Westcott, Bucks

Only just, but last night (29th) was a "100+ species night" at Westcott for the third time this year, the other two occasions being during our mini heat-wave on 16th and 17th June.  In 2021 I didn't get above 75 species in a night during the month but three above 100 is the usual figure (achieved in 2019 and 2020).  Hopefully July will provide quite a few more!  The best of last night's garden year-list additions was a male Lappet, while the others comprised Brachmia blandella, Stenoptilia pterodactyla, Cydia splendana, Elophila nymphaeata/Brown China-mark, Ostrinia nubilalis/European Corn-borer, Fern (the first here since 2017), Dingy Footman, Brown-tail, White Satin, Kent Black Arches & Dun-bar. 

Lappet, Westcott 29th June

An answer as to why species like Small Waved Umber, Fern and Pretty Chalk Carpet, all of which feed on chalk-loving Traveller's-Joy at the larval stage, do turn up here occasionally has become clear with my trapping on the adjacent Waddesdon Estate this year.  All three have appeared in the hill-top woodland I'm surveying there, Pretty Chalk Carpet in some numbers, and it made me look more closely at the underlying geology.  There is a fairly narrow strip of Gault Clay, which like the chalk of the Chilterns dates from the Cretaceous period, running north-east from Oxfordshire towards the Greensand on the border with Bedfordshire and in my local area it lies between the Jurassic period Kimmeridge Clay to the north (on which our garden sits) and the chalk to the south.  This strip includes the hilly areas around Sydlings Copse (Oxon) and Brill & Waddesdon (Bucks) and accounts for the rather different flora there compared to what we get on the clay.

 

In an effort to help Mark Griffiths find his Rustic, the picture below of one from last night's garden catch may (or may not!) be of help.  The image isn't exactly as clear as seeing the moth in the hand, but it does attempt to illustrate what I meant by looking for a greyish example in order to give it a garden "tick".  This one is in relatively good condition and there's little sign of any dark band across the centre of the fore-wings which is usually an obvious feature on the much lighter brown Uncertain.

Rustic, Westcott 29th June

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks