Rannoch Looper 15th June Luddenden

This beauty turned up last night (not the best photo, hopefully I'll get some better ones). It took us long enough to decide what it was but Andy has just confirmed it. A very rare Moth and another species to Calderdale's growing list.

I will be keeping it until tonight if anyone would like to see it, please call Andy for our address   

                        

  A better photo but with the wings up

also Scallop Shell amongst others

Lunar Hornet Moth , Walsden

 An adult Lunar Hornet Moth on Grey Willow seen today near Walsden

Stainland.

 From 15th & 16th June.

15th

1 x Marbled Beauty (1st this year for me)

1 x Common Marbled Carpet - Worn (Orange form)

1 x Eudonia lacustrata

1 x Golden Rod Pug (1first for me) 

Golden Rod Pug

16th

1 x Cinnabar (little beast flew off before I got a photo)

1 x Light Brown Apple 

1 x Eudonia lacustrata

I wonder how many Light Brown Apple are in out hedge? Every time I walk near part of it, one flies out.

1 x  Pale Tussock (1st for me, I was very pleased ti find one)

Pale Tussock

Pale Tussock - Front legs detail

Lee Mount - 15th / 16th June

I planted some Sweet Williams in tubs last autumn in the hope of attracting Varied Coronet. I've been checking the blooms each evening. Nothing doing until last night..... then two turned up. Hovering at times over the flowers and also resting to feed on the nectar. One still here, in the trap this morning.

Love it when a plan comes together

Varied Coronet

Not a lot else this morning other than a Turnip Moth and two unidentified pugs, Heart and Dart x 5 etc.

Shroggs - reclaimed landfill

An hour down there late morning. I did a steady stroll around the grassland perimeter..

 SE079260

Meadow Brown x 64

Large Skipper x 41

Ringlet x 1

Speckled Wood x 3

Meadow Brown

Ringlet

Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey - 13th June

Trying to catch up with records.... 

I did my WCBS - BBS tetrad SE0430 - part of Cold Edge and part of Ovenden Moor on Tuesday. It was pretty warm at 22c+ though a stiff >NE breeze probably limited the count to 41 from 6 species. It's not always easy to pick the best day for butterfly's, weather wise, at this upland location but it will do !

Cold Edge section centered on SE 043303

Wall Brown x 2 

Small White x 4

Small Copper x 1

Small Heath x 13

Large Skipper x 13

Red Admiral x 1

Ovenden Moor section centered on SE 047308

Small Heath x 5

Wall Brown x 1

Small White x 1

Beacon Hill

 1 Ringlet

Byron Edge

Small Heath 2 

Lee Mount - Sunday 12th June

A better night ! 48 moths from 22 species including

Ruby Tiger x 1

Elephant hawkmoth x 1

Bright-line-brown-eye x 1

Flame x 1

Large Yellow Underwing x 1 (first of the year here)

Brimstone Moth x 2

Dark/Grey Dagger x 1

Flame Shoulder x 1

Garden Carpet x 1

Tachystola acroxanth x 17

Pug sp. x 2 (unidentified including one melanistic)

Several micro - still looking at but included this Coleophora sp.? 5mm 'ish' with 'woolly' antenna base extending onto it's head -  though not found anything near a match ! 

Cromwell Bottom

 Charlie , Anthony and myself ran 4 traps last night at Cromwell Bottom , 300 + moths of 105 species .Sandy Carpet x 3  , Obscure Wainscot x 5 , Alder Moth , Miller , Scalloped Hook Tip , Small china - mark ..more to follow

10 June

Beacon Hill: Red Admiral 1, Large Skipper 1

New Bank: Wall 1

Swales Moor - Ringby Lane and Ringby top

Day flying moths...

Chrysoteuchia culmella x 6

Yellow Shell x 1

Mother Shipton x 1

Butterflies along the lane and the top field

Painted Lady x 1

Large Skipper x 3

Wall x 7

Small Heath x 16 

Small White x 1

Large Skipper 

Painted Lady

Cold Edge

 3 Wall, including these 2 males

Lee Mount - 8th June

Just four moths this morning

Heart and Dart x 2

Freyer's Pug x 1 (as far as I can tell)

Freyer's Pug

Also this micro - not a lot to go on !

5mm micro - possibly Scrobipalpa acuminatella for any comments but not sure as I think they need Gen det and it's gone now!

Bar Lane Ripponden

3 Speckled Wood

Also, 2 Small White 

Lee Mount - 7th June

Sill a cold wind overnight ....

Peppered Moth x 1

Heart and Dart x 6

Spruce Carpet x 1

Common Swift x 1 (never had one of these pale unmarked ones before - it made me check)

Peppered Moth and Heart and Darts

Common Swift

 

Spruce Carpet - rather than Grey Pine Carpet I think

Lee Mount - 6th June

Elephant Hawkmoth x 2

Heart and Dart x 8

Lee Mount etc... 5th June

 Moth trap - still not a lot..

Scalloped Hazel (nigra) x 1

Heart and \Dart x 2

Elephant Hawkmoth x 1

Light-brown Apple-moth x 1

Brown Housemoth x 1

Also Holly Blue and Small White butterfly's around the garden.

Shroggs - reclaimed landfill site 

Crambus lathoniellus x 1

Silver-ground Carpet x 1

Speckled Wood x 4

Large Skipper x 2

One Bird Cherry with a lot of ermine moth webs

One Bird Cherry with a lot of ermine moth webs

Large Skipper

Stainland.

 My first Angle Shades moth this year, nice and fresh.

Angle Shades

Lee Mount - 3rd June

 Five sp. of butterfly's yesterday in the garden. Same conditions today and not a single sight of one !

Moths this morning

Common Swift x 1

Elephant Hawkmoth x 1

Tachystola acroxantha x 1

Gracillaria syringella x 1

Common Swift

Elephant Hawkmoth

Gracillaria syringella (appeared on the car after I'd washed it)

Lee Mount etc - 2nd June

 An interesting day at home today, once the sun came out.

Pair of Large Red Damselfly around the garden plantpots.

One each - Wall Brown, Small Copper, Large White, Small White and a Speckled Wood.

Heart and Dart x 3 in the moth trap - but no other moths  !

Rustic Shoulder-knot x 1 yesterday

Mother Shipton x 1 found at Withens Clough res'r yesterday afternoon

30th May

Angle Shades x 1

Foxglove Pug x 1

Cinnabar x1

Copley - St Stephen's graveyard this afternoon

Comma x 1

Small White x 2

Cold Edge

 20 Large Red Damselflies

Also: 1 Wall, 1 Peacock

Stainland.

Just a stubby, brown caterpillar today, an Angle Shades. The only Angle Shades cats I've seen this year, have been shorter and fatter than normal, perhaps it's the cold. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will tell me. (I hope).

Two slightly different angles of the same creature.

Angle Shades

 

 Luddenden last night

Not a bad again last night, pick of the bunch was this Alder Moth

Others were

White-spotted Pug  2

Buff Ermine 2

Poplar Hawkmoth 2

Buff-tip 1

Heart & Dart 1

Flame Shoulder 1

Rustic-shoulder Knot 1

Green Silver-lines 1

Stainland.

 Over the last three days I have recorded:

1 x Bee moth - Male, (strongly coloured. The others I've seen so far this year, were all quite pale.)

1 x Twenty plume

3 x Light Brown Apple.

1 x White Ermine

1 x Dark Barred Twin-Spot (A first for me.)

1 X  Broom Moth TBC

Dark Barred Twin-Spot 

 Luddenden 28th May

The night of the Pale Tussock

Male

Female

Another decent night here with a whopping 10 Pale Tussock (9m 1f)

also

Brown Silver Line I

Scalloped Hazel  1

Common Swift 1

Flame Shoulder 1

Ingrailed Clay  1

Rustic-shoulder Knot 1

 Luddenden last night - 

The Moth I have been waiting for finally arrived last night, a Puss Moth. I had singles at Pellon in 2007 and 2009 but this is the first here

Others last night were 

Pale Prominent 1

Pale Tussock 3

Small Elephant Hawkmoth 1

Poplar Hawkmoth 2

Buff Ermine 1

Foxglove Pug 1

White-spotted Pug 1

As a matter of interest all the Moths this year have been caught with 22W circular Actinic bulbs, in fact I rarely use my MV125 trap and have not done for at least 2 years. 

Lee Mount - 28th May

 Just the one moth this morning.

Green Silver-lines

Lee Mount - 27th May

 Still not  a lot...

Pale Tussock x 1 - male found freshly dead in the trap

Elephant Hawkmoth x 1

Common Carpet x 1

Garden Carpet x 1

Bee Moth x 2

Tachystola acroxantha x 1

Unidentified Pug x 1

Common Carpet

Elephant Hawkmoth

Garden Carpet

 

Pale Tussock - dead 

Orange Footman

 Charlie Streets recorded 5 Orange Footman at Hardcastle Craggs this week , one that I've been hoping for the last few years. The first new species of the year ...Nice one Charlie

Last night  in Northowram , Miller , Pebble Prominent  , 2 Seraphim and a Spectacle were the best....Orange Tip , Brimstone(male) , Red Admiral , Holly Blue (at least 3) , Small White , Small Tortoiseshell in and around the garden this week

Blackstone Edge

 2 Green-veined Whites, 1 male Orange Tip

Lee Mount - 26th May

Still no overnight quantity.......other than a few 'hangers on' from yesterday

Pretty sure this first one will be Knot Grass(?)  though I have had to lighten it up a bit to improve the features (it was very dark).

Knot Grass 

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Small Elephant Hawkmoth (only 2nd record for this site)

Yesterday at Ogden and Ovenden Moor...

Masses of Common Heaths flying low over the heather moor but nothing else much other than Brown Silver-line x 2 found among the bracken.

Still a good few Orange-tip butterflies as well as Green-veined Whites and a Small White but unable to find any Green Hairstreaks despite the perfect conditions. They must be there !

 Luddenden 24th May

At last things are picking up with the warmer nights, I was just saying on Dave's post yesterday that I had never had a Fox Moth here and one turned up last night. In a repeat of the one I had at Pellon in 2010 she laid eggs. 

Female Fox Moth

Fox Moth Eggs

others last night were

Common Pug 4

White-spotted Pug 1

Narrow-winged Pug 2

White-pinion Spotted 2

Green Carpet 1

Brown Silver-line 2

Clouded Silver 1

Flame Carpet 1

Purple Bar 1

Common Swift 2

Small Elephant Hawkmoth 2

Pale Tussock 2

Shoulder-striped Wainscot 1

Flame Shoulder 1

Scalloped Hazel 1

White-pinion Spotted

 

Lighthazzles

 Mother Shipton