29th August- NE Surrey

The weather at night recently has been pretty bad, and when it hasn't been raining, it's been absolutely freezing with no cloud cover. As a result I haven't dared put the trap out in the gaden, but being so desperate for year ticks, I had no choice but to put it out last night and see if I could get anything.

To be honest, it was the best turnout the garden has seen this August, with around 20 moths of 6 species seen by 1am.

These included 2 year ticks...

Centre-barred Sallow- One of my favourite moths of this time of year and an annual visitor at this time of year

Flounced Rustic...

Good Old Pugs

A good night for numbers on 18th August, with 84 moths of 28 species. There was one new for the garden, and two year ticks. The new one was a lovely Tawny Speckled Pug (isn't it nice when a pug is easy to ID!).

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18th August:

15 LBBYU

9 Common Rustic sp.

8 Copper Underwing

8 Dunbar

6 Large Yellow Underwing

6 Shuttle-shaped Dart

4 Willow Beauty

4 Svensson's Copper Underwing

3 Setaceous Hebrew Character

2 Maiden's Blush

2 Vine's Rustic

2 Riband Wave

1 Flame Carpet

1 Marbled Beauty

1 Small Phoenix

1 Small Rivulet

1 Pine Carpet

1 Silver Y

1 Currant Pug

1 Oak Hook-tip

1 Green Carpet

1 Old Lady NFY

1 Brimstone

1 Flounced Rustic NFY

1 Flame Shoulder

1 Lesser Yellow Underwing

1 Tawny Speckled Pug NFG

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Old Lady

Flounced Rustic

Tawny Speckled Pug

I am almost up to date now, just one more report from the garden to come.

Caught on the Antlers of a dilemma

On the 17th August, I had a fantastic night in the garden. The variety was the best for some time with 89 moths of 33 species. These included one year tick, one overdue garden tick and a further brand new species to me, as well as a potential second. The most stunning was an Antler Moth, a species that perhaps wandered from the heathland. The new garden species was two Yellow Shell - long overdue. But, better than that was a possible Hoary Footman. I personally cannot rule out a worn Scarce, so I would like your opinions.
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17th August:

13 Dunbar

9 Shuttle-shaped Dart

8 LBBYU

7 Common Rustic sp.

6 Large Yellow Underwing

6 Copper Underwing

4 Vine's Rustic

4 Brimstone

3 Riband Wave

3 Svensson's Copper Underwing

3 Willow Beauty

2 Double-striped Pug

2 Yellow Shell NFG

1 Flame Shoulder

1 Small Rivulet

1 Maiden's Blush

1 Silver Y

1 Iron Prominent

1 Small Fan-footed Wave

1 Currant Pug

1 Common Carpet

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet

1 Yellow-barred Brindle

1 Turnip

1 Lesser Swallow Prominent

1 Cloaked Minor

1 Cabbage Moth

1 Pine Carpet NFY

1 Scalloped Oak

1 Antler Moth NFG

1 poss Hoary Footman NFG

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Pine Carpet
Antler Moth
Hoary Footman?
View of underwing (I had to put my finger on it for it to unfurl its wings)
Yellow Shell

I'm Back!

Apologise for the lack of posting, I came back from holiday about a week ago but have been catching up on things since, and as a result have only managed two trapping sessions this August, on the 15th and 16th.

Year ticks have been relatively slow and steady, with 6 all together over the two day period, bring my garden year list up to 170.

Highlights over the two trapping sessions have included...

Cypress Pug- Year tick, and the 2nd garden record...

Tree-lichen Beauty- My 4th garden record this year was caught on the 16th. This immigrant has, up until recently, been an extremely rare occurance in Britain, but this year seems a particularly good year for the species...

Vine's Rustic- 1st record for the garden caught on the 15th...

Gold Spot- Another 1st for the garden, caught on the 15th, and one of the more stunning moths to pass through the garden...

