Burial Park again...

This weeks catch at CWBP comprised 1 x Dotted Border, 3 x Engrailed, 2 x Diurnea fagella and 1 x Agonopterix ocellana (pretty sure, see pic, but please confirm!).

Dave Morris

Loosley Row garden trap

I put the trap (twin 30w actinic Skinner) out last night for a few hours and was quite pleased with the results: Engrailed (1), March Moth (14), Common Quaker (21), Agonopterix heracliana (2), Clouded Drab (3), Twin-spotted Quaker (2), Small Quaker (2), Hebrew Character (3), Chestnut (1) and Pine Beauty (1).

Nigel Partridge

A few garden moths at last!

I've finally had a sprinkling of spring Orthosias and other moths to my garden trap here in my suburban garden on the edge of Aylesbury  -see photos below. Dave Maunder

Could someone check my Quakers?

My weekly trap out in my Cookham garden delivered 8 moths last night. There were singles of Early Grey, Hebrew Character, Oak Beauty and Pine Beauty. The Pine Beauty is below.

The other 4 moths were all Common Quakers I think, but could someone give a second opinion on the grey specimen on the bottom right in this picture?

Many thanks,

Steve Trigg

More moths from Finemere on Sunday evening

I spent two hours in Finemere woods, Bucks on Sunday 9th March, and got a reasonable haul with my 15 watt actinic trap which comprised:- Yellow-horned (6); Red chestnut (2); Satellite moth (1); Early grey (1); Small quaker (18); Common quaker (6); Clouded drab (4); Hebrew character (1); Oak beauty (1); Small brindled beauty (10); Pale brindled beauty (1); Spring usher (1); Shoulder-stripe (1); March moth (3); Engrailed moth (12); Tortricodes alternella (25+); and Diurnea fagella (2) - a total of approx. 95 moths in two hours in the woods, which contrasted sharply with the 1 Common quaker in my Aylesbury garden m.v. trap that was on all night! Proving woodland beats the town any time for moths!
Dave Maunder

Getting better

Three new for the year for me last night, Early Grey, Satellite and  Engrailed. Also 14 Hebrew Character, 11 Clouded Drab, 7 Common Quaker and 2 Shoulder Stripe. Taken in a 20w actinic trap in Milton Keynes

Darren Seaman

Pale Pinions (?) and more micros

While we're not picking up the same sort of numbers as others (not sure why - it could just be that Martin Wainwright's Thrupp is a better location at this time of year than Wolvercote), we're still getting some interesting individuals: here are a couple of our own Pale Pinions (I assume - they look more like that than Tawny), and a couple of micros which looked both to be the same species, Agonopterix heracliana - only one photo posted. In both cases, we'd welcome confirmation. Steve and Xander Goddard.

Presumed Pale Pinion 1, 9/3/14, camouflaging itself cleverly

Second presumed Pale Pinion, 9/3/14

Possible Agonopterix heracliana, 9/3/14

Hide and seek

It was good to read Marc's report of two Pale Pinions yesterday - and then to find this one this morning in my Robinson trap at Thrupp.  The only bad thing was that it distracted me so much that I almost missed three March moths - my first of 2014 - which were playing hide-and-seek on Mr and Mrs Robinson's very simple but amazingly effective rainshield.  Here's the one which hid best:

For the record - if that's considered useful; if not I can cut it out in future - there were also 33 Common Quakers, 8 Hebrew Characters, 5 Clouded Drabs and 2 Small Quakers. If butterflies may be permitted a peep on a moths blog, I saw my first 'wild' one in yesterday's amazing sunshine - a Small White, followed shortly afterwards by a Tortoiseshell and then, on a walk to Hampton Gay, three Brimstones and a Peacock. Bliss!  Martin Wainwright

The mother's foe returns...

Our local Brown Long-eared Bat population seems to have awoken earlier than usual this year.  It never takes them long to realise where there's a good source of food and there was at least one set of Common Quaker wings by the trap this morning, so I expect there'll be more tonight...

