Spring springs at last - March 10th

The last days of February and first week of March passed by with only a handful of moths trapped, a few Dotted Border, a March Moth, a Chestnut and the first few Common Quakers and Hebrew Character. The warmth of the last night prompted the first proper haul of the year though with a better total of 14 moths in the trap. I am now hoping that the next few nights will bring some variety to add to the numbers. Still waiting for my Oak Beauty to arrive...

Last nights total: Common Quaker - 11, Clouded Drab - 1, Hebrew Character - 1, Early Grey - 1

Hebrew Character

Early Grey

Common Quaker

Common Quaker - 11

Clouded Drab - a very dark one

Dotted Border

March Moth

Winter finally over ?

The three months of November through January were very quiet for Wychwood Moths. The trap was out on many nights that promised temperatures above 3 degrees and little or no precipitation but very few individuals were attracted. Early November had a few remnants from autumn and just two new ones for the year in Satellite and Dark Chestnut but after the first week there were very few catches.
December was even quieter, just two moths trapped and both on the same warm night between Christmas and New Year, this being my first winter though they were still both new to me.
January just the one Early moth added to the tally. Thankfully, the second part of February has begun to show better results, more of that later.

Satellite

Winter Moth

December Moth (29th Dec) - nice hairy beast

Early Moth (the only trap in January - 19th)

Pile of Carpets - Summer 2010

With the continuing coldness of winter, I have concluded that I will go through December with no moths at all this month. So I thought a chance to go through the images from the summer, before this blog began, and pull out some variety to remember the warmer times. To begin a short series of selections, here are a pile of carpets from June and July.

Common Marbled Carpet, the most frequent and numerous Carpet sp in the garden this summer with lots in June and a second generation around end September and early October.

This one is the paler form.

Common Marbled Carpet. This one is the darker form which was more regular than the pale.


Least Carpet (just two of these in July)


July Highflyer (seven of these - all in July)

Phoenix (five of these - 27/6 and four in July) showing resting position with the abdomen curled upwards

Common Carpet (not common at all in the garden )

Spruce Carpet which appeared in summer and again in October

Grey Pine Carpet appeared in June and October - not all grey as this one shows

Garden Carpet - the second most common with nearly as many visits as the CMC

Blue- bordered Carpet (a scarcer moth and from this group probably my favourite due to its beautiful blue hues) - occurred 25/6, 29/6 and 18/7

Broken-barred Carpet (another scarcer local species) - three in June

October quietly passes

Did not have the trap out for a while due to cold and being away for the half-term week (missing the Shore Lark in the meantime). In the last four nights however, despite the recent mild spell, things have been quieter than I had expected with just five moths trapped comprising:

Pale Mottled Willow x2
Shuttle-shaped Dart
Spruce Carpet
Yellow-line Quaker (garden first record 31/10)

taking the October total to just 27 species of which 21 were Noctuidae.
Still plenty of autumn fayre to pickup for the first time next year !

Yellow-line Quaker

Second week of October

A couple of new ones this week though numbers have been low in general. Black Rustic has been the most numerous, a Chestnut, a few Blair's Shoulder-knot and four species of carpet, Garden, Common Marbled, Spruce and Grey Pine, with a few lingering yellow underwings and Turnip.
Illustrated are the two new ones for the list and a lighter form which I had not encountered before.

Green-brindled Crescent (garden first on 12th)

Brown-spot Pinion (garden first on 8th Oct)

Large Ranunculus (paler form than those I trapped in September)

Merveille du Jour - Oct 8th

Looking in the literature to see what might be around each month, there are a few moths which jump from the pages and on to the "hope I catch one of those in the garden" list. The Merveille du Jour is one of those and this moth duly obliged by finding its way into the trap before I went to bed on 8th Oct. I released it on to a leaf of an apple tree and tried to capture an alternative view of this very distinctive species.

Merveille du Jour (garden first on 8th Oct)

An early October selection

A few new ones have come into the garden in the last week. The tally for the year continues to climb almost daily and still a few of the more common autumn species have yet to appear. With some warm and dry nights forecast it's looking good...

Red-line Quaker (first on 6th Oct)

Rosy Rustic (first on 6th Oct)

Sallow (first on 5th Oct)

Red-green Carpet (first on 7th Oct)

Angle Shades (29th Sept, previously only in June and early July)

In addition, a few more Blair's Shoulder-knot and Black Rustic have been trapped over recent nights and thankfully numbers of yellow underwings have gone right down making the trap a more peaceful place for the remainder of the moths to rest for the night