Stainland 17th September 2017.

Anne woke me this morning to say there was a pretty moth near the door. Don't you just love early risers? Sigh.

It was a Common Marbled Carpet, a little worn. I had two Garden Rose Tortrix as well. One is a little different in markings/colour than the others I've posted. The second Tort is very worn indeed, initially, I wasn't sure what it was. Careful  examination shows the remainder of the dark pattern, about one third down it's body. I'm keenly waiting for someone to tell me I made the wrong ID.

Common Marbled Carpet.

 Garden Rose Tort.

Worn Garden Rose Tort.

Stainland - Sept. 12th

Me and Gordon had a wander down to the bagworm site and on to Robber Dodge wood this week, here are some of our finds: The Lichen Case-bearers look to be in good health with 6 cases found one of which was seen on the move (Gordon's photo).

I'm always trying to inspire him (or boring him) with my leaf mining interest - here is Gordon's excellent shot of a probable Stigmella ruficapitella mine and egg (start of mine) laid on the upper surface of an oak leaf.

Find of the day for me was this cracking Green Silver-lines larva on a Beech tree down in the wood. The larva looked almost fully fed - I would have taken it to rear through if I'd known what it was!

Other adult leps were plenty of Red Admirals with five in one south-facing, shelterd spot, Small Coppers, Speckled Woods, male Vapourer powering through (easily missed that one - keep an eye out for these), Silver Y, and Nettle-taps.

EDIT: Also a couple of Ectoedemia minimella larvae mining Downy Birch were taken to rear through.

Ragwort

Had a look at the local  Ragwort patch today when the sun came out. At least 20 Nettle - Tap , 1 Light brown Apple Moth and a small grey tort that got away. 10 Red Admiral and 6 Speckled Wood.

Bucculatrix ulmella mines on Oak.

Found today in Only House Wood Northowram

Brown Spot Pinion

Brown Spot Pinion , Lunar Underwing , Spruce Carpet , Angle Shades , Shuttle shaped Dart and Pink Barred Sallow over the weekend but hard going with the awful weather.

Stainland 10 September 2017.

1 x Garden Carpet.
1 x Light Brown Apple.
1 x Garden Rose Tort. (Warn, hard to be certain).
1 x Common Carpet.

I'll put the Garden Rose Tort up, in case I'm wrong and it can be corrected.

Garden Rose Tort?

About midnight last night, Anne spotted a moth with it's wings in raised position. I couldn't think what it was. At about 3:30 am It was still on the door but with it's wings opened flat. Mystery solved, it's a Common Carpet. I've not seen one resting with wings up before. It had gone by morning.

Garden Carpet.

Stigmella sakhalinella

Had a pop down to Copley today to see the instalment of the bridge at North Dean after the last one was severely damaged by the Boxing day floods. On route I stopped off at Copley meadow and got caught out in a torrential downpour. Whilst sheltering under a Silver Birch tree I noticed this mine. Straight away I knew it was something good - the coiled, brown frass throughout is a dead giveaway. Unheard of in Yorkshire until 2010 it's still quite rare but I suspect more people are aware of it and searching for it.

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 :-)