Cheers,

Bill D

Slowing down

I ran the trap overnight on 18th but there wasn't a great catch. Mind you, the fact that there were 20+ hornets meant that some of the moths were not in great shape. The highlight was a new for garden antler moth. This species is very common in parts of northern Britain, but this appears to be the first record for my 10 Kms square (TQ34) for nearly 30 years!
A few photos follow:

Not a great pic, but illustrating the difference between canary-shouldered thorn and September thorn.

square-spot rustic

angle-shades - surprisingly my first of the year!

antler moth

Pyrausta aurata (rather faded)

Pyrausta purpuralis (much fresher - the hindwing pattern is the key difference from P aurata)

Webb catches very little at events

My next couple of nights out, on the 12th and 13th August, had appaling weather, so I only stayed for a couple of hours. However, both Stoke Meadows, Guildford, and Blackheath, did produce one good sighting each. At Stoke the target species appeared immediately, in the shape of two Webb's Wainscot. And Blackheath had a female Orange Swift (although neither of these are lifers):

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Stoke Meadows, 12th August:

Yellow Shell

Common Carpet

Cloaked Carpet

Small Rufous

Webb's Wainscot

Dingy Footman

Round-winged Muslin

Pale Prominent

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Webb's Wainscot

Blackheath, 13th August:

Orange Swift

July Highflyer

Black Arches

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Turnip

True Lovers Knot

Small Fan-footed Wave

Tawny-barred Angle

Vine's Rustic

Brimstone

Pine Hawk-moth

Orange Swift

I am not fully caught up yet, so watch this space.

A fantastic feline find

While I was at Dawney's, I had my trap running at home, at the cloudy skies produced the goods. Amongst 26 species was two new for the garden aand three further year ticks. The new garden moths were a Currant Pug, and a Poplar Kitten (at least I am pretty sure it is, although a little late).
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9th August:

13 Large Yellow Underwing

12 Common Rustic

11 Shuttle-shaped Dart

10 Dunbar

5 Copper Underwing

3 Vine's Rustic

2 LBBYU

2 Turnip

1 Willow Beauty

1 Riband Wave

1 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing NFY

1 Small Fan-footed Wave

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet

1 Garden Carpet

1 Small Phoenix

1 Svensson's Copper Underwing

1 Lychnis NFY

1 Peppered Moth

1 Six-striped Rustic NFY

1 Poplar Kitten NFG

1 Currant Pug NFG

1 Rosy Minor

1 Scalloped Hook-tip

1 Flame Shoulder

1 Heart and Dart

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Lychnis
Six-striped Rustic

Currant Pug
Poplar Kitten

Far from a Grey night at Dawneys

On the 9th, the weather was perfect, so we did an impromptu trapping session at Dawney Hill, near Woking, hoping for pioneer species at this site with young heathland. We couldn't possibly predict the quality that was about to occur. The first of four new species was a Narrow-winged Pug, a fairly common species. But after a brief sighting of a Beautiful Yellow Underwing, a Bordered Grey arrived, a notable A species. After that fantastic find, we looked at the same egg box later, and found an Archer's Dart in it, a species which could definitely be described as a pioneer species. Finally, we found a late Poplar Lutestring, to complete the quality lineup. We also got a large number of Wax Moths, presumably there was some hives nearby.

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Dawney's Hill, 9th August:

Small Fan-footed Wave

Yellow Shell

Cloaked Minor

Flame Shoulder

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Narrow-winged Pug*

True Lovers Knot

Beautiful Yellow Underwing*

Riband Wave

Large Yellow Underwing

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Dark Arches

LBBYU

Common Rustic

Pale Prominent

Vine's Rustic

Dunbar

Common Lutestring

Iron Prominent

Pine Hawk-moth

Common Carpet

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Black Arches

Least Yellow Underwing

Small Rivulet

Copper Underwing

Yellow-barred Brindle

Horse Chestnut

Currant Pug

Archer's Dart

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Straw Dot

Maiden's Blush

Elephant Hawk-moth

Pebble Hook-tip

Scalloped Hook-tip

Double-striped Pug

Birch Mocha

Six-striped Rustic

Brimstone

Tawny-barred Angle

Poplar Lutestring*

Oak Hook-tip

Ruby Tiger

Early Thorn

Bordered Grey*

Rosy Footman

Willow Beauty

Peacock

Smoky Wainscot

Scarce Footman

Large Emerald

Lime-speck Pug

Scalloped Oak

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Archer's Dart

Narrow-winged Pug
Wax Moth
Poplar Lutestring
Bordered Grey

Cold Wisley still produces Sharp sightings

On the 7th August, I went to Wisley Common, but the weather was as cold as it could possibly be, and we only got 18 macro species. Luckily, the site was good enough to still produce a couple of lifers. One of the first moths was a Dotted Clay, and one of the last was a Sharp-angled Peacock, and we also got a Common Peacock for comparison.

