Blackstone Edge

 2 Green-veined Whites, 1 male Orange Tip

Lee Mount - 26th May

Still no overnight quantity.......other than a few 'hangers on' from yesterday

Pretty sure this first one will be Knot Grass(?)  though I have had to lighten it up a bit to improve the features (it was very dark).

Knot Grass 

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Small Elephant Hawkmoth (only 2nd record for this site)

Yesterday at Ogden and Ovenden Moor...

Masses of Common Heaths flying low over the heather moor but nothing else much other than Brown Silver-line x 2 found among the bracken.

Still a good few Orange-tip butterflies as well as Green-veined Whites and a Small White but unable to find any Green Hairstreaks despite the perfect conditions. They must be there !

 Luddenden 24th May

At last things are picking up with the warmer nights, I was just saying on Dave's post yesterday that I had never had a Fox Moth here and one turned up last night. In a repeat of the one I had at Pellon in 2010 she laid eggs. 

Female Fox Moth

Fox Moth Eggs

others last night were

Common Pug 4

White-spotted Pug 1

Narrow-winged Pug 2

White-pinion Spotted 2

Green Carpet 1

Brown Silver-line 2

Clouded Silver 1

Flame Carpet 1

Purple Bar 1

Common Swift 2

Small Elephant Hawkmoth 2

Pale Tussock 2

Shoulder-striped Wainscot 1

Flame Shoulder 1

Scalloped Hazel 1

White-pinion Spotted

 

Lighthazzles

 Mother Shipton

Lee Mount - 24th May

Never be too surprised at what might turn up in or around the trap . This one was a complete surprise this morning as I've never had a Fox Moth here before though have seen them on the upland areas of Calderdale as well as the caterpillars which often show on sunny days especially in autumn.

Fox Moth

Narrow-winged Pug - only the 6th record for here

Lee Mount - 22nd May

Struggling with identification with this one that appeared last night but it had gone by this morning. Maybe Rustic Shoulder-knot, that's the nearest I can get to it but little sign of a basal streak

Also singles of....

White-shouldered House Moth

Light-brown Apple-moth

Brindled Pug

Common Pug

Holly Blue still about today. I suspect it's the same one we've seen recently most days as it's doing it's rounds !

Stainland.

 Carrying on in what is fast becoming a tradition with me, I had one moth last night.

1 x Bee Moth - Male (Nice colour, the other I had was very faded.)

Bee Moth - Male

 Luddenden - May 1st - 21nd

It's been a relatively poor year for Moths so far. However here in Luddenden village it had been slow but steady particularly in May with many blank nights, this is what we have had so far

Pale Pinion - 12th May

Lime Hawkmoth - 8th May

Green Silver-lines - 8th May

Eyed Hawkmoth - 21st May

This is the full list for May

Brindled Pug  28

White-spotted  Pug  9

Oak Tree Pug 1

Common Pug 1

Double-striped Pug 3

Autumn Green Carpet 1

Water Carpet 1

Green Carpet 1

Flame Carpet 3

Broken-barred Carpet 1

Common Marbled Carpet 1

Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet 1

Purple Bar 2

White Ermine 2

Buff Ermine 1

Pale Prominent 1

Eyed Hawkmoth 1

Lime Hawkmoth 1

Poplar Hawkmoth 2

Pale Tussock 2

Buff-tip 3

Hebrew Character 3

Common Quaker 3

Early Grey 2

Shuttle-shaped Dart 1 

Scalloped Hazel 2

Rustic Shoulder-knot 1

Green Silver-lines 2

Butterfly site !

 https://yorkshirebutterflyatlas.org.uk/

I only just found this site the other day. Took a little while finding the way round it but it's well worth a look at.

Stainland.

 After David's post (a Poplar Hawk moth, hrrrumph), mine is rather pathetic.

1 x Twenty plume (sigh).

Lee Mount -21st May

Five moths this morning - just a slight improvement ! Light-brown Apple-moth and a Twenty Plume Moth as well as these below.

Poplar Hawkmoth

Shuttle-shaped Dart

V-Pug (looking a bit faded)

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