Migrants in the Garden

Gale force winds and a dying lawn have discouraged me from putting out the trap in the garden recently, but with a lazy night in and no plans, I figured I might as well attempt with the trap one last time in April.
It was more about quality rather than quantity when I collected the trap in at 1am, with a pretty low total of 8 moths of 7 species caught. Luckily though, the main highlights saved the day (or night?!), a Pearly Underwing, and a Light Brocade.

The Brocade is a pretty common species in the garden, but doesn't usually appear until mid to late May-warmer than average temperatures must have encouraged earlier emergence...

The Pearly Underwing was completely unexpected. Its a migrant from Europe, which reaches Britain in small numbers (with influxes now and then) mainly in the autumn, so must have blown here in the strong winds. The moth was pretty worn, but the large size, and outward shaping of the forewings towards the tip make it pretty distinctive, and considering the distance its travelled, I think we can let it off for looking a bit drab!

The only other moths of note was a Diamond-back Moth, another migrant moth from Europe, and...

Cochylis atricapitana...

Swammerdamia pyrella...

Year list gradually building

I've had a few more common species over the last night or two - plus my third ever seraphim, which is not supposed to be common but seems to be more so this year.

Seraphim

white ermine

small phoenix

pebble hook-tip

oak hook-tip

pebble prominent

Possible Monopis weaverella

Out of county

I realise its not Surrey, so I hope people don't mind me mentioning it in passing.

Went to Noar Hill, Hants, today, and managed the following:

Common Carpet

Holly Blue

Pyrausta aurata

Early Purple Orchids

Tree Pipit

Lesser Whitethroat

and......

Adela reumurella (there were vast swarms of these!)

Speckled Wood

female Orange Tip

Green Hairstreak

Dingy Skipper

Duke of Burgundy

not an angel!

I've finally managed to pin down the ID of this seraphim, only my second for the garden.


Just to show how variable clouded drab can be, I put together this montage of ones from my garden. I'm still missing one of the dark grey form I sometimes get.

Anyone want my Brindleds?

Yet another scorching day, so I had to give the trap a go in the garden last night, despite still clear skies. Once I got to the trap, I was just about able to force my way through the floods of Brindled Pugs to find something different! A first for the garden was awaiting, as a Red Chestnut appeared, along with my second record of Oak-tree Pug. A little more variety in terms of species, but Brindleds aside, still not great numbers.

23rd April:

91 Brindled Pug (just an estimate if truth be told!)

4 Oak-tree Pug NFY

4 Hebrew Character

3 Clouded Drab

2 Common Quaker

2 Shuttle-shaped Dart

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet

1 Garden Carpet NFY

1 Frosted Green

1 Red Chestnut NFG

Red Chestnut (I tried to use a torch to improve the light, but its just saturated it)

Oak-tree Pug

Three of my four Oak-tree Pugs

Swimming in Brindleds!

Despite last night being, on the face of it, similar to previous nights in terms of weather conditions, trapping numbers were massively up, although its almost solely thanks to Brindled Pugs! Still not great species numbers but there were three new for the year among the 7.

21st April:

43 Brindled Pug

9 Hebrew Character

7 Common Quaker

6 Clouded Drab

3 Shuttle-shaped Dart NFY

1 Nut-tree Tussock NFY

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet NFY

Scorching Scarcities

Well, the April scorcher continues, and this seems to be encouraging a few goodies to show themselves in the garden. I took a little break from trapping for a few days, but that didn't stop the moths coming...

Whilst watering the borders a few days ago, a Buttoned Snout blasted out of the Ivy and luckily landed on the fence where I could pot it up. A garden first, and one of the rarer species I've caught here, although it does seem to have its Surrey stronghold in the gardens of the North-east of the county...

On the 20th, I caught a single Cydia strobilella flying in the afternoon sun. This is another Surrey notable, recorded from just 5 sites, but is probably under-recorded. There is also a Norway Spruce, its footplant, two doors down, which might explain its presence...

Back out with the 15w Actinic last night, and it was a good haul with 24 species. The highlights being...

Ochreous Pug...

Grey Dagger agg.

 Waved Umber...

Brimstone...

Caloptilia syringella...

Caloptilia populetorum...

... as well as a Small Dusty Wave and Swammerdarnia pyrella, both of which were a bit camera shy.

Not exactly a highlight, but we have been getting quite a few Twenty-plume Moths in the house when I haven't been trapping, and up until now I have never bothered to photograph them. Its easy to overlook them from a distance, but when you do look closely, the detail on each feather like plume is quite something...

April show-ers

This warm weather is encouraging more moths to emerge. There were large swarms of long-horn moths on our local oak trees. They were too high to photograph but could well have been Nematapogon swammerdamella. Below is a selection that came to my trap last night:

purple thorn

nut-tree tussock

iron prominent

flame shoulder

common quaker (a worn specimen which at first glance looked rather like a powdered quaker)

brimstone

And a waved umber from a couple of nights ago...

shuttle service

My catches have been poor lately, despite the warm days, presumably due to clear skies at night and a full moon. But I'll put a couple of recent shots up for the record.

lunar marbled brown


shuttle-shaped dart

The Emperor of the Bowl

A few nights back I trapped in the garden, but as it was fairly cold, numbers were kept down. I did however get a Powdered Quaker and a new species for the garden - a Lunar Marbled Brown.

...

Yesterday eclipsed that by quite a way, and I didn't even trap. I went for a daylight walk at the Devil's Punch Bowl, in fairly overcast conditions hoping to see a ornithological year tick or two (which I did - a Tree Pipit). But, I was walking along in the Bowl itself when something shot passed me. I was sure it was a butterfly, but it quickly dropped down into the Heather nearby. I managed to get it in my binoculars, and I was astonished to see a male

Emperor Moth! My first! I wonder how many I had actually seen before without realising it (I visit heathland often). It was a stunner, and i managed to get some shots on my video camera (all I had to hand), before it settled down to rest in the Heather as the s

un went in. I wondered whether it had smelt a newly emerged female, which is why it dropped into the heather. I had a good look around, but couldn't see one.

...

Powdered Quaker

Lunar Marbled Brown

Emperor Moth