Micro for i.d.

can anyone i.d. this little beauty please

Prominent night in Midgley

Looks like the prominents were out in force last night - We had an Iron Prominent and Pebble Prominent, but the star of the night was our first Poplar Hawkmoth! Also got a cracking Flame Carpet just asking to be photographed. Hebrew Characters were aplenty too with 17 in the trap.

Looking forward to emptying the trap tomorrow morning...

Cock Hill Moor Thursday

Hi All, Wandering on Cock Hill Moor yesterday saw lots of Common Heath and about 30 Green Hairstreak, these two enjoying the sun. Also saw what I think is a wild violet. Can anyone confirm? Win

Hardcastle Craggs thurs 21 04 11

Tried 4 hours or so at Hollin Hall, 22 species, brown silver-line 5,flame carpet 2,a arenella 2,brindled pug 30,red chestnut 2,small phoenix 1,small quaker 1,v pug 1,iron prominent 1,lesser swallow prominent 4,hebrew character 8,purple thorn 1,early thorn 4,common quaker 19,eriocrania subpurpurella 1,diurnea fagella 1,water carpet 3,clouded drab 21,twin spot quaker 1 worn,powdered quaker 2,autumn green carpet 1,common pug 1,and 2 pugs to be checked.a pic of iron prominent.regards Bri. ps im saying nothing about generators !!

Green Hairstreak

Spotted this near Jack Bridge yesterday.

Water Carpet

as predicted by Brian I had my first Water Carpet for Luddenden last night, not as bright as some individuals I've seen but not bad

any more predictionss Brian

Common Quaker - 1 day old

my Common Quaker eggs hatched yesterday and here's one of thee cats, very small at just over 1mm in size, shame I can't post it in RAW format it's lost a lot of detail during compression

Hardcastle Craggs thurs 21 04 11

New genny has arrived will try thurs will meet at top car park 7 30 ish if anyone can make it regards Bri.

Saw my first Speckled Wood of the year today in Sunnybank wood, Todmorden. Quite a few Orange tips around as well.

Purple patch

Looks like were in for a real purple patch over the weekend with tepms set to rocket so good luck .3 Powdered Quaker,Early and Purple thorn ,Common and Foxglove Pug and 20+ hebrew Characters last night.Today at Norland opposite the Moorcock 4/5 Green hairstreak ,2 Common Heath,10+ Peacock,6 Small tortoiseshell an  Incurvaria species which I think is  pectinea  but it was flying round billberry but birch nearby??? .My first Speckled woods and loads of Large and Green veined whites.

Swarming behaviour of insects (Update)

Hi all, A follow up to my post from last week -

http://calderdalemoths.blogspot.com/2011/04/swarming-behaviour-of-insects.html

I seem to have got to the bottom of this. Largely with thanks to Tony Irwin via The Society for the study of flies (Diptera) who have an excellent resource in their website here -

http://www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/

The swarming flies turned out to be Non-biting midges (Chironomidae) are also sometimes called chironomids. There are There over 5000 known species worldwide. Exhibiting a high degree of sexual diamorphism the males have hugely feathered antenae. It is extremely difficult to accurately identify an individual species so this is the best we can do.

Win x

Yesterday's Sightings

Took a stroll on Midgeley Moor yesterday (Sunday) and saw lots of these Common Heath (This one a female with simple antenae) also possible Emperor Moth. Eleswhere Eriocrania, Orange Tip, Peacock, Small Tortoise Shell and a single Green Hairstreak were all on the wing.

White ermine

An early White Ermine this morning resting near the trap.Dont usally get um till erly May.....

Orange Tip stages

Now Orange Tip Butterflies are on the wing its a good time to find the eggs,they are quite obvious to see being orange, around the flower heads especially of Cuckoo Flower cardamine pratensis and Garlic Mustard alliaria petiolata.Females usually lay 1 egg per flower head as the larva are cannibalistic,but as often happens a later Female can lay an egg already with a larva on as in this instance where the younger larva became a meal for the older,the older larva are very cryptic when resting on the seedpods,these were on Garlic Mustard

Scalloped Hazel

This scalloped hazel was found last night on a tree trunk in the back garden,my previous earliest was the 28th April.with a nice autumn Green Carpet on the fence..Caught a few micros round the house with the net and torch last night including White Shouldered and Brown House Moth,Agonoptrix arnella ,Twenty plumed moth and Diurnea fagella.

SUNDAY NIGHT CANCELLED

Sorry all tonight is cancelled as I have to go for an x-mas dinner(its a long story)....will try tomorrow Monday..Brians genny blew up mlast night so all in all a poor weekend

This week in Luddenden

It's been very poor this week with few Moths about, I wonder if this is because they were all active earlier in the warm weather, anyway a couple of Purple Thorns saved the week, I also thought I'd post a photo of Hebrew Character as I don't recall seeing one on the blog before

Caloptilia sp.?? Caloptilia rufipennella

This Caloptilia looks just like leucapennella in Manley page 21 but is most likely to be rufipennella ??....anyone got any ideas.??This was gen det by Jon Clifton at Anglican lep supplies on the 19th April as a Caloptilia rufipennella ...

Swarming behaviour of insects

On our way through Luddenden foot this afternoon we noticed some swarming insects over the main road. Eager to see what was going on at close had, I turned around the car and returned to the sycamores which were just coming into leaf. 1000's of small flies / midges were on the wing, but not just in a cloud. The behavious of the whole group was extraordinary: vertical and diagonal lines of insects resembled smoke which every now and again seemed to generate 'clumps' of insects which fell to earth only to disappear (They were over the busy main road). Many insect were on nearbly fences and the footpath but no others were seen on our way through the Calder Valley. Has anyone else seen anything like this (I am guessing they have and will make our observations seem idiotic) and can they identify these insects. We managed to take a poor vid of the event and get a pic of 2 of the insects in-cop. Winston & Maisy

Bird guides Article

Another article from birdguides...

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2630


Looking like Sundat night at hardcastle Craggs and then any day anyones free the week after weather permitting....