Hag Lane - 20th May

Nice warm sunshine this afternoon so target butterfly was Wall Brown. Not disappointed, and managed to find four along the extent of Hag Lane which starts at the top of Lee Lane, back of the ski-slope overlooking Shibden Valley, and tracks around to Bradford Old Road overlooking Boothtown. Stone walls, dusty tracks and flowery grasslands, some on the edge of woodland gives a nice mixed habitat.

Small Tortoiseshell x 12+

Wall Brown x 4

Holly Blue x 2

Peacock x 1

Orange-tip x 6

Speckled Wood x 1

Best I could do with the Wall Browns this afternoon, very flighty and camera shy !

Lee Mount

A very boldly marked Green-veined White on Erysimum this morning and a Holly Blue flypast.

Stainland.

 Two moths this morning. When I do get moths, by the door, or in the garden, they are all micros.

1 x Bee Moth - Male.

1 x Light Brown Apple.

Lee Mount - 18th May

 Still not much doing up here with just a single Brimstone Moth in the trap and on the day before a very nice Herald and a single micro Tachystola acroxantha.

Herald

Shibden Valley

 Can someone identify this please

Ogden - 17th May

Heath-land area at the top end of the woodland this morning. Checked over some potential day flying moth spots, looking mainly for Mother Shiptons but couldn't find any. 

I came across this species of Longhorn Moths in abundance, obviously attracted to the bilberry in the warm bright sunshine. Amazing how the light showed them up in different ways as they flew around and landed briefly on the vegetation at first looking quite dark, then quite blue/green luminescent at times even with the long antennae looking blue as they caught the light.

Green Longhorn - Adela reaumurella

With thanks to Charlie for help towards identification.

Also in the area - a good number of Orange-tip butterflies, a few Green-veined Whites, 2 Green Hairstreak, 1 Peacock, 1 Speckled Wood, 1 Small Tortoiseshell.

One Holly Blue today at home and another from Nick Dawtrey in the Warley Road area near Highroad Well.

Swales Moor and Lee mount

Swales - Ringby Lane top field this afternoon.

I was fortunate to come across a Small Yellow Underwing in the grass area . I thought I had found a second one on the heather until I got home to look at it's photo. I should have realised, heather should have been a good clue ! This one, a Beautiful Yellow Underwing, a stunning little moth.

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Also some Common Heath moths, but tricky to get in focus photos among the heather.

Earlier in the day from the trap at home

Hebrew Character x 1

Foxglove Pug x 1

Bee Moth x 1

Stainland.

 13th May 2023.

A poor show due to the cold and wet weather. Better things to follow in the coming weeks, according to the Met Office..

1 x Bee Moth. (Male)

Lee Mount - 12th May

 Four moths this morning though I didn't expect anything after a cool breezy night.

Common Wave x 1

Shuttle-shaped Dart x 1

Light-brown Apple-moth x 1

Twenty-plume Moth x 1

Common Wave

Stainland. 10th May 2023

10th May 2023

I had a brown Angle Shades caterpillar. I've been trying to find out if the brown ones look, or are any way different from the green Angle Shades caterpillars, when they mature into moths, Does anyone know?

Angle Shades

Angle Shades

Also;

1 x Light Brown Apple

1 x Twenty plume

1 x Common plume (the only one I go a photo of).'

Common plume 

Lee Mount

Still nothing much doing with the moths despite the trap on every night. 

I did manage a photo this morning of one Dyseriocrania subpurpurella though earlier this week in the sunshine there were several day flying around the garden.

Early Grey x 2

Twenty-plume Moth x 1

Brown House-moth x 1

Holly Blue and a male Orange-tip in the garden on Tuesday 9th.

Found around 10 Green Hairstreaks at Ogden this afternoon (11th) in the heather/bilberry during short bursts of sunshine up the track adjacent to the golf course. Also one Small White.

Around and about

First Small White on and off in neighbors garden today.

Orange-tips at Ogden and Copley today and just an odd Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell.

Hoping for some moths tonight if it stays a bit milder and overcast - we'll see !

First three days of May

One moth per night here at the moment. Common Quaker x 1, Hebrew Character x 1. Wont get anything tonight with that cold easterly continuing.

Done a little better with butterflies including a decent show of Orange-tips at Stodfold near Ogden and along the banks of the R Calder at Brookfoot as well as this morning on Shroggs reclaimed landfill site. Also a Holly Blue on the landfill this morning fluttering around a flowering Prunus padus (Bird cherry). Several Peacocks and  Small Tortoiseshells mostly on dandelion flowers where not a lot else at ground level in flower.

