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!

Still waiting...

Still waiting for my autumn fix of migrants, but there have been a healthy amount of interesting garden moths to make trapping in recent nights worthwhile. I also passed my 400th species of moth for the garden at the end of September, with an Acleris schalleriana to the porch light.

Hoary Footman seems to be doing very well in the local area, and this is the 4th individual I've caught this year, after no records at all last year. Its worn state can be explained by its very late appearance in the trap, on the 3rd October...

The distinctive pale hindwing...

Deep-brown Dart...

Barred Sallow, a classic autumnal species...

 Black Rustic...



Blair's Shoulder-knot...

Acleris schalleriana...

Autumnal Fant-Rustic!

I have hardly trapped at all this autumn. We had a couple of warm nights a fortnight ago, but due to various reasons, I could not trap, which was rather frustrating. I managed to trap once last week, but the result was fairly poor, with just one true autumn species, a Lunar Underwing. However, with the weather taking a turn for the warm, I trapped last night and it was a brilliant haul. I got almost all the autumnal species I expect to get during the period in one go! Best was a brand new species to me, of a gorgeous Autumnal Rustic, which was much smaller than I expected.

September 26th:

12 Large Yellow Underwing

5 Lunar Underwing

3 Snout

3 Common Marbled Carpet

3 Svennson's Copper Underwing

3 Copper Underwing

2 Large Ranunculus NFY

1 Brimstone

1 Square-spot Rustic

1 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Spruce Carpet

1 Oak Nycteoline

1 Setaceous Hebrew Character

1 Pink-barred Sallow NFY

1 Black Rustic NFY

1 Barred Sallow NFY

1 Brindled Green NFY

1 Autumnal Rustic NFG

Pink-barred Sallow

Lunar Underwings (variation)

Large Ranunculus

Brindled Green

Black Rustic

Barred Sallow

Autumnal Rustic

Knot quite the end of the year

Due to various problems (mainly weather), I have not trapped in the garden since 21st August! Its a shame I have not been able to get the range of autumn species I did last year, but I did get a taster of the season last night, which brought my garden macro year list to the 200 mark. Best was my first ever Grey Shoulder-knot.
.
1st October:
3 Barred Sallow NFY
1 Pink-barred Sallow NFY
1 Grey Shoulder-knot NFG
1 Lunar Underwing NFY
1 Large Yellow Underwing
1 Garden Carpet
1 Chestnut
.
Pink-barred Sallow

Barred Sallows

Grey Shoulder-knot

a splendid puzzle

I've not done much trapping of late... work and weather have been against me. But I had a 'splendid' experience. I trapped a rosy rustic on 27th September. Then I remembered that I'd recorded one on 27th July. An alarm bell rang in my head - a rosy rustic in July? I looked back at my photo records and, sure enough, the 'rosy rustic' was something different. But what? I've consulted various experts and the consensus is that it is a splendid brocade - a species so new to the UK that it doesn't appear in my field guide. If it is finally confirmed as that species it will be a 'second' for Surrey. The first for Surrey was found about 10 miles from my home at Reigate, just six days earlier. Trawling through the web, I have discovered that there was an influx of splendid brocades into coastal Kent around 20th July, with about 20 being reported. So nothing is proven as yet, but it's fun to be involved in such a puzzle.
As I had dismissed it as a 'common' rosy rustic I didn't bother getting a really good pic - which is a shame. I'll also post a couple of other recent catches.

?Splendiferous brocade

garden carpet

rosy rustic

barred sallow