Stainland 27th September 2017 (Second Post)

A surprise for me tonight. At 8:30 pm our cat Ruskin wanted to go out. It was raining hard, he decided to sit in the the hall and glower at it. I spotted something odd on the washing line. It was a moth hanging upside down, sheltering under the stone ledge over our door. I had to use Anne's pocket compact. Stupidly, I'd run both power packs in my macro camera down. The results are not too bad considering I had to use digital zoom to get the photos, (shock, horror).

It turned out to be a Barred Sallow, only the second one I've ever seen.

 Barred Sallow.

Lee Mount

Recent Moths

 Angle Shades

 

 Mottled Umber

 

Snout

Angle Shades

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Stainland, 25th Sept 2017.

Anne and I went to the ballet last night. (It was very good indeed). When we got home, there a was a swarm of Light Brown Apple moths by the door. It was hard to count them as some were coming and going. Of the stationary moths I counted:

7 x Light Brown Apple.
1 x very shabby Garden Rose Tortrix.

Plus the ones that got away!

Lee Mount - 24th / 25th September

Milder nights and a few 'turn up's' - No time for photo's just now though
Black Rustic x 1
Mottled Umber x 1
Copper Underwing agg x 1 (these are getting quite faded now)
Large Yellow Underwing x 1
Common Marbled Carpet x 3
Light-brown Apple- moth x 3
Acleris ? still to try identify x 1
White-shouldered House-moth x 1
Lesser Yellow Underwing x 1
Snout x 1
Mouse Moth x 1
Silver Y x 1
Garden Carpet x 2
Bee Moth x 1

Stainland, 24th September 2017

Quite a few moths, I think they must have been sheltering from the elements. The highlight being a first for me, a Snout moth. I'll list the other moths first, then finish with the Snout.

6 x Light Brown Apple moths.
3 x Garden Rose Tortrix.
1 x Common Marbled Carpet.
1 Snout Moth.

The photo is not great, I only got three shots before it flew off. Still, I've never seen one before, so that's something at least. This is another of those moths described as "Common throughout Britain". It's so common I've never seen one before.

Snout moth.

September 24th

A last blast of summer in the garden today with 5 Red Admirals , 2 Speckled Woods and 3 Comma's...and in the moth trap first Blair's Shoulder Knot , Red Green Carpets and its been a good year for Brown Spot Pinion and Setaceous Hebrew Character..

Lee Mount - 22nd September

Not a lot in and around the trap this morning but quality for here.

 Not had one of these before (3 photos) - think it must be Canary-shouldered Thorn (?) - what a beauty !

 

 Garden Carpet

 

 Brown-spot Pinion

 

Silver Y

 

Also one Copper Underwing agg and a Square-spot Rustic - both very worn.

!9th September 2017

                                                             Comma

                                             Haworths Minor

                                                           Mine on Hawthorn
A good day started with a Common Marbled Carpet on the window , then 2 Haworth's Minor and Northern Spinach  feeding on Ragwort  at fly flatts. Comma , 2 Speckled Woods and 3 Red Admiral in the garden , 30 nettle taps on Ragwort and 3 different Vapourer's flying around the village but   unable to get a photo and this mine on Hawthorn ...

Stainland 18th Sept 2017.

Yet another fairly sleepless night for me, about three and a half hours. Still, it gave me chance to roam about our little garden and see what was about. Apart from weevils, spider, the odd woodlouse etc., a lot of small, light brown moths were flying about. I think mainly Light Brown Apple moths, I photographed two.

There was a second Common Marbled Carpet, far more worn that yesterdays. Finally, a Common Green Carpet, the first I've seen. When freshly emerged, they tend to be bright green to bluish green. The colour fades to brown or white shades fairly quickly. I'd love to find a new one. The one below is a female, the males have feathered antennae.

Common Green Carpet (female).

Lee Mount

Not a lot doing this last week or so (but plenty of Red Admirals - even in the rain and a Speckled Wood) all on the Sedum spectabile in the garden and just 2 decent moths of interest below...

 Black Rustic (on 14th September)

 

And two shots of this moth from this morning 17th September which I suspect is Burnished Brass  as it did have quite a sheen to it but not much colour - but I'm not 100% sure ??

Cunnery Wood meadow

Spent a few hours today raking off half the meadow in Cunnery Wood (with some willing volunteers as well). After the rain it was good to see speckled wood, LYU and red admiral in the meadow. Also found the caterpillar below - any ideas?

 Caterpillar - can anyopne ID it?

Volunteers raking out the meadow

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.