names of this 2mm beastie is Moth Fly, I thought I might just get away with posting it.

Moth Fly

Ogden Water

 Tuesday 18th 

1 x brimstone flying over picnic area at Ogden

2x orange tip

1x peacock

Lee Mount - 17th May

Every moth is precious at the moment !

One moth so far tonight........

Oak Nycteoline

(This time last year it was Fox Moths on Soil Hill)

Lee Mount - 15th May

Just 2 moths
Common Pug x 1
Garden Carpet x 1

Stainland.

 Anne found another moth as we were going to bed last night. I got a very bad, blurred photo, before it flew away. It's OK for an ID however. It was a Double Striped Pug, only the second one I've ever seen.

Stainland.

 Anne found a Twenty Plume in the hall this afternoon. (I trained her well). It's very near the floor. I can't easily get that low down these days, so one side of the moth is in soft focus. That's a technical term for blurred by the way.

Twenty Plume.

Lee Mount - unexpected surprise !

Last year I managed to collect eggs from a Lesser Swallow Prominent

Eggs laid - 27th April 2020

Eggs hatched - 14th May ( I raised the caterpillars on birch leaves till they pupated)

4 adults emerged 27th July 2020

7 pupa did not produce anything but were still intact so I re-potted in an ice cream box with compost and left them in the garden hut overwinter.

This morning - an adult (2 images below) had emerged overnight - wonder if there are another 6 to come ? - I'll wait and see !

Lesser Swallow Prominent

I find it strange that they were all collected at the same time last year and all received the same treatment - some emerged last July and one (so far) emerged overnight and photographed this morning.

Also, this quite cold morning, Jen managed to find just one Green Hairstreak on Castle Carr Road resting on a roadside mossy wall.

Green Hairstreak

Barry's Cromwell Moth Night is Back...yipeeeeeeeeeeee

This Saturday night 8th May,,,9 onwards all welcome ..if anybody need a lift give me a shout...or leave a message......lets hope its not freezing or raining..... :::: )))))))

Emperor Moths and an Enquiry about running moth nights at Cromwell Bottom Local Nature Reserve

I was contacted recently by Anthony Arak who is about my age and was a member of the Halifax Scientific Society as a teenager, long before I joined. He has or has had a career in Ecology. I knew his name because his project, along with another teenage member, to reintroduce Emperor Moths onto Norland Moor in the 1960s is written about by Clifford Lees in one of our publications, ("The Natural History of Norland Moor.")

He refound the HSS via me on Facebook. What luck he did that when we are still called HSS! (I hope we always are.)

He has been introducing us to the delights the Emperor Moth as I told him we had never seen one, only the caterpillars. So now we've seen them on Wadsworth Moor (above Hebden Bridge,) Whirlaw Common (above Todmorden,) and Stiperden Moor (above the Long Causeway - the Burnley Old Rd -  above Todmorden.) We used an artificial pheremone lure briefly. It is very effective! If the weather is warm enough and there is a light breeze the males, which are day fliers, arrive very quickly! Now we just have to be lucky and find a female, as they sit still, pumping out their pheremone, and wait for the males to arrive. (Moth folk will know all about this - I originally wrote this for the general Halifax Scientific Society blog.)

Anthony would like to resume his great interest in moths. He has asked me by email if he needs permission to run moth evenings at Cromwell Bottom. I've said I will put him in touch with the various people already involved in this.

He says he would like to try, apart from a light trap, sugaring, wine ropes and "mad moth netting by torchlight."

I have mentioned the CBWG enthusiasts who already do moth nights. Is Robin Dalton still involved for the Council? I was going to ask about how Graham Haigh is but just remembered I might be able to find out on Facebook.

Lee Mount

Nothing much doing at all these last few days - still cold !

Hebrew Character x 2

Common Quaker x 2

Brown House-moth x 1

High Royd this afternoon

1 male Orange-tip

1 Small Tortoiseshell

Both of them on Dandelions

Lee Mount - last few days

 Still pretty quiet with the recent cold nights

23rd - Angle Shades caterpillar (I think ?) retrieved from the plastic door frame. No idea where that came from so put it safely back in the nearby vegetation

24th Twin-spotted Quaker x 1

Common Quaker x 1

White-shouldered House-moth x 1

26th / 27th- 

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

Common Quaker x 1

Dyseriocarnia subpurpurella x 1

Garden Carpet x 1 (that was a bit unexpected)

Garden Carpet

Dyseriocarnia subpurpurella

 Luddenden

like everywhere else it has been pretty quiet in Luddenden with the cold nights. This last week I have been getting 1 to 7 moths nightly highlights have been

Purple Thorn  1

Early Thorn   2

Satellite   ws

Brindled Pug  5 

and this Early Tooth- Striped last night

Around and about 23rd April

Mixenden Reservoir, Hunter Hill and part of Ogden golf course this morning. A lovely warm sunny day.

Fly-through Brimstone at Mixenden was only my second ever for Calderdale. Also in that same area an Orange-tip and a Green-veined White - the latter took some finding in the vegetation for a photo but I wasn't quick enough for the Brimstone.

Green-veined White

Elsewhere, around Hunter Hill and the golf course - A decent show of Peacocks, and Small Tortoiseshells and to a lesser extent Orange-tips.

A similar return from Hag Lane / Pepper Hill above Claremount this afternoon.

Also one Speckled Wood resting on a holly bush and later, another one in the garden at home.

Not a lot in the trap this week.....enough to keep me interested though !

Brindled Pug x 1

Double-striped Pug x 1

Common Quaker x 2

Small Quaker x 1

Hebrew Character x 3

Twin-spotted Quaker x 2 (one much darker than the other)

Early Thorn x 1

Green HAirstreaks

Plenty Green HAirstreaks about at the moment on the local moors and also loads of Emperor Moths flying . Ornage Tips , Small White , Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks also seen in good numbers...Still freezing every night so just Hebrew Chracters and a few Common Quakers here.....

Castle Carr Road - 18th April

 Common Heath x 1 earlier today

Common Heath - Photo courtesy Paul B

This afternoon in some nice warm sunshine

Green Hairstreak x 11 - all were found on dandelion flowers adjacent to heather and bilberry heathland. None found on the plentiful dandelions elsewhere along the road other than the heath areas.

Green Hairstreaks

Also along the road

Small Tortoiseshell x 2

Peacock x 3

Lee Mount - 18th April

Still quiet for moths but despite that a bat was flying around last night at 8pm ( probably a 'pip'. )
Twin-spotted Quaker x 1
Common Quaker x 1

Brindled Pug x 1 

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

Male Orange-tip Butterfly in Shroggs Park woodland this morning.

16th April

3 Emperors kicking about near the Wind Farm , 20 + Philedonides lunana and 2 Mottled Grey....Speckled Wood , Orange Tip , Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell reported today..(thaks Nigel)

Lee Mount - 13th April to 15th April

Better than nothing at all......this cold weather is preventing much activity at night.

14th April

Hebrew Character x 1

Common Quaker x 1

Early Thorn x 1

Diurnia fagella x 1

Double-striped Pug x 1

14th April

Small Tortoiseshell x 2 on Soil Hill on Coltsfoot flowers

Later in the day on and around Castle Carr Road near Wainstalls

Small Tortoiseshell x 3

Peacock x 1

15th April

Agonopterix heracliana x 1 - the only moth at home

Shackleton Knoll / Walshaw and Crimsworth Dean today

Small Tortoiseshell x 5

Peacock x 1 

Philedonides lunana

Lots of these flying over heather on the walk up to Greater Manshead via Flints moor yesterday. They seemed to occur in great numbers all the way across Flints Moor and up Manshead but I only checked a few to confirm species.

Lee Mount - 8th April

Still cold overnight so not a lot doing

Clouded Drab x 1

Hebrew Character x 2

Common Quaker x 2

Double-striped Pug x 2

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

Lee Mount 3rd and 4th April

I recently got into the habit, if I could collect them safely, of moving moths well away from the house - otherwise the same ones seem to appear or stay around for several days.

3rd - Early Thorn x 1, Hebrew Character x 2, Common Quaker x 2, Diurnea fagella x 1, Brindled Pug x 1 and Early Grey x 1

4th - Twin-spotted Quaker x 1, Small Quaker x 1

 LUDDENDEN 310321

Brindled Pug  2

Oak Beauty  3

Clouded Drab  1

Hebrew Character  5

Twin-spot Quaker  1

Early Grey  1

Pine Beauty  2

Pine Beauty - grey variant

Small Quaker  11

Common Quaker  11 (there back)

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

 

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...

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.

 

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

New Yorkshire Butterfly Atlas online

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......

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

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

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

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 :)

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)

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.

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

Small magpie

 Small Magpie in the house today

Stainland.

1 x Dotted Border. 

 

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

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

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.....