Dave Wilton, Westcott, Bucks

Brown Long-eared Bat at the twin-30wt actinic trap

A little more like it

Broke spectacularly into double figures last night, for the first time this year, with six Common Quaker, two Hebrew Character and a couple I'd be grateful to have confirmation on: I'm pretty certain they're Clouded Drab and Small Quaker.

Presumed Clouded Drab, 8/3/14

Presumed Small Quaker, 8/3/14

I also captured the following micro in my kitchen on Saturday evening, which I suspect is Agonopterix ocellana, which, if I'm right, would be a garden first. Again, confirmation would be welcome! Apologies for the poor quality of the photos, particularly of the micro. Steve and Xander Goddard

Presumed Agonopterix ocellana, 8/3/14

Best night so far

Modest compared to some other people's catches but I got a Common Quaker, 3 Hebrew Characters and a new one for me, an Oak Beauty. Lovely thing.                                                                                       Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Nycteoline

Took further advantage of this mild (and for this month, only fully free) weekend and did my monthly survey at Bagley Woods. Lots of Oak Beauties, Small Brindled Beauties and Yellow-horned, but still only small numbers of Orthosias. The best of the lot was a pair of Pale Pinions, which are likely to be my first records for the site, and possibly (i'll have to check) my earliest ever record of Oak Nycteoline, which was of the nice spotted form which I'm not entirely sure I've caught myself before. Went looking for Orange Underwings afterwards during the glorious sunny weather around midday but no luck - anyone else seen any yet? No recent records from Bagley so would be good to go back and have another look when they're being seen elsewhere. Plenty of butterflies about, never seen so many spring Brimstones and Commas! Marc Botham, Bagley Woods

Oak Nycteoline - Bagley Woods

Double figures

 

A bumper night - lovely and warm! I hope that others have had the same. My Robinson trap at Thrupp, Oxon, had 44 moths inside with a further ten on a nearby wall including the well-camouflaged one above. I hope I am right in ID-ing it as a Small Brindled Beauty.

In the trap itself, there was my first Twin-spotted Quaker of 2014, pictured above, alongside 31 Common Quakers, five Hebrew Characters, 3 Clouded Drabs, 2 Satellites, a Dotted Border and the moth pictured at the bottom of this post which I hope I am right - sorry for nervous doubts about my recognition skills again - in ID-ing as a beautifully-coloured Small Quaker.  Martin Wainwright

More spring moths

On Wednesday 5th March i ran my 15 watt actinic trap in Finemere woods for 2 hours, and got a reasonable catch which comprised :- Yellow-horned (5), Small quaker (2), Common quaker (1), Satellite (1), Chestnut (12), Oak beauty (1), Small brindled beauty (5), Pale brindled beauty (1), Spring usher (6), Dotted border (1), March moth (7), Engrailed (1), and Tortricodes alternella (6).
On Thursday 6th March i ran my trap in woodland on Coombe hill not far from the monument, and got :-
Yellow-horned (10), Oak beauty (2), Small brindled beauty (2), Spring usher (1), March moth (1), and Tortricodes alternella (3).
Having the chance to use a mobile moth trap for the first time this year is certainly turning out to be fun! Dave maunder

Chestnuts

Thursday night I did my March trapping for Harcourt Arboretum because it was so mild. The omens were good when I got home and my garden trap already had several moths in it (which if you've seen any of my previous posts you will appreciate is a considerable improvement on recent times). Whilst Harcourt yielded a fair number of moths the species list was distinctly lacking several of those expected and consisted of nothing unexpected or especially exciting, but it was nice to start seeing a trap full of moths again nevertheless: Dotted Border, March Moth, Small Brindled Beauty, Oak Beauty, Chestnut, Dark Chestnut, Hebrew Character, Small Quaker, Common Quaker, Clouded Drab, Yellow-horned, Acleris notana/ferrugana, Acleris hastiana, Ypsolopha ustella. It was my garden trap that provided me the nicest catch, though again nothing unexpected, but was nice to get a full set of the Conistra species resident locally as depicted below (and they all landed just like that honestly...:)). March Moth (1), Dotted Border (2), Clouded Drab (4), Hebrew Character (3), Common Quaker (1) and Agonopterix heracliana (2) joined the party making it by far the best night so far this year. The previous night also marked the first 2014 garden appearance of Agonopterix alstromeriana, which I subsequently found a trio of in the Rothamsted trap at CEH Wallingford, and another at MV light in the garden last night along with first a garden record of Diurnea fagella. Marc Botham, Benson

Dark Chestnut, Chestnut and Dotted Chestnut at Lonesome Farm.

