Westcott, Bucks

Very little has been happening here over the past week, hardly surprising because the nights of 31st August and 1st September were particularly chilly and numbers dropped off dramatically as the overnight temperatures descended well into single digits.  Indeed, on the night of the 1st the total catch was a mere 70 moths of 15 species shared between the usual two traps (one MV and one actinic).  The only items of interest were a pair of fresh Poplar Hawk-moths, although it was good to get another torchlight sighting of one of the garden's hedgehogs rummaging around for slugs amongst our patio plant-pots as I closed up the trap, the first one I've noticed since April.

It was all change again last night, with the minimum temperature at 14C and numbers back up to normal (501 moths of 56 species).  Fluctuations like this, caused by the weather, are nothing unusual at this time of year.  The highest counts last night were provided by Setaceous Hebrew Character (150), Common Wainscot (72), Square-spot Rustic (67), Vine's Rustic (44) & Large Yellow Underwing (44), while grass moth numbers have now plummeted to single digits.  There was nothing new for the year but noteworthy amongst the remainder were Ypsolopha sequella (always a welcome sight), Bordered Beauty (three of them, it usually only appears here as a singleton), a single Nutmeg and two Old Ladies (they seem to be having a very good season).  Of the autumnal species, Centre-barred Sallow and Frosted Orange are currently appearing nightly and the other chestnuts and sallows will no doubt join them soon enough.  Lunar Underwing should start within the next week and by the end of the month I'll be inundated with them.

We're approaching the "proper" migrant season now and I notice that Convolvulus Hawk-moths have started to appear in the country already, although all I've had here recently are Plutella xylostella, Udea ferrugalis, Nomophila noctuella and Silver Y. Daytime visits to our buddleias by Hummingbird Hawk-moth have been far fewer than last year's record count but they are still appearing, with singletons noticed yesterday and today.            

The following moths have been new for the garden year-list over the past week, taking the species count for this year to 576 so far:

(27th)  Ypsolopha alpella, Epinotia tenerana
(29th)  Peacock Moth

Ypsolopha alpella, Westcott 27th August

During the night of the 31st I had the largest bat casualty I've ever knowingly suffered here, a Red Underwing (which is a fairly common moth in the garden at this time of year).  It hopefully gave its captor indigestion because I presume the culprit will have been a Brown Long-eared Bat which, apart from the much smaller Pipistrelles, seems to be the only species we get regularly on patrol around the trap.

Remains of a Red Underwing, Westcott 31st August

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks