Lee Mount -21st May

Five moths this morning - just a slight improvement ! Light-brown Apple-moth and a Twenty Plume Moth as well as these below.

Poplar Hawkmoth

Shuttle-shaped Dart

V-Pug (looking a bit faded)

Hag Lane - 20th May

Nice warm sunshine this afternoon so target butterfly was Wall Brown. Not disappointed, and managed to find four along the extent of Hag Lane which starts at the top of Lee Lane, back of the ski-slope overlooking Shibden Valley, and tracks around to Bradford Old Road overlooking Boothtown. Stone walls, dusty tracks and flowery grasslands, some on the edge of woodland gives a nice mixed habitat.

Small Tortoiseshell x 12+

Wall Brown x 4

Holly Blue x 2

Peacock x 1

Orange-tip x 6

Speckled Wood x 1

Best I could do with the Wall Browns this afternoon, very flighty and camera shy !

Lee Mount

A very boldly marked Green-veined White on Erysimum this morning and a Holly Blue flypast.

Stainland.

 Two moths this morning. When I do get moths, by the door, or in the garden, they are all micros.

1 x Bee Moth - Male.

1 x Light Brown Apple.

Lee Mount - 18th May

 Still not much doing up here with just a single Brimstone Moth in the trap and on the day before a very nice Herald and a single micro Tachystola acroxantha.

Herald

Shibden Valley

 Can someone identify this please

Ogden - 17th May

Heath-land area at the top end of the woodland this morning. Checked over some potential day flying moth spots, looking mainly for Mother Shiptons but couldn't find any. 

I came across this species of Longhorn Moths in abundance, obviously attracted to the bilberry in the warm bright sunshine. Amazing how the light showed them up in different ways as they flew around and landed briefly on the vegetation at first looking quite dark, then quite blue/green luminescent at times even with the long antennae looking blue as they caught the light.

Green Longhorn - Adela reaumurella

With thanks to Charlie for help towards identification.

Also in the area - a good number of Orange-tip butterflies, a few Green-veined Whites, 2 Green Hairstreak, 1 Peacock, 1 Speckled Wood, 1 Small Tortoiseshell.

One Holly Blue today at home and another from Nick Dawtrey in the Warley Road area near Highroad Well.

Swales Moor and Lee mount

Swales - Ringby Lane top field this afternoon.

I was fortunate to come across a Small Yellow Underwing in the grass area . I thought I had found a second one on the heather until I got home to look at it's photo. I should have realised, heather should have been a good clue ! This one, a Beautiful Yellow Underwing, a stunning little moth.

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Also some Common Heath moths, but tricky to get in focus photos among the heather.

Earlier in the day from the trap at home

Hebrew Character x 1

Foxglove Pug x 1

Bee Moth x 1

Stainland.

 13th May 2023.

A poor show due to the cold and wet weather. Better things to follow in the coming weeks, according to the Met Office..

1 x Bee Moth. (Male)

Lee Mount - 12th May

 Four moths this morning though I didn't expect anything after a cool breezy night.

Common Wave x 1

Shuttle-shaped Dart x 1

Light-brown Apple-moth x 1

Twenty-plume Moth x 1

Common Wave

Stainland. 10th May 2023

10th May 2023

I had a brown Angle Shades caterpillar. I've been trying to find out if the brown ones look, or are any way different from the green Angle Shades caterpillars, when they mature into moths, Does anyone know?

Angle Shades

Angle Shades

Also;

1 x Light Brown Apple

1 x Twenty plume

1 x Common plume (the only one I go a photo of).'

Common plume 

Lee Mount

Still nothing much doing with the moths despite the trap on every night. 

I did manage a photo this morning of one Dyseriocrania subpurpurella though earlier this week in the sunshine there were several day flying around the garden.

Early Grey x 2

Twenty-plume Moth x 1

Brown House-moth x 1

Holly Blue and a male Orange-tip in the garden on Tuesday 9th.

Found around 10 Green Hairstreaks at Ogden this afternoon (11th) in the heather/bilberry during short bursts of sunshine up the track adjacent to the golf course. Also one Small White.

Around and about

First Small White on and off in neighbors garden today.

Orange-tips at Ogden and Copley today and just an odd Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell.

Hoping for some moths tonight if it stays a bit milder and overcast - we'll see !

First three days of May

One moth per night here at the moment. Common Quaker x 1, Hebrew Character x 1. Wont get anything tonight with that cold easterly continuing.

Done a little better with butterflies including a decent show of Orange-tips at Stodfold near Ogden and along the banks of the R Calder at Brookfoot as well as this morning on Shroggs reclaimed landfill site. Also a Holly Blue on the landfill this morning fluttering around a flowering Prunus padus (Bird cherry). Several Peacocks and  Small Tortoiseshells mostly on dandelion flowers where not a lot else at ground level in flower.

Backdated Post -18 -20 April. Backlane Ogden and the moor, then Carr Hall Lane.

Sorry for the delay in posting this.. We went to visit friends, I took the camera and left it there by mistake. It took a couple of days to get it. back.

Backlane & moor. 18 April.

It was a sunny, cool day, with a stiff breeze. I saw two Peacock butterflies I was surprised to see them. I would have expected the strong gusty wind to have kept sheltering.

Carr Hall Lane. 20 April.

Again, cool, sunny and breezy. Most of Carr Hall Lane is sheltered, so it's generally warmer, with less wind.

Five peacocks .

One small Tortoiseshell. 

One Comma butterfly.

Over the years, I haven't seen many Peacocks, or Commas around here. I tend see more of them in North Norfolk. The Peacocks have for me, been hard to get good photos of, they are too shy. Is it proving to be a good year for them?

Comma Butterfly.

Peacock Butterfly.

1962...2023....its always been wet(or cold) in Calderdale....thanks A...Arak

 Mothing Evening July 10th 1962.

Mothing is a chancy business. The rain started about 4 o’clock. “If only it will clear” we said, “this may be a good night!”.

I phoned Bill Collinson. We met at 7.20pm and he ran us out in his car to see if anyone had turned up at 7.30.

Since it started, the rain had been a continuous downpour, and it just kept on. As we turned to go up the valley we saw a stream of water coming down the gutter, a wide stream. Higher up, water was pouring onto the road from the hillside in white torrents, and the cataracts at the roadside obscured all drains and rushed down more than a yard wide and was striped with foam.

Stone steps beside a house were now a waterfall. Every field and drain added its quota, in many places debris was spread across the road and we had to slow down to crash through rivers flowing from one side of the road to the other.

We kept on to the Clay Pits beyond the Carr. Here we got out. Everything was dripping wet and grey clouds obscured the hilltops, one arm of the cloud almost reaching down to Scout Hall.

The valley was covered, like a lid on a bowl, with ragged rainclouds. They continued to drop fatness upon the earth so we dived back into the car and sped for home.

(But as we parted we had a good chat on the Natural History of our project).

Castle Carr Road - 21st April

Wall to wall sunshine yesterday but the wind was pretty cool. Despite that we managed to find a single Green Hairstreak fluttering around the small heath-land area. It landed on a billberry and then a reed. I managed in the wind to get a blurred photo on the phone. 

Also along the road there were  a few sheltered spots and managed to find 4 Small Tortoiseshells and two Peacocks.

Lee Mount - 18th April and Luddenden

Lee Mount 

Hebrew Character x 5 in the trap and that was it !

Comma in a garden on dandelion flowers at Bracewell Grove late morning

Luddenden

Sunny warm afternoon in the valley mostly in the shelter from the cool easterly wind.

Brook Terrace area - Brimstone x 2 with one of them travelling up the valley and back again then down the valley and returning, seemed like checking out territory ?

Also in the area, mostly among stream-side vegetation - male Orange-tip x 1, Comma x 1, Small Tortoiseshell x 2 and several Peacock.

We also found another Brimstone in the cemetery this time on yellow primroses and a Speckled Wood by the weir near the church.

Not a bad afternoon !

Sowerby Bridge

 1 male Orange Tip by the canal today

Lee Mount - 17th April

Still a few hangers on from yesterday on the garden fence.

