Stainland.

 My first Garden Carpet of the year.

Garden Carpet

Stainland.

 A new moth for me, (whatever it is). I have spent several hours trying to get an ID on this. I think It's a Flame Carpet - Xanthorhoe designata. Could someone please ID it for me? Thanks.

 

All about Dragonflies and Damselflies.

There is a book titled, "Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Natrural History by Dennis Paulson", £25 now £10. It's available from :

www.bibliophilebooks.com

It's in this months Bibliophile Books catalogue. The book covers them from all over the world, as well as UK. It's described as comprensive and beautifully illustrated. It covers classification, evolution, place in the food chain, mating, life cycle, and their relationship with humans. It's a comprehensive natural history resource, (it says here).

It sounds like a bargin.

Oak Eggar from Walshaw Dean

 

Not a moth but...

I have been trying to get a a photo of these camara shy creatures for 5 years. Finally, I found one sleeping in the hall. I got five shots before it flew off. Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for, (or not), a Moth Fly - Psychodidae, which is a family of true flies.

As the blog is quiet just now and one of the common names of this 2mm beastie is Moth Fly, I thought I might just get away with posting it.

Moth Fly

Ogden Water

 Tuesday 18th 

1 x brimstone flying over picnic area at Ogden

2x orange tip

1x peacock

Lee Mount - 17th May

Every moth is precious at the moment !

One moth so far tonight........

Oak Nycteoline

(This time last year it was Fox Moths on Soil Hill)

Lee Mount - 15th May

Just 2 moths
Common Pug x 1
Garden Carpet x 1

Stainland.

 Anne found another moth as we were going to bed last night. I got a very bad, blurred photo, before it flew away. It's OK for an ID however. It was a Double Striped Pug, only the second one I've ever seen.

Stainland.

 Anne found a Twenty Plume in the hall this afternoon. (I trained her well). It's very near the floor. I can't easily get that low down these days, so one side of the moth is in soft focus. That's a technical term for blurred by the way.

Twenty Plume.

Lee Mount - unexpected surprise !

Last year I managed to collect eggs from a Lesser Swallow Prominent

Eggs laid - 27th April 2020

Eggs hatched - 14th May ( I raised the caterpillars on birch leaves till they pupated)

4 adults emerged 27th July 2020

7 pupa did not produce anything but were still intact so I re-potted in an ice cream box with compost and left them in the garden hut overwinter.

This morning - an adult (2 images below) had emerged overnight - wonder if there are another 6 to come ? - I'll wait and see !

Lesser Swallow Prominent

I find it strange that they were all collected at the same time last year and all received the same treatment - some emerged last July and one (so far) emerged overnight and photographed this morning.

Also, this quite cold morning, Jen managed to find just one Green Hairstreak on Castle Carr Road resting on a roadside mossy wall.

Green Hairstreak

Barry's Cromwell Moth Night is Back...yipeeeeeeeeeeee

This Saturday night 8th May,,,9 onwards all welcome ..if anybody need a lift give me a shout...or leave a message......lets hope its not freezing or raining..... :::: )))))))

Emperor Moths and an Enquiry about running moth nights at Cromwell Bottom Local Nature Reserve

I was contacted recently by Anthony Arak who is about my age and was a member of the Halifax Scientific Society as a teenager, long before I joined. He has or has had a career in Ecology. I knew his name because his project, along with another teenage member, to reintroduce Emperor Moths onto Norland Moor in the 1960s is written about by Clifford Lees in one of our publications, ("The Natural History of Norland Moor.")

He refound the HSS via me on Facebook. What luck he did that when we are still called HSS! (I hope we always are.)

