Northowram

A few bright sunny intervals today produced , Small White , Red Admiral , Peacock and Speckled Wood in the garden...

Lee Mount - 28th August

Have been trying to get to grips with this one but as usual for me - I can't make a definite conclusion !
The nearest I can get with this one (c10 mm) is possibly Apotomis betuletana (?)

Apologies will re-post this image.....

NMN 2017

National Moth Night 2017 will take place on 12 - 14 October 2017 with the theme of Ivy. Anyone got any ideas near a large aptch of IVY..??

Ear , Ear

A couple of Ear moths from Martyn in Luddenden foot, (thanks Martyn great photos). Ear moths can only be put to species by gen det , so if you want them id 'ing then you have to save them by popping them in the freezer .!!

Stainland 5th September 2017

A small mixture of moths. It was nice to see a Willow Beauty again. There is a very helpful guide to identifying Mottled and Willow Beauty's here:

......http://www.eakringbirds.com/eakringbirds4/beautymothidmottledandwillow.htm

If anyone has not seen this site, it's worth exploring.
1 x Light Brown Apple moth.
2 x Garden Rose Tortrix.
1 Garden Carpet.
1 Lesser Yellow Underwing.

I took these at about 3 am this morning. It is said that some moths come to light, It is more true than I thought. I was taking the Willow Beauty, when a Lesser Yellow Underwing flew between the Willow and my lens and settled near me. It made me jump. As it landed it left it's wings partially open. I was refocusing on it when it flew out of reach. It would have been a nice photo, still, I got a decent shot of it.

This Garden Rose Tort. is very tatty poor thing. It has marking a little different to the others I've seen, so I thought I'd present it.

Garden Rose Tortrix.

Lesser Yellow Underwing. 

Garden Carpet.

The Willow Beauty was fast asleep, I wish I could sleep like that. Just occasionally would do. Anyway, I was able to take my time and get a nice close up of it's antenna.

Willow Beauty.

I also had a 4th instar Green Shieldbug, numerous small spiders, one Garden Spider, two craneflies and a lace wing by the door.

Epinotia nisella

Had this interesting looking micro last week and wondered if it was the form Epinotia nisella cinereana which is now classed as a separate species to E. nisella . After gen .det by C.Fletcher is was found to be a grey form of  Epinotia nisella .

Olive

A good selection of moths last night ( 22 species /58 moths)  , including the Olive (above, only my third here ,  1 in 2007 and 2012 both in early August) Gold Spot , Flame Shoulder , Angle shades, Honeysuckle Moth , Shuttle Shaped Dart  and a swarm of Wasps...............

Sept. 2nd: Coleophora argentula

I've posted it on the HSS blog as it was on one of their walks:


http://calderdale-wildlife.blogspot.co.uk/

Stainland 3rd September 2017.

1 x Garden Carpet.
1 x Garden Rose Tortrix, (similar markings to the last one).
1 x Marbled Beauty, (black, grey and white form).
1 x Light Brown Apple Moth.

They were all by our door at 4 a.m. this morning. At 11 a.m. they had all gone. The Light Brown Apple has different markings and colours to the four I posted in this blog on the 17th of August this year.

Light Brown Apple Moth.

Ploughcroft and Lee Mount etc. - 2nd September

Thought I'd found something exotic outside,  climbing up to the top of the kitchen window.....then realised it's a Large White Butterfly caterpillar. Our neighbour hardly has any leaves left on his brassicas but this one 'legged it' before he got hold of it ! Nearly 30 mm long.

Lots of Red Admirals butterflies about today. I had around 10 pass by over Ploughcroft this morning and nearby, 3 Speckled Wood and one Small Copper. I was on the look-out for Wall Brown's but without success today.
Also later on, several 'fly through' Red Admirals' at home and then more as we drove over past Rishworth to Oldham and back this afternoon.

Lee Mount - 1st September

This one this morning is, I think, a new one for me here. Just about 10 mm - maybe Rusty-dot-Pearl ?

Rusty-dot-Pearl  - Udea ferrugalis (TBC)

Lee Mount - 31st August

Not a lot in the trap this morning after a pretty cool night but this one below was worth it.

Autumnal Rustic - Eugnorisma glareosa

Norland moor again......

On the way there three mines and oval cut-outs of Phylloporia bistrigella were found on Silver Birch....No. 500 for me in Calderdale :-)

Another new species for me in Calderdale was this Fox Moth larva munching on Heather on the moor. A second was seen close by.

A couple of you may be interested that when I was browsing the YNU report for 2016 I noticed that the bagworms found at Stainland last year have been promoted to the first and only record for Yorkshire. The single, previous record is unsubstantiated :-)

Stainland 30 August 2017

1 x Marbled Beauty (Orange/brown form).
1 x Acleris notana TBC.
1 x Lesser Yellow Underwing.

This Marbled Beauty, is the first one I've seen this year in what I call it's orange form, hence showing it. It is noticeably bigger than many of the other Marbled Beauties I've seen this season. It was in a tricky spot, so the camera angle was not ideal.

Marbled Beauty.

The next one is worn and has me stumped. I thought it may be Acleris shepherdana, going by the dark scale tufts and reddish patch on the thorax. As it lives in fens and marshes and is not found round here, I ruled it out. It could be Acleris notana, or Acleris ferrugana. OR, I could be wrong on all accounts. It's slimmer and shorter than the Garden Rose Tort. Any ideas please?  

Needs correct ID.

I decided the last moth is a Lesser Yellow Underwing. I seem to have trouble with moths in this colouring and worn or indistinct markings It's certainly a noctuid.

Lesser Yellow Underwing.

The Large Yellow Underwing is still in the same place as it was yesterday.

Stainland. Early Evening 29 Aug. 2017.

Anne and I were doing some Autumn gardening when she disturbed three moths.

2 x Garden Carpets.
1 x Light Brown Apple moth.

I assume that there will be a lot more LBA moths and Garden Rose Torts in our garden, also several other small ones. We have a large hedge for them to hide in, plus many small shrubs in pots.

Garden Carpets.

In case anybody was wondering, I always remove as many spider's webs that are near moths as I can. I know spiders have to eat, but I'd rather not have the moths which visit us killed by them. I did remove the webs in the above photo, but only after I took the shot. Garden Carpets are readily disturbed, I didn't want to miss the chance of a photo.

Stainland 29 August 2017

8 moths today, with one photo I was really pleased to get:

3 x Blastobasis adustella. (More about it below).
2 x Garden Rose Tortrix. (Both same markings).
1 x Light Brown Apple moth.
1 x Large Yellow Underwing.
1 x  Brimstone moth. (Same one as yesterday, it's not moved at all).

You may have noticed that I'm making a collection of the Garden Rose Tortrix colour variations. This one is a little different from the others, although not a great deal so, I admit.

Garden Rose Tortrix.

The next moth is quite worn.

Large Yellow Underwing.

Now for the photo I was so pleased to get. I took it at 4 o'clock this morning. It's the first moth mating I've seen. (Is that a sad thing to be exited about?)

Blastobasis adustella.

Large Whites ( on the Brussel sprouts today)

Northowram (bit of Autumn colour)

                                                         Chevron

Frosted Orange

Also over the weekend , Rosy Rustic , Yellow barred Brindle , Ruby Tiger , Brimstone , Setaceous Hebrew Character ,Flounced rustic , Gold Spot , Orange Swift ,Brown China Mark and beautiful Plume...

Lee Mount

Last few days - lots of moths. mainly Large Yellow Underwings (max 44 one night) and Square-spot Rustics with 20+sp. most nights but can't post them all here.

At Hardcastle Crags Andy mentioned autumn is here when Sallows start appearing ! a couple of nice ones this week plus other interesting moths from the last few evenings.

 This one (2 shots) has me puzzled, not giving much away so think it must be a melanistic individual but can't pin down the species. Slightly larger than Square-spot Rustic.

 Centre-barred Sallow (3 of this week)

 

 Gold Triangle

 Sallow

 

Vapourer

Stainland 28th August 2017

Back from Whitby, still recovering from a hard weeks gigging and lack of sleep, but very content.

Several moths today:

3 x Garden Rose Tortrix.
3 x Blastobasis adustella.
2 x 2 Square Spot Rustics.
1 x Brimstone moth.

Dave put a nice shot of two moths on, which compared their sizes very well. I was quite envious. Now I have a similar one, the Brimstone with a Garden Rose Tort. I'm sorry for the odd angle. they got themselves behind our security light. It was not an easy shot.

Brimstone with 

Garden Rose Tort.

This is only the second Square Spot Rustic I've seen. The last one was at Whitby two years back. It's a lot paler than the first and quite worn.

Square Spot Rustic.

I'm not 100% certain of my idea on this one, hence posting it. I think it's a Eudonia mercurella.

Eudonia mercurella TBC.

I didn't think it worth posting a shot of the Blastobasis a.. We have seen lots of them.

It's teatime and a bottle of first class red wine now...