New ones in this morning....

Satellite (white marked) x 1

Hebrew Character x 3

Double-striped Pug x 1

Bee Moth x 1

Lee Mount - 16th April

 At last a few moths.....

In and around the trap this morning.

Clouded Drab x 4

Twin-spotted Quaker x 1

Small Quaker x 2

Common Quaker x 2

Early Thorn x 1

Chestnut x 1

Hebrew Character x 1

Common Plume x 1 

Early Grey x 1

Brindled Pug x 2

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

One micro as below c10 mm - not had much time to study this one yet and still to identify if someone can help ?

Second thoughts - or is it just a Twenty-plume Moth with closed wings ?

Four butterflies this afternoon just off Bradford Old Road - all disturbed on stone walls.

Peacock x 2

Small Tortoiseshell x 2

Cromwell Bottom 15/04/23

 Purple Thorn x 1

Early Tooth Striped x 5

Brindled Pug x 2

Common Quaker x 1

Clouded Drab x 2

Grey  Birch x 1

Twin Spotted Quaker x 1 

Grapholita junigella x 3

Hebrew Character x 11

Lee Mount

 Still not a lot....

7th April 

Common Quaker x 2

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

9th April

Common Quaker x 3

Twin-spotted Quaker x 1

Hebrew Character x 1

Bee Moth x 1 (indoors and nice to be lucky enough to see this one with wings open). At least I can't think of anything else it might be as it does seem unusually dark. I haven't been able to find any other photo's of underwing or reference to it's colour.

Bee Moth

Lee mount - 7th April

 One Peacock butterfly this afternoon in the garden - nothing else to report !!!

Lee Mount - 4th April

 At last - a butterfly. Just the one, a Comma landed briefly on a Cotoneaster never to be seen again !!

Nothing doing on the moth front either. The light is attracting nothing but the weather is not helping at all. Just a Bee Moth found in the bathroom this afternoon - and that's the lot.

Castle Carr Road - 27th March

Just a single Fox Moth caterpillar crossing the road from the heath-land area across to the fields this afternoon . Narrowly missed by traffic, including  a tractor. They are always an exciting find but like Hedgehogs they live precariously when on the move.

Lee Mount -24th March

Some lovely spells of sunshine so I spent a lot of time in the garden, mostly sitting and watching the sky in the hope of an Osprey passing through ! No luck there but also watching for butterfly's, none whatsoever but mid afternoon an Orange Underwing came through the garden, right past me, then up through the trees in the park. Some really good birch woodland down there so if conditions are right this next week I'll be taking a look down there.

Stainland. 20th March 2023

 Hello

A brief account of the last few months.

At the end of August 2022, I became unwell. Over the next few weeks, I became worse and was very ill until mid January. Just as I was recovering, I started to feel quite ill again. I'd contracted a viral infection. After about 6 days, the effort of walking upstairs left me short of breath. I was incredibly weak and aching all over. I had to lay on the bed until I felt better. I began to improve about ten days ago. I need to build my stamina up, Other than that, I'm finally alright again. I have to say, I've felt better in my life and it messed Christmas up. Still, it takes a lot to keep me down.

Spring is here, wonderful! Yesterday, I woke to find two Angle Shades caterpillars by the door, it was a great discovery and bucked me up no end. They are only about 1 inch long, I assume they must be quite new.

Angle Shades.

Angle Shades.

Hello Edward. I wondered what had happened to you last year. (Not prying) I assumes it was you who left a comment in my October Graphics post. I did leave a reply. I'm working (slowly, see a above) on a new post. It should be online in a week or so. Keep dropping in.

Lee Mount - 20th March

Got the light on last night for a couple of hours till the drizzle set in

Common Quaker x 1 (first of the year here)

March Moth x 4 (included one in a spiders web that was a 'gonna')

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

Pale Brindle Beauty - this one too, probably a few days old in a different spiders web. Body gone but the wings were intact.

Heavy drizzle tonight now, so trap shut down. It's a lot cooler than last night as well.

