Chimney Sweeper

For those of you who are out and about during the daytime in north Bucks and north Oxon, Chimney Sweeper is just starting to fly now, seemingly rather later than usual although that's not unexpected this season.  I visited two sites not too far away from me this afternoon and was successful at one of them but just a single moth was seen.  This was at the splendid little wildlife area behind the village hall in Akeley, north of Buckingham, where there is loads of the larval food-plant Pignut (I've seen dozens of the moth there in past years).  I didn't manage to get a picture today so a file copy is shown below of an example taken in the disused railway cutting at Salden (once upon a time an excellent site for wildlife, but now trashed by East-West Rail).

Chimney Sweeper, Salden 25th June 2012

The other site I looked at was the verges of the cross-roads to the west of Steeple Claydon, Bucks where, surprisingly, another colony has managed to survive despite the best efforts of HS2.  None was seen there today but I expect they'll start appearing again soon enough (the colony was certainly still there last year). 

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks