There were lots of moths here last night, 263 individuals of 40 species, but a couple of tired-looking Silver Ys which were probably home-grown anyway were the only possible signs of migrant activity (even though two examples of Dark Sword-grass did turn up on the 9th). Apart from late-brood examples of Treble Brown Spot, Brimstone Moth, Oak Nycteoline & Beautiful Hook-tip, all of last night's species were either hangers-on from the summer like Shuttle-shaped Dart, Large Yellow Underwing and Setaceous Hebrew Character or else typical autumnal moths. The one exception was a smart fresh Gold Spot which I'd suggest might be a third brood. Gold Spot has had a fantastic year in the garden. I rarely see the first brood but this year had two of them, one on 10th June and the other on 13th June. The second brood produced no less than 88 examples here between 17th July and 22nd August and then none appeared until last night's specimen which is my latest ever and would appear to be the first October record for Bucks.
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| Gold Spot, Westcott 10th October |
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| Silver Y, Westcott 10th October |
Although both seem to have passed their peak now, last night's 70 examples of Lunar Underwing takes their garden count for the year well past 1,000 (already higher than in 2016 and 2017) while Black Rustic has reached 319 which is its best ever result here. On a much smaller scale, another five examples of Merveille du Jour last night moves their garden count up to 16 which is already more than I've ever had here before. Although it is early days yet to start doing comparisons, a lot of species do seem to have benefitted from the warmer summer temperatures.
Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks
Shuttle-shaped Dart is having another peak here in Didcot rather than hanging on. I had double figures not long ago and its still one of the more numerous moths in the trap, and they all look fairly fresh. I;m still getting fairly fresh looking Vine's Rustics which I thought were hangers on, but after what was a phenomenal second brood (max count in one night in August was 134) I hadn't seen one for quite some time and these are fresh looking so I wonder whether it has squeezed in a partial third generation. Incredible year all in all. Large Yellow UW numbers have been well down though, less than half of last year with peak counts only just over the 100 mark and only on few occasions compared to 230+ last year on numerous occasions. I never get huge numbers of Lunar UW in the garden and they have pretty much disappeared.
ReplyDeleteI've just added up my garden Large Yellow Underwing counts for the year and the total is 1,270 up to last night. Putting that in context, at the moment it ranks as the 5th best year here since 2005, with the average annual count over the period 2005-2017 being 1,110. Surprising really, considering I had only one 100+ night (4th September with 113), but there was rarely a night from 10th June onwards when I got none at all.
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