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| Silver-striped Hawk-moth, Westcott 4th July |
Dave Wilton
A Blog for moth recorders in Bucks, Berks and Oxon
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Monday, 6 July 2015
Joined the 'Striped' Club at last!
Last night (Saturday 4th) I ran some traps in Bernwood Forest, Bucks with Peter Hall and, because I'm "a bit slow packing up", Peter had arrived back at his new abode in Herefordshire by the time I got back home to Westcott! 3.30am seemed like a good time to secure the garden trap before the birds awoke so that's what I did. A quick scan around the trap site on our patio included, as is usual, finding a few items resting on the conservatory windows, but then I noticed something on the frame of the conservatory door which nearly gave me a heart attack! Rather than pot it (who keeps a pot that size to hand anyway?!) I grabbed the camera for a record shot and the rather grotty image below was taken in the light of my head-torch - still, I'm sure you'll appreciate what it is.
The moth looked a bit tired (a bit like me), having presumably been around for several weeks, but nevertheless was a very welcome visitor. I don't know what I've done to deserve two decent migrant species two nights running...
Dave Wilton
Dave Wilton
Congrats Dave!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark! While there have been plenty of Striped Hawks across the country this seems to have been the only Silver-striped recorded so far. However, Convolvulus, Death's Head & Spurge have all been seen too, as well as Striped, so there's no real reason to doubt its provenance even though it is not in pristine condition as most migrants normally are. Keep those traps going - you never know what's going to turn up!
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