Topical Tip

I spotted that large areas of Ivy are now in flower here in Edern as I walked down the track to the coast for a spot of fishing this afternoon (a nice Pollack now filleted and awaiting cooking for my tea). The ivy flowers were covered in butterflies, silver y moths, hoverflies and bees, all feeding away on the flowers. Searching Ivy by both day and night is supposed to be as good as "sallowing" in spring. To be at its best you need a decent sized patch and it not to be too tall as its hard to spot moths much above head height. I know of one excellent patch in Calderdale (I'm sure there must be hundreds more), its on the wall between the canal and river just past Red Beck on the canal. Park at Avocet and walk down to just past the bend near the Red Beck and there is a superb patch of Ivy which flowers profusely each year is never above head height, perfect for some night shots or netting and is always covered in insects as long as the weather is fine (its been a scorcher here again this afternoon)

AES Bulletins & Bug Club Mags

I have a few copies of the Amateur Entomological Society Bulletin going free to a good home, all this years issues so far. I also have some copies of the Bug Club magazine, these are aimed at younger members of the AES but are still a good read for adults or kids. Anyone want any or all of these let me know and I will pop them in the post free of charge.

Charming little critter.

My first post here. Would love to know what this is. Andy C posted this up earlier.
I found it today near Queensbury.
I'm a birdwatcher with an increasing interest in wildlife generally and very out of my depth when it comes to moths, butterflies and wriggly plant eaters to name a few. Would really appreciate your id input please. Probably nothing rare but it's attractive and it's exciting finding all sorts of critters locally.

Weekends moths

Frosted orange 1
Barred Sallow 1
Pink Barred Sallow 1
Lunar Underwing 2
Black Rustic 4
Feathered Ranunculus 1
Willow Beauty 1
Rosy Rustic 3
Garden Carpet 2
Common Marbled Carpet 6
Large YU 10
Lesser YU 1
Angle Shades 1
Light Brown Apple moth 12
Garden Rose Tortrix 9
Small Sq Spot 1
Acleris sp 4

ID help

Hi all ,any one id this ,could be a Broom Moth but not 100%.

Last nights activity

Tried the honey on the sedum, during the day had lots of bumble bees, wasps and hoverfly. Also a brief visit from a small tortoiseshell.

Set up the trap and looked at the sedum about 9pm. 1 Silver Y making use of the honey.

Trap run over night with only 2 moths, pictured, if any one can help me ID them I would be grateful.

I have found a slight problem with the honey on the sedum that brought itself to light this morning. Normally our garden is visited over night by large mammals(I'm not going to say which were the offending characters but there are 3 types), some of them had a great feast on the honey flowers and they are now in tatters on the pathway. I now have few sedum to attract anymore moths and one very annoyed girldfriend who quite like the sedum display. So be warned.

Eastwood and Ibbot Royd

Just a few butterflies yesterday
2 red admirals
2 peacocks
number of speckled woods

I tried the moth trap the other night and ended up with some very puzzled neighbours but no moths. So I'm going to try the honey technique tonight. Is it just runny honey onto the flower heads, or is there a secret formula, and would my trap be better in the open on the grass, under the willow tree or near to the sedum? Any help gratefully received.

Garden Tiger...........

Hi all following on from Martyns find of a dead Garden Tiger at his work place in Hebden(may have been an import or maybe not)Brian leesey found two larvae today in Todmorden.This is great news as they have not been seen and presumed lost for ever as a breeding species in our area many years ago.
1 Feathered Ranunculus last night and a totall of 9 Balck Rustics so far this season.I have to agree with Paul and Martyn a real beaut (not rare justa beautiful moth)

Not rare but I'm impressed!

OK so I don't think these are especially rare moths but I was very impressed with both of them in the trap today, spectacular beasts! Of course when I checked in the book there appear to be several very similar Thorn species but I think this is a Canary Shouldered? and the other an Angleshades.

Sweet Tip Udate

Hi all

Just had a quick look on the sedums with honey at 8.30pm and spotted several moths feeding. Looks like the tip works.

