Late Brick

A rather worn Brick came to the garden actinic light last night.  Although I have had a couple of December records in the past, this one was my latest so I had a quick check on past sightings for the county.  There are actually 20 or more records for December, with the latest pair that I can find being on the 22nd (in Aylesbury in 2012) and on the 23rd (in the Burnham Beeches RIS trap in 2005).  However, what did surprise me was that there are also two records for the first week of January (one on the 7th in 2004 and one on the 1st in 2012).  If there are two from Bucks (0.1% of the county records) then presumably there will also be others for January from elsewhere, but their overall numbers must have been too few for them to have featured on the rather small phenology chart in the new Atlas!

Brick, Westcott 18th December

Last night's Brick was joined by December Moth (1), the inevitable Mottled Umber (1) and the relatively common diving beetle Colymbetes fuscus (1), so it was a slightly more interesting catch than those over the previous ten days despite being so wet and windy.

Colymbetes fuscus, Westcott 18th December

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks