Westcott, Bucks

The last seven nights have been quite interesting here in the garden at Westcott.  The first three were chilly and moth numbers reflected that (between two and four species each night), but since then we've had mild southerly winds which have given a tremendous boost to activity and I've ended up recording 35 different species altogether over the week which is most unusual for November.  Although nothing noteworthy turned up, there were a few fresh-looking migrants and they comprised Plutella xylostella (8th), Udea ferrugalis (8th, 9th, 10th), Turnip (7th, 9th), Dark Sword-grass (7th, 9th) & Silver Y (8th, 9th).

Turnip & Dark Sword-grass, Westcott 7th November

The rest were either drawn from the few moths you'd expect during November or else were very tired and bedraggled-looking specimens left over from October such as Setaceous Hebrew Character, Green-brindled Crescent, Merveille du Jour, Black Rustic, Barred Sallow, Pink-barred Sallow & Sallow.  A very worn Willow Beauty last night seemed very unusual but I see that I've actually had two other November records in recent years (9th in 2011 and 15th in 2018) so this one wasn't even the latest!

Willow Beauty, Westcott 10th November

New for the year-list have been Scarce Umber (7th) and Caloptilia rufipennella (8th).  Two other Caloptilia species appeared on the 9th, stigmatella which was added to the year-list back in October and a likely betulicola which will need dissection to confirm (I've only had it here once before, six years ago).  Another nice visitor on the 8th was a very dark example of Acleris kochiella.

Caloptilia rufipennella, 8th Nov

Caloptilia stigmatella, 9th Nov

Acleris kochiella, Westcott 8th November

The two year-list additions from this week take the 2020 garden total up to 674 species (345 micros and 329 macros).  While not quite as high as the counts for 2018 (684) or 2019 (699), that is still the third highest count for the site and the seventh year in a row that the total has exceeded 600.  

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks