Westcott, Bucks

The number of species visiting the garden continued to drop this week, partly due to the disappearance of the majority of the micros which always happens in September.  The last good night for them was the 8th (23 micro species) but from the 10th onwards there have been fewer than ten species per night (just six on the 13th).  Setaceous Hebrew Character and Common Wainscot have been making up the bulk of the macro catch but even they are beginning to wane and I'm now waiting for Lunar Underwing to take off.  

     (8th)  404 moths of 60 species; nothing new for the garden year-list. 

     (9th)  338 moths of 50 species; Deep-brown Dart new for the year-list.

     (10th)  402 moths of 51 species; Sallow & Lunar Underwing new for the year-list. 

     (11th)  258 moths of 40 species; nothing new for the garden year-list.

     (12th)  337 moths of 40 species; nothing new for the garden year-list. 

     (13th)  293 moths of 41 species; Mallow new for the year-list.

     (14th)  256 moths of 41 species; nothing new for the garden year-list. 

Sallow, Westcott 10th September

The only migrant recorded this week was a single Dark Sword-grass (8th).  A further six Clifden Nonpareils visited, including three on one night (9th), so the garden tally for 2021 is now eight which equals last year's count already.  

A couple of posts ago Neil Fletcher mentioned White-point and that has been doing very well here too.  I had 25 individuals of the first brood in the garden between 28th May and 7th July, while second brood specimens have been appearing since 11th August and their count has now reached 174, so almost 200 seen already this year and the moth should be around at least until the end of this month.  That total compares with 145 here for the entire year in 2020, itself a garden record.  White-point has been appearing annually at Westcott in ever-increasing numbers since 2014 and before that my only sightings in Bucks were in 2006 (an excellent year for migrants) when one visited the garden on 9th June and in 2013 when I had a pair to light on 28th August on the top of Pitstone Hill.  While its numbers will certainly still be topped up by migrants, this is undoubtedly a widespread resident species in our area these days.  It has appeared at every other site I've trapped at this year.        

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks