Early Oct - last years repeats

Quietening down at Wychwood Moths, with average catches this week of just 19 moths of 11 species per night. Still potential for some new species for the garden for a while yet I guess, but this week just a couple of second time around moths both repeating last years trappings.

Brown-spot Pinion - 3rd Oct 2011, previously caught once on 8th Oct 2010

Red-green Carpet - 1st Oct 2011, previously caught once on 7th Oct 2010

Orange Sallow

After a couple of weeks anticipating, I have trapped one of the scarcer local Xanthia sp giving me the first garden tick of the autumn season. I have been getting steady catches of the regular species but this is the first "notable" for a couple of weeks for me.

Orange Sallow - garden first 25th Sept

The Sallow - new for year 25th Sept, last year I caught only a couple of darker individuals in October

Large Ranunculus - getting a few of these, this one a smart pale variation

Black Rustic - another regular at Wychwood Moths from mid-Sept onwards

Spruce Carpet - like many species, scarcer in 2011 than 2010

Outside the Exclusion Zone

Like many other local birders, I took the opportunity to go outside the rare bird exclusion zone of Bedfordshire last week to sample the delights just over the border at Grafham. This large reservoir seems to act like an autumn shield, catching and deflecting any decent seabirds that are blown our way in a storm or potentially coming cross-country on favourable NE winds from the Wash.

My lack of bird pictures on this blog is mainly equipment related as I am usually only achieving record shots digiscoped with a compact camera but the millpond conditions and close encounters at Grafham when I visited enabled some reasonable images to be captured for a change. (Kodak DX7630 ad Opticron ES80 with 27xWW)

Sabines Gull, Grafham Water 15th Sept

Grey Phalarope, Grafham Water 15th Sept

Sneaky armchair ticking

The Wychwood Moths garden list sneaked up by two last week thanks to a couple of moths that I took from the trap samples during July.

A particularly rufous looking minor that I collected was dissected by Andy Banthorpe and revealed to actually be a male Rufous Minor as I had hoped; unfortunately I cannot locate a photo I think I took at the time of collection. Previously in June I had collected a small sample of typical individuals and had equivalent numbers of Marbled and Tawny Marbled. So with the set complete, all of next years adults are safe from the freezer ! - was in the name of the scientific record as well as the list of course.

Similarly I collected a limited sample of five Common Rustic agg including two small and dark examples. Dissection revealed three male Common and two male Lesser Common Rustic.

Thanks Andy! 220 jumps to double Nelson 222 despite the windy and often damp nights and a trap that has felt a bit neglected by moths for the last week.

Snout - surprising first for year on 10/Sep

Lesser Yellow Underwing - a peak of variety and numbers in the last couple of weeks

Centre-barred Sallow - new for year 8th Sept, a handful so far

August / September change-over

It's been a quiet week at Wychwood Moths with nothing around that attracts a "scarce" tag and none of the autumn specials yet for the yearlist. Close to half the catch this week has been Large Yellow Underwings, so just a couple of catch-up pics and a quick pug quiz for todays post.

Red Underwing - just the one so far this year

Old Lady - getting a couple of these each night

Angle Shades

Straw Underwing - missed the peak of these by being away most of August this year

Flounced Rustic - not so numerous as last year

Un-ID medium pug (trapped on 27th July)

Un ID large Pug (trapped 27th August)

Wychwood Moths - missed August

Been away in Florida for over three weeks so nothing to report from Wychwood Moths in August although my first night back trapping on 27th produced some year ticks as expected, one of which was a nice fresh Red Underwing. Did not note any significant moths during my time away but had 80+ bird species including 4 world ticks and some superb views of many impressive varieties. Also a selection of large butties including Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Monarch, Queen, Giant Swallowtail and White Peacock. Just a few images to whet the appetite or provide a reminder for anybody that has been to this area themselves.

Limpkin with apple snail, Lake Tohopekaliga, Kissimmee, FL. Plenty of these about early mornings. An adult Snail Kite was also present in this area on most visits.

Sandhill Crane with juvenile, Kissimmee, FL. A yard bird, and Wal-Mart car park etc... Small family groups all over the area and some good roosts near the lake.

American Black Vulture with roadkill for lunch, Kissimmee, FL.

Potential Human lunch, Kissimmee, FL

Wood Stork, Kissimmee, FL. Plenty of these about on lakes and roadsides. Also within some of the parks including the sea lion enclosure at Sea World.

White Peacock. A numerous butterfly, this one found its way inside the villa.

Start of August update

July was not so good as last year, no doubt the result of the cooler wetter weather. Wychwood Moths recorded just 80 macro species in the whole month compared with 112 in July 2010. Fortunately there were a few good ones in there as previously shared. Here is a catchup on some images taken in the last week or so including a few from the first couple of days in August when thankfully the last three warm nights have increased the volumes and the species count has gone back above my "aim" of 30+ per night.

Currant Pug

Maple Pug - this tiny one just reached 8mm on the ruler for the forewing length

Small Rivulet - rather battered unfortunately

Large Twin-spot Carpet - again rather battered but was a NFG on 1st August

Nutmeg

Heart & Club gallery - lots of variation again. Biggest numbers between mid-June and mid-July with a one night maximum of 23, a little short of the 34 last year.

Grey Dagger agg.

Bright-line Brown-eye

Phoenix - three of these now this year, one of my favourites

Scalloped Oak - had more in 2011, one night max of 3, this one is "peppered"

Dunbar - top image is the darkest one I have had, the vast majority are of the pale form

Cloaked Minor - not had many of these this year