I have a plume moth today, which I need some help with. The photo is not one of my better ones, sorry. I'm having a little trouble with my macro camera, so had to use one of my others with semi macro. It just isn't the same.
I think it's a Beautiful Plume - Amblyptilia acanthadactyla. It has banded legs and shading on the wing tips and on the leading edge of it's wings. It looks worn, so I'm not one hundred percent sure.
I was out in the field opposite the house last night, here is what I got: all larvae unless specified
Anomalous x11. Autumnal Rustic x1
Square Spot Rustic x3
Adult mottled Grey x2
I heard the first Skylarks today, on Ovenden Moor, they are always a welcome sound. I was above Ogden. on the Millennium Way. Also, several grouse were calling and one lonely Blackbird.
Hebrew Character x1
Oak Beauty x 1
1 Common Quaker
1 Small Quaker new to garden
1 Chestnut new to garden
1 Pale Brindled Beauty new to garden
1 Hebrew Character
None I think are repeats as I take them a couple of hundred yards from the house and let them go in some thick scrub. The trap site is out of view from the release site blocked by the farmhouse and barn and my MV is run behind a large fence so it does not disturb my next door neighbour. I feed the tweeters in the garden so I like to shift the moths well out of the way of hungry tits and sparrows :)
Jut two new ones overnight (others recent ones still hanging on the fence by the trap)
Three new moths this morning to add to the 'long stayers' from the last few days
2 x Common Quaker Orthosia cerasi
My garden is at around 250 AMSL so way higher than our last place in Elland Park rd. Very little woodland nearby and the only mature trees nearby are a large Beech, Sycamore and an Oak some 25 mtrs away. Otherwise its all rough pasture with a stream and some woodland bordering it on either side about 500 yards away running down the valley towards Millbank. We are surrounded by open moorland so I am hoping for some upland species in the trap as the year progresses. But my main interest is in actively looking for moths in all stages by searching rather than trapping, and as this is "virgin territory" for me I am hoping to find some new to me species up here. The garden will be cleared and planted with insect attracting plants over the next year or two and hopefully this mini oasis of nectar sources will attracting some new species into feed. I have plans to create a small wildlife pond and bog area so this I hope will also draw in new insects if not lepidoptera. At Park rd in around 5 years of trapping and finding butterflies by day I recorded around 460 species of lepidoptera in our tiny garden. I strongly suspect that up here the list might be much shorter but at least I will enjoying the recording of new species rather than counting out 150 Large Yellow Underwing morning after morning before work :) All in all I am looking forward to a full years bug hunting up here and though I hope lockdown ends soon its not going to curtail my entomolgy this year at all if it does not :)
The trap was absolutely brimming with moths last night, a spring moth festival.
Moth trap 18th March
Oak Beauty X3
Common Quaker x5
Small Quaker x5 (NFY)
Hebrew Character x4 (NFY)
Dotted Border x1 (NFG)
Twin Spot Quaker x1 (NFY)
Yellow Horned x1
Mottled Grey x3
March Moth x1
Chestnut x4
Satellite x1
KITCHEN WINDOW
Brindled Pug x1 (NFY)
Sadly only one moth in the trap this morning , but at least its a new species for the site :)
Hebrew Character Orthosia gothica
Update just found a March Moth on the patio doors near the trap so double my list for the night :)
I finally got a Common Quaker!
Moth trap 17th March
Oak Beauty x1 (yet another different one, they are all different)
Mottled Grey x1
Common Quaker x1 (NFY)
These moths arrived overnight on 16th and all still there on the fence tonight, 17th. They are not for moving !
Just two moths in the trap last night here at Lower Burnt Moor
1 Yellow Horned Achlya flavicornis,
1 Brindled Beauty Lycia hirtaria
This is the 7th time I have run the trap this year and the first moths in the trap last night at last.
Not bad last night, but the title "All Change" is because every one of the moths are different to yesterday's. Fantastic! 5 mayn't seem lot but it's good to get more than one at this time in the year!
MOTH TRAP 16th March
Oak Beauty X3
Chestnut x2
I saw my first bumble bee of the year this afternoon, it was like a flying mouse. They're always a welcome sight. It's been a beautiful day, just like Spring. I hope it's a harbinger of things to come.
