Friday 20 June 2014

Orange-tailed Clearwing

As the weather was quite nice around midday, I decided to try my VES lure.  I've put this out many times over the past few years and attracted precisely nothing to it.  I've always thought that I ought to have a good chance of attracting Yellow-legged Clearwing, as my garden borders a mixed woodland, but as nothing ever comes, I thought either they're not in there or my lure has run out.  Anyway, after about 15 minutes today, I had a success in the form of an Orange-tailed Clearwing - a new one for the garden.  Still no Yellow-legged, but at least it proves the lure is still working.  The shot below is a record from the pot, so not great, but you can see what it is.


Adam Bassett, Marlow Bottom

5 comments:

  1. It is re-assuring when you actually get something, isn't it?! I tried a couple of mine again this afternoon (VES for Orange-tailed and MYO for Red-belted, both of which have visited the garden before) but got no takers this time.

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    1. I have found CUL is quite good for attracting Red-belted and have been fairly successful with this lure, though not today. I shall certainly keep persevering with the VES - Yellow-legged must come one day!

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    2. That's very interesting, as the CUL lure is supposed to be for Large Red-belted (which would be a very good find in Bucks). It seems to me that Red-belted and Large Red-belted are not all that easy to tell apart...

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    3. When I first put the CUL lure out, I was expecting Large Red-belted, as that is what is said it was for. I got 4 Clearwings in about a minute and trapped 3 of them and thought bingo! Large Red- belted. However, after consultation it turned out that they were all Red-belted. Apparently CUL is also good for that species.....

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  2. Interesting! Makes me wonder if some of the Large Red-belted records from adjacent counties might be a case of mistaken identity if they both come to the CUL lure.

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