Sweet Tip

I was reading some old lepidoptera articles last night and one suggested that sugaring grass heads and the like was as useful as sugaring trunks & posts in attracting moths. As I do not have a sugar solution ready mixed I decided to try out "runny" honey on some just about gone over heads of Sedum spectablis (butterfly plant) to test the theory during daylight hours. As you can see from the photo it was immediately successful in attracting Silver Y Moths. So far this morning I have had Bumblebees, various hoverflies sp, Silver Y Moths and Red Admiral feeding away happily. I think its safe to say Lidl Forest Honey (shown) at £1.69 a bottle is going to get some use in my moth expeditions in future ! Yesterday was scorching here and today is also starting to get very hot. Yesterday the sedum were being ignored in the main as its starting to seed,today they have been full of feeding insects all day. Another benifit of this attractant is that once the insects are feeding they rarely fly away so you can get up real close for some photos. Someone like Charly or Martyn should be able to get some cracking shots

Not Calderdale but

I had my first ever Black Rustic (Aporophyla nigra) last night. I only wish Charly or Martyn were here to take some decent photos for me ! I have it sitting in fridge so that I can hopefully get a natural looking shot later but for now this is all I have. The photo does not do justice to the moth which is jet black in colour with brown flecks and has pearly underwings, its really is quite spectacular to look at. I have only ever seen pinned museum specimens in Yorkshire so was thrilled to trap this last night.

Twice on the Trot

Apologies for posting from nearly 3 miles out of area but this is a topical shot, being yet another species I have not seen before. Taken at Chellow Dene, Allerton, this lunchtime. I'm not even going to hazard any guesses, I'll leave it up to you experts.

Butterflies and a couple of Dragons

There seems to have been a massive influx of Red Admirals over the last couple of days ,with at least 30 + seen at differnt sites(ringstone, soil hill,Ogden,Barkisland and Northowram).There were 300 in off at Spurn on Monday.Also a lot of Speckle woods and Peacocks.
2 very large Brown Hawkers at Ringstone yeasterday and 4/5 Common Darters(i think?) at soil Hill this morning.

Soil Hill Fritillary

Does it make sense that I saw a Dark Green Fritillary on Soil Hill this lunchtime? It was flying in an area of mixed heather, rough grass and rushes and when settled did so with open wings. The only chance I got to take a photograph timewise, was offset by the dangerous terrain (if you overbalance here, you stand a good chance of being maimed). I've had a look at the other contenders and the habitat appears suitable only for this species. This stood out because the only others around were Red Admirals.

Withens Clough Car park

Hawoth's Minor
Not a bad night with 2 of the target species(pic above) recorded and a very late Clouded Bordered Brindle.(latest record on Yorkshire database is 18th August come on Paul Im sure you must have had a later one)Full list
Haworth's Minor 2
Common marbled Carpet 4
Garden Carpet 3
Lesser YU 3
Large YU 2
Angle Shades 2
Mouse Moth 4
Pink Barred sallow 1
Grey Pine Carpet 1
Clouded Borederd Brindle 1

Cromwell Bottom LNR

Went out mammal trapping (or should that be releasing) this morning.
Lots of speckled wood
1 red admiral

I was speaking to a guy who was walking round and he had taken a few photos, amongst which was a red underwing on the Bailey bridge. I tried to find it but it had flown off.

Also
Brown hawker
Common blue damselfly

Have finally got the bulbs for my moth trap so will be trying out in the gardenover the next few days.

Withens Clough Car park

Monday night(weather looks ok?) 8 -11 if any one is interested.Trying for Haworth's Minor.?

Proposed Photo Gallery

Re the posting dated 05/09/08 on proposals of a photo gallery to this blog. AC mentions the existing gallery on Birdbrain http://queensburybirder.blogspot.com/ which is a link to a Windows Skydrive account giving 5GB of drive space. In order to create the gallery, the blog owner and other users have to first create Windows Live accounts, normally by using their existing Email addresses and passwords. The owner then gives levels of permissions to users enabling them to only read, or edit and delete the pictures posted on the gallery.

Once the messy bit above is sorted out, it works well in my opinion, but I have to say the fall off of posting by other users on Birdbrain has been dramatic. This means I tend to post pictures myself - not a problem because I have oodles of time. I think it raises the question though of is it worth the effort and time Andy, as you are the blog editor. Of course, I am willing to give all the help I can, but rather than flood this blog with postings, I suggest you Email me on my usual address.

Last night

I had a decent night last yesterday with a good variety of Moths, the numbers may be down now but the quality is great

Straw Dot

Black Rustic

Red-green Carpet

also

Garden Carpet 11
Common Marbled Carpet 6
Svensonn's Copper Underwing 4
Large Yellow Underwing 6
Lesser Yellow Underwing 3
Pink Barred Sallow
Silver Y
Garden Dart