Where theres a Willow...

I've done it!  I've managed to scrape together a 200 year list for this garden, just a few days before the move.  There was loads of rain in the forecast, but I thought it would be worth trying with the complete cloud cover.  Luckily, it was a very full trap for the time of year, and amongst these were the two year ticks I required.  These were a Barred Sallow and a Pale Mottled Willow (how had I not got any of these before!).  If the conditions look good (which they don't at the moment), I may get one more trapping in before Saturday to give my garden the chance to give me one final surprise, but I doubt it.  Go to the bottom of the post for my gardens final statistics!

23rd September:
53 Large Yellow Underwing
6 Lesser Yellow Underwing
5 Setaceous Hebrew Character
3 Snout
3 Silver Y
2 Lunar Underwing
1 Pale Mottled Willow NFY
1 LBBYU
1 Square-spot Rustic
1 Common Marbled Carpet
1 Barred Sallow NFY
1 Copper Underwing
1 Angle Shades

Pale Mottled Willow

Barred Sallow

Final Statistics - Haslemere Garden:
I do love a good stat!

First trapping: 02/07/09
No of trappings: 192
Most (macro) moths in one trapping: 229 (24/03/12)
Most (macro) species in one trapping: 54 (26/07/12)
Most of one (macro) species in a trapping: 200 (Small Quaker - 24/03/12)
Extreme dates for trappings: 10/01 - 04/11

Most frequent (macro) species - Top 3:
1. Large Yellow Underwing (98 trappings)
2. Willow Beauty (74)
3. Dark Arches (73)

Most numerous (macro) species - Top 3:
1. Large Yellow Underwing (1389)
2. Heart and Dart (504)
3. Small Quaker (469)

Year Lists (macros):
2009 (Actinic) (52 nights): 160
2010 (Actinic) (63): 214
2011 (Actinic) (42): 168
2012 ( MV) (35): 200

Micro List (only started 18/06/12): 108
Macro List: 277
Best record: Striped Lychnis (24/07/12) - First in Surrey for 95 years!

The Closing Stages

I need to take any oppurtunity to trap at the moment, so a cloudy night was enough to stick the light on, despite the temp being around 11 only.  That considered, it was not a bad haul, and it included two year ticks.  Just two more to go to get to 200! 

21st September:
16 Large Yellow Underwing
6 Common Marbled Carpet
3 Lesser Yellow Underwing
2 Large Ranunculus NFY
1 Light Emerald
1 Silver Y
1 Sallow NFY
1 Lunar Underwing
1 Rosy Rustic
1 Square-spot Rustic
1 Burnished Brass
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character
1 Grey Pine Carpet

Large Ranunculus

Sallow

Red Alert

Cloud was in the forecast again last evening, but it was rather chilly come dawn.  It would be rather fitting if this was my last ever trapping in this garden, but I suspect I will be able to get a few more in the next 11 days, unfortunately.  I say that, because I got a bonza garden tick last night, and only my second ever.  It was to my great surprise that I saw a Red Underwing bumbling around the trap when it came to the morning rumage.  A gorgeous species, which I had only seen once, many years ago resting on the side of the RSPB visitor centre at Radipole Lake!  This made up for what was otherwise a very poor catch.

17th September:
Macros:
25 Large Yellow Underwing
5 Lesser Yellow Underwing
4 Common Marbled Carpet
2 Silver Y
2 Light Emerald
1 Vine's Rustic
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character
1 Snout
1 Red Underwing NFG

Micros:
2 Light Brown Apple Moth (!)

Red Underwing

All is Rosy in the Garden

Just a couple of weeks to go in my garden, and I thought it may be worth trapping last night despite a clear start, as it was forecast to cloud over.  Luckily, it did, and the temp at dawn was quite mild.  As a result, I got what was probably my best catch ever at this time of year in terms of individual numbers.  97 moths of 17 macro species included four year ticks, so I'm just five away from making it 200 for the year.  Best was a couple of Rosy Rustic, which I've only seen a couple of times before, both in the garden a few years ago.

