26th March 2011.....Slack period

Had a wander up "The Lodge", RSPB Headquarters, which is about 4 miles away by road. Had to shake off the red-wine cobwebs ! LESSER REDPOLL snapped through the glass of the "Hollywood" hide. Built quite a few years ago, very smart but much more restricted views than the one it replaced, impractical design all round, definitely built for appearance to impress the "Haddocks" on their one day summer excursions there. The ponds and surrounding areas are really good, as they are working to restore the old heathland. Soon there will be Nightjars and Woodlarks breeding there. Guaranteed !

Part of the old woodland at The Lodge.

The naturalised daffs will soon be replaced by a carpet of blue as the Bluebells come into bloom.

Lots of Treecreepers and Nuthatch here.

GARDEN MOTHS........The last few days have been really good on the weather front, with temperatures around 7 degress up to midnight and little or no wind. The traps have been on but apart from the usual Common Quakers, Hebrew Characters and Clouded Drabs the Spring arrivals don't seem to have arrived yet at The Dells. I did get my 3rd Early Thorn last night though. .............................................................................. EARLY THORN 1917Garden totals :- 401 moths (293 micro, 108 macro) of 27 species (17 macro, 10 micro)

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23rd March 2011...Little moth...Big name

Last night in The Dells garden.

A new micro for the year was added, the all too familiar Brown House Moth,
HOFMANNOPHILA PSEUDOSPRETELLA 0647

SMALL QUAKER 2182 Total :-

38 moths of 11 species.

0647) 1 x Hofmannophila pseudospretella (Brown House-moth) *FFY

0633) 1 x Diurnea fagella

0688) 2 x Agonopterix heracliana

1524) 6 x Emmelina monodactyla

1663) 1 x March Moth

1862) 9 x Double-striped Pug

2182) 2 x Small Quaker

2187) 9 x Common Quaker

2188) 2 x Clouded Drab

2190) 3 x Hebrew Character

2243) 2 x Early Grey

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Year total :-

363 moths (262 macro, 101 micro) of 27 species (17 macro, 10 micro)

22nd March 2011...Garden Update

Another great night weather-wise, with temperatures staying into double figures for most of the evening.
The cloud cover had gone by 22.30 and temps slowly fell to a min of 3.6 deg in the early morning hours.
70 moths of 12 species were caught, which is a very high total for my town garden at this time of year.
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ALUCITA HEXADACTYLA, 1288, The Twenty-plume Moth

Another view of this strange moth, showing the wing structure.

A. hexadactyla

MARCH MOTH 1663

CLOUDED DRAB 2188

DOUBLE-STRIPED PUG Totals :-

29 x Common Quaker

13 x Double-striped Pug

7 x Early Grey

4 x Clouded Drab

4 x Emmelina monodactyla

4 x Agonopterix heracliana

3 x Hebrew Character

2 x Diurnea fagella

1 x March Moth

1 x Small Quaker

1 x Chestnut

1 x Alucita hexadactyla *FFY

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325 moths (234 macro, 91 micro) of 26 species (17 macro, 9 micro)

21st March 2011...Home and away

The Home Wood Field Trip went well, the weather was perfect and all the equipment worked fine on its maiden outing.
This was the second such visit of what will be a regular monthly excursion.
There are no previous records from this comparatively young wood so we don't know what to expect.
25 species were noted of circa 140 moths, although there were probably more but we only counted maximums on view at any one time.
The full report will appear on Matts blog pages at http://thetrappingsofsuccess.blogspot.com/
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Captain Trappings, surveying the scene as the equipment is being set up.

A few fresh STREAMERS appeared early evening

Just a single YELLOW HORNED

SHOULDER STRIPE

ENGRAILED spp Best of the rest :-

Acleris literana

Oak Beauty

Red Green Carpet

Lead-coloured Drab

Acleris ferrugana/notana

Small Brindled Beauty

Brindled Pug

and the usual suspects were also present in numbers.

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On the Home front, I left the garden trap on with great expectations and was gutted with the result ! On the best night of the year to date, just the usual Common Quakers and Drabs etc.

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Garden to date :-

Last night......

8 x Common Quaker

3 x Emmelina monodactyla

One each of the following :-

Double-striped Pug

Early Grey

Clouded Drab

Hebrew Character

Agonopterix heracliana

Diurnea fagella

255 moths (175 macro, 80 micro) of 25 species (17 macro, 8 micro)

20th March 2011....Spring equinox at last

The Spring equinox is here and the daytime is now longer than the night.

Conditions were very good for the time of year and the traps were busier than usual with 38 moths recorded of 8 species.

Mostly the same old, but an Early Thorn turned up to brighten up the evenings mothing.

Tonight Matt Ratface Trappings and myself will be at Holme Wood for our second outing there. The first occasion was quite a success considering we only used a battery operated, low wattage trap, but tonight we are taking the jenny and a couple of traps, a 100 watt FUL and an 80watt MV.

Looking forward to that as the weather forecast looks very favourable.
The full report will appear on Matts blog, http://thetrappingsofsuccess.blogspot.com

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EARLY THORN 1917

EARLY GREY 2243

COMMON QUAKER 2187 ........my most numerous moth to date. The Catch :-

13 x Common Quaker

5 x Agonopterix heracliana

5 x Double-striped Pug

6 x Clouded Drab

3 x Hebrew Character

2 x Early Grey

3 x Emmelina monodactyla

1 x Early Thorn *FFY

Totals :-

238 moths (163 macro, 75 micro) of 25 species (17 macro, 8 micro)