17th MArch 2013

 Had my first Orange Underwing at Cromwell Bottom today , 20 Fox Moth , 1 Ruby Tiger and 1 Oak Eggar caterpillars at Walshaw Dean and an Early Grey drowned in a puddle....

Last night in the trap...

Hebrew Character x 1 

Clouded Drab x  1 

Oak Beauty x 1 

Oak Nycetoline x 1

Chestnut x 1

March Moth x 3

Red green Carpet x 1

Common Quaker x 5

Brindled Pug x 1

Agonopterix Arnella x 1

SHibden Head

 9  Heralds in Bare Head tunnel today.............

Luddenden 21st February

My best night ever in February variety wise last night

Oak Beauty 4

Pale Brindled Beauty 3

Dotted Border 1

Mottled Grey 1

Chestnut 1

Satellite (orange spotted 1) 

March Moth 1

also my first Hebrew Character this year on the 19th

Lee Mount

 A second Dotted Border on 14th Feb 

A fourth Pale Brindled Beauty (monochraria) on 19th Feb and still here on 22nd

Tortricodes alternella x 1 on 21st along with a single March Moth

Tortricodes alternella

 LUDDENDEN - February so far

It's been pretty good in Luddenden so far this February starting with the first Moth on the 3rd

3rd.  Pale Brindled Beauty 1 (f monochraria)

10th  Pale Bridled Beauty 2

11th Pale Brindled Beauty 2  (1 f monochraria)

        Spring Usher

        Dotted Border

        Chestnut

Spring Usher

12th Pale Brindled Beauty 3 (1 f monochraria)

14th Pale Brindled Beauty 2

15th Pale Brindled Beauty 4

16th Pale Brindled Beauty 10 (1 f monochraria)

        Spring Usher

        Dotted Border

        March Moth

17th Pale Brindled Beauty 7 (3 f monochraria)

        Spring Usher 

Usually most of my Pale Brindled Beauties are f monochraria but there has been very few this year despite having more already than my total numbers for the last 12 years.

Pale Brindled Beauty

Pale Brindled Beauty f monochraria

Lee Mount - 12th Feb

 All three Pale Brindled Beauty still there tonight with one new one on the window

Dotted Border (underside and upper)

Lee Mount 10th and 11th February 2023

Some moths, at last. Well,it's a start !

Pale Brindled Beauty x 3 tonight including the form monacharia

Also Agonopterix heracliana (I suspect, rather than ciliella) x 1

Castle Carr Road

Fox Moth caterpillar, just short of  c 3" long, creeping along a track just off Castle Carr Road in the sunshine this afternoon. Moved it off the track into the adjacent field edge to save it getting run over or trodden on. 

Still nothing at all turning up in or around the trap in Lee Mount - despite it being on most nights. 

Rishworth - 3rd February - First moths of 2023

 Hello all, It's been quite a while, but I'm back and hopefully actually back unlike last year.

The trap ran from 17.00 to 22.20 tonight and I've managed the first moths of the year for here :)

Moth Trap 3rd February 2023 - 17.00 to 22.20

- Pale Brindled Beauty x2 [NFY]

    - Normal form x1

    - f.monocharia x1

- Agonopterix heracliana x1 [NFY]

Pale Brindled Beauty f.monocharia, Rishworth, 03.02.2023

Pale Brindled Beauty, Rishworth, 03.02.2023

Free online webinar

 Just seen this free event for Thursday....

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wingtip-decoys-and-stealth-cloaks-by-marc-holderied-brad-ashby-lecture-tickets-472200272727

It might be of interest to some.

New Macro Moth Species for Calderdale in the last 3 years

Chocolate Tip ,

Scorched Wing 

Black Arches

Cloaked Pug

Silver Hook

Lesser Common Rustic (gen det)

December Moth

Box Tree Moth

Vines Rustic

Scarce Footman

Heath Rivulet

Obscure Wainscot

Scarlet Tiger

Small Mottled Willow (i thought this was a new record but have found 2 old records for this migrant)

Lee Mount

 Nothing doing yet here at all this New Year - we live in hope !