ID Confirmations Please

Wednesday night I got my first Hebrew Character. This morning I had a March moth and something I'm not sure about. A Clouded Drab perhaps?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Best night of the year so far last night, 1 Shoulder Stripe, 5 Hebrew Characters and 3 Common Quaker in my actinic trap in Milton Keynes.
 Darren Seaman

First week of the GMS

Although it's not strictly a garden, the first session of the summer GMS at CWBP with our little 6W trap caught 2 Hebrew Characters, 2 Chestnuts and a Small Brindled Beauty after having had nothing at the trap for the last 7 weeks, so I think we finally have spring!

Also, in my garden trap a single Satellite.

Dave Morris

Oak Beauty and 2 others

I had 3 moths in my garden trap last night here in Cookham. The first was an Oak Beauty which I hadn't seen before (I am fairly new to mothing).

The second I am fairly confident was a Clouded Drab.

The third one I found a bit more tricky, but eventually decided it was a Chestnut. I would be grateful for a second opinion.

They are all common species, but when you are new to mothing all catches are exciting!

Steve Trigg.

Grey and brown

My first Early Grey of 2014 brightened up the eggboxes this morning after a milder night. Also in the Robinson trap at Thrupp, Oxon, were six Common Quakers, two Chestnuts, two Hebrew Characters, a Dotted Border and two of these, below, on which I'd appreciate help. Clouded Drab I think, but correction or confirmation greatly welcomed. Martin Wainwright

Non-identical twins

A couple of Common Quakers in the Robinson trap at Thrupp, Oxon, this morning, showing the species' variable markings on which my Moth Bible remarks. I think they must have come early because a mild evening turned very cold later and the garden this morning was white with frost. Martin Wainwright

Mothy Mutterings

"Mothy Mutterings" is the title of a series of short newsletters from the moth team at Butterfly Conservation's head office. The latest (February) issue is now available, and contains interesting notes re possible effects of the wet winter on moths, and some initial work towards a national recording project for micro-moths. Martin Harvey

Caterpillars at Holtspur Bottom

Conservation work at Holtspur Bottom this morning was hard graft (although alleviated by pleasant surroundings and good company!). But in the course of digging and shifting earth from one place to another we found several caterpillars in the soil. At the time I was confidently telling people that they must be one of the root-feeding noctuid moths, but I was wrong - having had a closer look they are swift moths, most likely Common Swift.

For more on Butterfly Conservation's reserve near Beaconsfield see the new Holtspur Bottom website. Martin Harvey

Thinking out of the (egg)box

Two useful reminders overnight not to think just of the light-trap and its eggboxes: our first 'wild' moth of the year, a Dotted Border spotted by my wife Penny who is the expert at such detection, on our front door beneath a weak but working outside light.

And then this morning, a second DB which was in the brambles beside my Robinson trap (which only contained a solitary Common Quaker inside).  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Admin: Two months on

Hi all

The site appears to be working very well indeed and over the past two months we've had some 6,000 page views, averaging 100 per day which is not bad considering that the season has barely started yet.

Those of you who have signed up to contribute seem to have mastered the art very successfully and are making good use of the facility.  I would just remind you:

•  don't forget to add a title for your post (easily done as the title box appears above the tool-bar);
•  please mention your locality somewhere in the report (we cover three counties with a lot of different habitat types);
•  please add your name at the end of the report.

 
For anyone else who would like to contribute, the procedure is quite straightforward and is fully explained under the "Getting Started" tab.  When obtaining your Google or Blogger ID please ensure that you use your own name (not an alias).  If you already have a Blogger ID using an alias, please visit Settings and change the Display Name to your own name.