Backdated Post -18 -20 April. Backlane Ogden and the moor, then Carr Hall Lane.

Sorry for the delay in posting this.. We went to visit friends, I took the camera and left it there by mistake. It took a couple of days to get it. back.

Backlane & moor. 18 April.

It was a sunny, cool day, with a stiff breeze. I saw two Peacock butterflies I was surprised to see them. I would have expected the strong gusty wind to have kept sheltering.

Carr Hall Lane. 20 April.

Again, cool, sunny and breezy. Most of Carr Hall Lane is sheltered, so it's generally warmer, with less wind.

Five peacocks .

One small Tortoiseshell. 

One Comma butterfly.

Over the years, I haven't seen many Peacocks, or Commas around here. I tend see more of them in North Norfolk. The Peacocks have for me, been hard to get good photos of, they are too shy. Is it proving to be a good year for them?

Comma Butterfly.

Peacock Butterfly.

1962...2023....its always been wet(or cold) in Calderdale....thanks A...Arak

 Mothing Evening July 10th 1962.

Mothing is a chancy business. The rain started about 4 o’clock. “If only it will clear” we said, “this may be a good night!”.

I phoned Bill Collinson. We met at 7.20pm and he ran us out in his car to see if anyone had turned up at 7.30.

Since it started, the rain had been a continuous downpour, and it just kept on. As we turned to go up the valley we saw a stream of water coming down the gutter, a wide stream. Higher up, water was pouring onto the road from the hillside in white torrents, and the cataracts at the roadside obscured all drains and rushed down more than a yard wide and was striped with foam.

Stone steps beside a house were now a waterfall. Every field and drain added its quota, in many places debris was spread across the road and we had to slow down to crash through rivers flowing from one side of the road to the other.

We kept on to the Clay Pits beyond the Carr. Here we got out. Everything was dripping wet and grey clouds obscured the hilltops, one arm of the cloud almost reaching down to Scout Hall.

The valley was covered, like a lid on a bowl, with ragged rainclouds. They continued to drop fatness upon the earth so we dived back into the car and sped for home.

(But as we parted we had a good chat on the Natural History of our project).

Castle Carr Road - 21st April

Wall to wall sunshine yesterday but the wind was pretty cool. Despite that we managed to find a single Green Hairstreak fluttering around the small heath-land area. It landed on a billberry and then a reed. I managed in the wind to get a blurred photo on the phone. 

Also along the road there were  a few sheltered spots and managed to find 4 Small Tortoiseshells and two Peacocks.

Lee Mount - 18th April and Luddenden

Lee Mount 

Hebrew Character x 5 in the trap and that was it !

Comma in a garden on dandelion flowers at Bracewell Grove late morning

Luddenden

Sunny warm afternoon in the valley mostly in the shelter from the cool easterly wind.

Brook Terrace area - Brimstone x 2 with one of them travelling up the valley and back again then down the valley and returning, seemed like checking out territory ?

Also in the area, mostly among stream-side vegetation - male Orange-tip x 1, Comma x 1, Small Tortoiseshell x 2 and several Peacock.

We also found another Brimstone in the cemetery this time on yellow primroses and a Speckled Wood by the weir near the church.

Not a bad afternoon !

Sowerby Bridge

 1 male Orange Tip by the canal today

Lee Mount - 17th April

Still a few hangers on from yesterday on the garden fence.

New ones in this morning....

Satellite (white marked) x 1

Hebrew Character x 3

Double-striped Pug x 1

Bee Moth x 1

Lee Mount - 16th April

 At last a few moths.....

In and around the trap this morning.

Clouded Drab x 4

Twin-spotted Quaker x 1

Small Quaker x 2

Common Quaker x 2

Early Thorn x 1

Chestnut x 1

Hebrew Character x 1

Common Plume x 1 

Early Grey x 1

Brindled Pug x 2

Agonopterix heracliana x 1

One micro as below c10 mm - not had much time to study this one yet and still to identify if someone can help ?

Second thoughts - or is it just a Twenty-plume Moth with closed wings ?

Four butterflies this afternoon just off Bradford Old Road - all disturbed on stone walls.

Peacock x 2

Small Tortoiseshell x 2

Cromwell Bottom 15/04/23

 Purple Thorn x 1

Early Tooth Striped x 5

Brindled Pug x 2

Common Quaker x 1

Clouded Drab x 2

Grey  Birch x 1

Twin Spotted Quaker x 1 

Grapholita junigella x 3

Hebrew Character x 11