He has been introducing us to the delights the Emperor Moth as I told him we had never seen one, only the caterpillars. So now we've seen them on Wadsworth Moor (above Hebden Bridge,) Whirlaw Common (above Todmorden,) and Stiperden Moor (above the Long Causeway - the Burnley Old Rd -  above Todmorden.) We used an artificial pheremone lure briefly. It is very effective! If the weather is warm enough and there is a light breeze the males, which are day fliers, arrive very quickly! Now we just have to be lucky and find a female, as they sit still, pumping out their pheremone, and wait for the males to arrive. (Moth folk will know all about this - I originally wrote this for the general Halifax Scientific Society blog.)

Anthony would like to resume his great interest in moths. He has asked me by email if he needs permission to run moth evenings at Cromwell Bottom. I've said I will put him in touch with the various people already involved in this.

He says he would like to try, apart from a light trap, sugaring, wine ropes and "mad moth netting by torchlight."

I have mentioned the CBWG enthusiasts who already do moth nights. Is Robin Dalton still involved for the Council? I was going to ask about how Graham Haigh is but just remembered I might be able to find out on Facebook.

Lee Mount

Nothing much doing at all these last few days - still cold !

Hebrew Character x 2

Common Quaker x 2

Brown House-moth x 1

High Royd this afternoon

1 male Orange-tip

1 Small Tortoiseshell

Both of them on Dandelions

Lee Mount - last few days

 Still pretty quiet with the recent cold nights

23rd - Angle Shades caterpillar (I think ?) retrieved from the plastic door frame. No idea where that came from so put it safely back in the nearby vegetation

24th Twin-spotted Quaker x 1

Common Quaker x 1

White-shouldered House-moth x 1

26th / 27th- 

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

Common Quaker x 1

Dyseriocarnia subpurpurella x 1

Garden Carpet x 1 (that was a bit unexpected)

Garden Carpet

Dyseriocarnia subpurpurella

 Luddenden

like everywhere else it has been pretty quiet in Luddenden with the cold nights. This last week I have been getting 1 to 7 moths nightly highlights have been

Purple Thorn  1

Early Thorn   2

Satellite   ws

Brindled Pug  5 

and this Early Tooth- Striped last night

Around and about 23rd April

Mixenden Reservoir, Hunter Hill and part of Ogden golf course this morning. A lovely warm sunny day.

Fly-through Brimstone at Mixenden was only my second ever for Calderdale. Also in that same area an Orange-tip and a Green-veined White - the latter took some finding in the vegetation for a photo but I wasn't quick enough for the Brimstone.

Green-veined White

Elsewhere, around Hunter Hill and the golf course - A decent show of Peacocks, and Small Tortoiseshells and to a lesser extent Orange-tips.

A similar return from Hag Lane / Pepper Hill above Claremount this afternoon.

Also one Speckled Wood resting on a holly bush and later, another one in the garden at home.

Not a lot in the trap this week.....enough to keep me interested though !

Brindled Pug x 1

Double-striped Pug x 1

Common Quaker x 2

Small Quaker x 1

Hebrew Character x 3

Twin-spotted Quaker x 2 (one much darker than the other)

Early Thorn x 1

Green HAirstreaks

Plenty Green HAirstreaks about at the moment on the local moors and also loads of Emperor Moths flying . Ornage Tips , Small White , Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks also seen in good numbers...Still freezing every night so just Hebrew Chracters and a few Common Quakers here.....

Castle Carr Road - 18th April

 Common Heath x 1 earlier today

Common Heath - Photo courtesy Paul B

This afternoon in some nice warm sunshine

Green Hairstreak x 11 - all were found on dandelion flowers adjacent to heather and bilberry heathland. None found on the plentiful dandelions elsewhere along the road other than the heath areas.

Green Hairstreaks

Also along the road

Small Tortoiseshell x 2

Peacock x 3

Lee Mount - 18th April

Still quiet for moths but despite that a bat was flying around last night at 8pm ( probably a 'pip'. )
Twin-spotted Quaker x 1
Common Quaker x 1

Brindled Pug x 1 

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

Male Orange-tip Butterfly in Shroggs Park woodland this morning.