Three micros from last year (with help from CS and CF)

Bucculatrix ulmella (14th Aug 22)

Caloptilia rufipennella (20th Aug 22)

Ypsolopha sylvella (21st Sept 22)

2022 AND INTO 2023

  2022 was again an excellent year with record temps and again more new species for Calderdale. Obscure Wainscot , Scarce Footman , Scarlet Tiger ( no one had that on there list of maybe's) , Heath Rivulet  and Vines Rustic.   Small Mottled Willow , Red Necked Footman , Box Moth and many more. HNY and here's to 2023....who knows what will turn up next..??????

Lee Mount !

Nothing doing at all here in December other than indoors a single Twenty-plume Moth on 4th. With the weather as it is, it's not looking hopeful for any moths just yet though I keep hoping for December Moth (don't think they like our area !)

Lee Mount - 27th and 28th October

Very mild last night but plenty of rain. This was a new one for here , well first time I've recognized this micro though it has quite a distinct shape.

Exapate congelatella (10mm)

The weather still produced just a few moths for this morning.

Tachystola acroxantha x 1

November Moth agg x 2

Feathered Thorn x 1

Brick x 1

Sallow sp ? x 1 (still to confirm)

2 shots of suspected Sallow sp. - looks quite faded at 15mm -any thoughts ?

Confirmed as Scarce Bordered Straw (thanks to AC CF and DIC)

Also later in the day singles of...

Mottled Umber and a Red-green Carpet

Lee Mount

 Last few days - not a lot..........though November Moth agg up to 3 most nights

Silver Y x 1 (18th) and a Feathered Thorn

Lesser Yellow Underwing (22nd) looked freshly emerged ! 

24th Oct

Shuttle-shaped Dart x 1 - seemed quite late for this sp.

Tachystola acroxantha x 2

Light-brown Apple-moth x 2

26th October

Mottled Umber x 1

Common Marbled Carpet x 1

Lee Mount - 18th October

Just a single Feathered Thorn this morning and a Red-green Carpet still from yesterday.

A Streak just turned up fluttering around the light trap, a first for here, Hopefully a photo if it complies !

Streak - best angle I could get so far

Speckled Wood in Luddenden this afternoon.

Shibden Valley

Red Admiral 1 

Lee Mount - 17th October

Just a few moths on and around the trap this morning

Red-green Carpet x 2

Light-brown Apple-moth x 2

Ypsolopha sequella x 1 (stunning little micros)

Large Yellow Underwing x 1

November Moth agg x 1

Yellow-line Quaker x 1

October Butterflies

Small White.... 13th Holly Blue...13th Comma ...15th Red Admiral .....14th Small Tortoiseshell ....13th Peacock........13th Speckled Wood ...13th Wall Brown .......11th

Red Admirals

Three Red Admirals seen yesterday in different locations and one at Mixenden reservoir on 10th. Will be on the lookout for more if we get some sunny days !

Have been trying for Haworth's Minors but no luck as yet - hardly any ragwort in flower on the uplands !

Lee Mount - 6th October

I went out into the garden just after dark - 3 moths buzzing around the Erysimum and Verbena bonariensis looking like Hummingbirds Hawkmoths - too small. 

Indoors for the camera and managed to get a single shot of one on the Verbena, wings always in motion. I came to the conclusion they were probably Silver Y's but they didn't seem to like the torch, or my presence ! I couldn't re-find them though I tried shortly afterwards but the wind had also increased so might try again tomorrow night - unless they end up in the trap in the morning !

Still a Red Admiral around the garden late morning.

Lee Mount - 3rd and 4th October

 A little milder last night(3rd) produced just a few !

.

November Moth agg x 1

Lunar Underwing x 1

Common Marbled Carpet x 3

Red-green Carpet x 1

Light-brown Apple-moth x 4

Tachystola acroxantha x 2

Red Admiral and 2 Speckled Woods late morning of 3rd.

4th Oct

Acleris sparsana x 2

November Moth agg x 4

Snout x 1 (was my latest ever though it was fading)

Black Rustic x 1

Lesser Yellow Underwing x 1

Large Yellow Underwing x 3

Pug sp unidentified