19th March 2011.......Fag Break

A lucky break indeed !


I've been laying some slabs around the garden, nice day for it, and during a coffee break I checked out the sun drenched brick/stone back wall.
This NURSERY WEB SPIDER was sunning itself and .....

.....8 of those funny little jumping spiders were hunting around the warm bricks.
As I watched, one of the spiders dragged a moth out of a crevice in the brickwork.
Sorry to say I deprived it of its lunch and added this DIURNEA FAGELLA to my micro year list....................


.......The half dead creature succombed 10 mins after the photo shoot.
The warm sunshine kicked started my garden into life and the first flowers appeared on many plants, including my Lungwort which had attracted quite a few Bumble Bees and Hover Flies.

Lungwort (above)
Green Shield Bug (below)

The Green Shield Bug was misidentified earlier. What I didn't know at the time was, they turn brown in late autumn before hibernation and take a week or more to turn back to green in the spring when they become active again.

I decided to run a trap in the early hours of the evening until the temperature fell too low.

A Double-striped Pug turned up on the wall near the trap and both Common Quaker and Clouded Trap were caught, but nothing else turned up after the moon rose.

Apparently, this is the nearest the moon has been to the earth in 20 odd years so it is big and bright right now.

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MOONRISE .....almost like daylight in my garden last night.

Yesterday/Last nights Moths :-

0663...Diurnea fagella *FFY

1862...Double-striped Pug

2187...Common Quaker

2188...Clouded Drab

TOTALS....200 moths (133 macro, 67 micro) of 24 species (16 macro, 8 micro)

18th March 2011...Guaranteed tick

Clear night, bright full moon, temperature down to freezing point. Not the best of conditions. However, I decided to run a trap until temps dropped below 2 degrees which happened at around 8.30pm.
A Dark Chestnut turned up at the trap but that was it for the night so I uploaded the pics on to the P C and noticed a little moth on the wall very near the computer screen.
Oh well, I had to get one sooner or later and they all count.......
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TINEA PELLIONELLA 0240 Case-bearing Clothes Moth

DARK CHESTNUT 2259 So far :-

196 moths (130 macro, 66 micro) of 23 species (16 macro, 7 micro)

17th March 2011...The Dells garden update

Glad to say the Met Office got it wrong with a 4 degree low and rain forecast.
There were a few specks of rain, not anywhere near enough to cover up the traps, but the temperature stayed above 8deg C for most of the night, dropping to 6 in the early hours.
28 moths of 10 species was the result, including a year first Pine Beauty........
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DARK CHESTNUT 2259

SATELLITE 2256

PINE BEAUTY 2179

Last nights tally :-

11 x Common Quaker

4 x Double-striped Pug

3 x Hebrew Character

3 x Clouded Drab

2 x Agonopterix heracliana

1 x Emmelina monodactyla

1 x Small Quaker

1 x Satellite

1 x Dark Chestnut

1 x Pine Beauty

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Totals :-

194 moths (129 macro, 65 micro) of 22 species (16 macro, 6 micro)

16th March 2011.....Take it as Red

Not a nice evening last night with a mist falling like drizzle and a lot cooler, so I was over the moon to find this garden first in the trap........
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RED CHESTNUT 2139
A year and "garden first" tick

Tally :-

3 x Common Quaker

2 x Hebrew Character

1 x Red Chestnut

1 x A. heracliana

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166 moths (104 macro, 62 micro) of 21 species (15 macro, 6 micro)

Garden update 14th/15th March 2011

Not too much to report on the moth front, more of the usual suspects, I need a new species badly !
Here are some of the latest catches and observations............
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SMALL QUAKER 2182

AGONOPTERIX HERACLIANA 688

no shortage of these little micros !

My second one this year....DOUBLE-STRIPED PUG 1862

The inevitable HEBREW CHARACTER 2190

CLOUDED DRAB 2188

COMMON QUAKER 2187

This is what appears to be TROILUS LURIDUS, it has no common name and is similar to the Forest Shieldbug. The smooth rounded shoulders are the fieldmark.

This is the first one to be seen in the garden.

GOLDFINCH feeding on the old seedheads of my SENECIO plants. Contrary to the advice of Alan Tichmarsh, I leave the flower heads ON....well worth it I would say !

Also it is a good foodplant for Cinnabar larva !

The SPARROW TENEMENT BLOCK,

1 - 5 SPARROWVILLE

Biggleswade.

Beds. SG188LL

Constructed by Matt Burgess, this community housing project is now producing a regular supply of young sparrows to the area.

No ! We didn't install TV for them.....that is my old terrestial TV aerial which still runs the bedroom TV.

After risking my neck on a double extension ladder marking, drilling and fixing, there were no tenants until 5 years later in 2008.

For the last 3 years there has been two of the five compartments occupied with up to 3 broods during a year. Plenty of interest this year too, so I'm hoping for another good breeding season.

Another view of the Sparrow des res Garden Moth Totals:-

159 moths of 20 species......14 macro and 6 micro

98 macro

61 micro