15th September:
Macros:
47 Large Yellow Underwing
8 Square-spot Rustic
7 Setaceous Hebrew Character
6 Snout
5 Silver Y
5 Angle Shades
4 Common Marbled Carpet
3 Lesser Yellow Underwing
3 Light Emerald
2 Rosy Rustic NFY
1 Brimstone (becomes the most frequent garden species this year, seen on 50% of trapping nights)
1 Burnished Brass
1 Brindled Green NFY
1 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
1 Lunar Underwing NFY
1 Common Wainscot NFY
1 Grey Pine Carpet

Micros:
6 Light Brown Apple Moth
3 Blastobasis adustella
2 Celypha lacunana
1 Cydia splendana
1 Eudonia mercurella

Rosy Rustic

Common Wainscot

Brindled Green

Lunar Underwing

Barred from the Garden

We seem to be going through a little bit of a warm spell at the moment, and numbers in the trap are up on previous years, but quality has been lacking a little.  I trapped on the 7th and last night, but amongst both trappings were just the one year tick, although that happened to also be a garden tick of a Barred Hook-tip.  Its ridiculous that one of the only native plants in the garden, a Beech tree, has not given me more over the years (only a couple of Clay Triple-lines records too!).  The only micro highlight was an Acleris emergana from last night.

Aggregate catch list for 7th and 10th September:
Macros:
41 Large Yellow Underwing
11 Lesser Yellow Underwing
9 Setaceous Hebrew Character
8 Snout
7 Common Marbled Carpet
7 Square-spot Rustic
7 Brimstone
4 Angle Shades
4 LBBYU
4 Silver Y
2 Copper Underwing
1 Barred Hook-tip NFG
1 Flounced Rustic
1 Straw Dot
1 Riband Wave
1 Spruce Carpet
1 Garden Carpet
1 Light Emerald
1 Vine's Rustic

Micros:
7 Light Brown Apple Moth
5 Cydia splendana
1 Eudonia mercurella
1 Emmelina monodactyla
1 Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
1 Acleris emergana
1 Brown House Moth
1 Orchard Ermine

Barred Hook-tip

Light Brown Apple Moth

Freshly emerged Emmelina monodactyla by its chrysalis

Acleris emergana

The Tipping Point

Four weeks to go in my current garden, and I hope it can go out on a high, and I'm hoping I can get to a macro year list of 200.  Last nights trapping brought the 2012 total to 190.  Nothing surprising amongst the macros, but a decent showing from the migrants, including a White Point (even though these are now resident in Surrey).  In with the micros were two specimens of the very pretty Caloptilia syringella, which is a lifer for me.  Wasps were again a problem, with at least 10 in and around the trap.

3rd September:
Macros:
25 Large Yellow Underwing
9 Brimstone
7 Lesser Yellow Underwing
4 LBBYU
4 Flounced Rustic
3 Green Carpet
3 Silver Y
3 Square-spot Rustic
2 Snout
2 Willow Beauty
1 Riband Wave
1 Light Emerald
1 Common Marbled Carpet
1 Flame Carpet
1 Angle Shades
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character NFY
1 Small Phoenix
1 Dark Sword-grass NFY
1 Flame Shoulder
1 Dark Arches
1 Maiden's Blush
1 Marbled Beauty
1 White Point
1 Common Rustic sp.
1 Feathered Gothic NFY

Micros:
5 Light Brown Apple Moth
3 Agriphila geniculea
3 Blastobasis adustella
3 Mother of Pearl
2 Cydia splendana
2 Caloptilia syringella*
1 Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
1 Ypsolopha parenthesella
1 Holly Tortrix
1 Eudonia mercurella
1 Garden Rose Tortrix
1 Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner

Caloptilia syringella

Feathered Gothic

White Point