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Wisley Common, 7th August:

Double-striped Pug

Turnip

Dingy Footman

Single-dotted Wave

Dotted Clay*

True Lovers Knot

Ruby Tiger

Brimstone

Scarce Footman

Riband Wave

Common Rustic

Black Arches

Pale Prominent

Peacock

Ear Moth

Copper Underwing

Sharp-angled Peacock

Common Wave

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Peacock

Sharp-angled Peacock

Dotted Clay

Sweet success at Chobham

The event on the 6th August brought me to a place I have never been to before, the famous Chobham Common. Accompanied by the calling of Nightjars, we set up the trap near a wet boggy area, and it came up trumps. I managed two new species, and they were both hum dingers! First, a Small Scallop arrived, and shortly after, a Small Chocolate-tip. A very scarce species, with only a few known colonies in Surrey (only one seen at Chobham before). Loads of Straw Underwing were a surprise too.
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Chobham Common, 6th August:
Straw Underwing
Currant Pug
True Lovers Knot
Small Fan-footed Wave
Turnip
Straw Dot
Small Chocolate-tip*
Rosy Footman
Small Scallop*
Ruby Tiger
Small Rufous
Yellow Shell
Scarce Footman
Scalloped Hook-tip
Double-striped Pug
Shuttle-shaped Dart
Drinker
Copper Underwing
Large Yellow Underwing
Flame Shoulder
Pale Prominent
Iron Prominent
Smoky Wainscot
Dusky Thorn
Pebble Hook-tip
Dark Arches
Peppered Moth
Horse Chestnut
Dagger sp.
LBBYU
White Point
Canary-shouldered Thorn
Pebble Prominent
Poplar Grey
Willow Beauty
Brimstone
Maiden's Blush
Vine's Rustic
Common Carpet
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Straw Underwing

Small Scallop

Small Chocolate-tip

Micro interest

In the first of my retrospective posts, I go back to 5th August in the garden: Not a great deal on the night, but amongst 45 moths of 17 species was my second Scalloped Hook-tip, and a noctuid which had me confused, til I realised it was a small Cabbage. Also a couple of interesting micros.

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5th August:

12 Dunbar

11 Common Rustic sp.

5 Riband Wave

4 Shuttle-shaped Dart

2 Red Twin-spot Carpet

1 Scalloped Hook-tip

1 Herald

1 Ear

1 Turnip

1 Copper Underwing

1 Flame Shoulder

1 Dark Arches

1 LBBYU

1 Small Rivulet

1 Cabbage

1 Large Yellow Underwing

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Pyrausta aurata

An unknown bold micro (I got two of these)

Garden Pebble
Cabbage Moth

Bits and pieces

While Sean is off-line, I've also been doing little. But I'll post a couple of pix I've taken over the last few days.

Agriphila tristella

Meadow brown - an unusually well marked example

lychnis - found in a red campion plant

small copper

No internet

Just a quick note to say that I have not had an internet connection since last friday, and this will continue to be the case until Tuesday at the earliest (I am using someone elses computer for this). I have lots to catch up on come then, including several fantastic trapping sessions, so please watch this space! As a teaser, moths I have seen include Small Chocolate-tip and Bordered Grey. See you soon!

Sean

Still plenty of moths about - and predators

I had the trap on overnight on Thursday (5th August). The catch was not huge but included a couple of wasps and a dozen hornets - with the resultant carnage. I don't enjoy identifying moths from odd wings but I found a lesser swallow prominent's forewing and that of one of the kittens (probably sallow). A number of moths made their first appearance for some months - pale prominent, nut-tree tussock, coxcomb prominent. There were three September thorns, a scalloped oak, yellow-tail and a very faded common emerald.
A few random pictures follow:

straw underwing

shuttle-shaped dart

cloaked minor

The clay

common emerald

chocolate tip

Agapeta zoegana

Spilonota ocellana

Cochylimorpha straminea

German wasp Vespula germanica