Finally, I should point out that the invitations sent to potential new contributors expire after one month.  Please click on the link straight away, which will add you to the list, but there's no need to send a report until you are ready to.

Happy blogging!

Dave Wilton

Angle Shades

Freshly emerged Angle Shades on the wall last night. Probably pupated against house where slightly warmer. Three Angle Shades larvae that I was finding in the egg cartons a couple of weeks back have pupated in the egg cartons. I went out with a torch and looked around the trap a few nights running and was amazed at how many larvae are out and about feeding on the lawn. Along with more Angle Shades and lots of Large Yellow Underwing are good numbers of Square-spot Rustic. I know that Six-striped Rustic larvae are basically identical and so I can't be sure but given that I had about 2 of the latter species at light last year compared to tens and tens of SSR's I'm going for the former as the likely candidate. There were more than 20 larvae within 1 foot radius of my actinic trap all feeding on Festuca rubra (also had one feeding on Groundsel which seems to be popping up everywhere at the moment). Notably, there were no larvae around the MV trap and also far fewer elewhere in the garden away from the actinic trap suggesting these larvae are also attracted to the light to some degree, and in particular that emitted by the actinic lamps. I often find them inside the trap as well and had a Common Footman larva in the MV trap recently.
Marc Botham

ID plea

Can a kindly expert help me to identify this battered moth with rather raked wings which was in my Robinson trap at Thrupp, Oxon, this morning, along with a Dotted Border and a Clouded Drab? The last, shown below, is a first for my list this year.

I feel obliged to have a go at the unknown moth's ID and my best guess is a Lead-coloured Drab which has had a hard time in its short life so far. I've got some other pics if helpful.  Martin Wainwright

Straphanger

One Pale Brindled Beauty and a trio of Common Quakers in the Robinson trap at Thrupp, Oxon, last night, including this one which appears well-adapted for rush-hour travel to and from Bicester North.  Martin Wainwright

Niditinea striolella

Whilst the weather is still a bit breezy and cool outside, I thought I'd leave recording to the eager stalwarts, whilst I carry on trying to complete my 2013 identifications. A nice one turned up the other day and it was Niditinea striolella. This is a small dull coloured Tineid, no doubt overlooked by most and the identification proved to be the second county record (Bucks), with the first being in that hot summer of 1976.

The label says Ashridge Estate, it was actually at Pitstone Common, near to the big memorial. The image shows the male bits. Peter Hall

First micro

My first micro of the year arrived last night - mild but blowy - on the shield of my Robinson trap at Thrupp, Oxon: I hope I'm right in identifying it as a Common Plume.

Inside the trap was this scruffy Satellite, my first of the year, and a Chestnut; positively crowded conditions compared to the one-at-a-time pattern which previously held good.  Martin Wainwright

A Common Pug fluttering haplessly in a strong wind on the doormat outside a house in Wallingford yesterday morning. Just a freakish occurrence and probably pupated somewhere warm, one would like to think, anyway.  Martin Townsend

More Leaf-miners

Back on 27th January I paid a visit to the far north of Bucks, going to the section of Salcey Forest which for recording purposes lies within VC24 (even though it is administratively part of Northants now).  While there I spent five minutes beneath an oak tree picking up a dozen or so soggy fallen leaves which had obvious unbroken blister mines in them.  I brought the leaves home, put them in a large yogurt tub and placed them on a north-facing window-sill indoors.  Two moths emerged today, one being Phyllonorycter harrisella and the other Phyllonorycter quercifoliella.  Both are common and widespread species but for a minimal amount of effort that's two records for the Bucks moth database from a very under-recorded area.  Dave Wilton

Phyllonorycter harrisella, Salcey Forest

 

Phyllonorycter quercifoliella, Salcey Forest

A few moths at Coombe hill

I spent an hour and a half with my actinic on Coombe Hill Tuesday, but with clear skies only got 14 moths of two species - 10 Tortricdoes alternella, and 4 Spring Usher. My wife Jo got some great night-time photographs of the monument, though!   Dave Maunder