Mint.

 

For a change a post about a moth. And what a moth it is too. This is the Merveille du Jour Griposia aprilina, with two individuals posted above, the top one being slightly fresher and darker than the bottom. 

When flipping through the field guide, the bright sharp cool mint green and black patterning jumps off the page, making you filled with desire. I remember catching my first in 2009. I couldnt believe it. What a panic to pot it up as it flew around the light on an October night. Since then I have caught it on 34 occasions, mainly singletons but occasionally up to 4 at a time.

It is specifically an moth of cooler autumn nights and tends to associate around oak trees of which we have a young one in the garden.

This year I am very pleased to meet with Merv, as these are my first since the 11th Oct 19. Two blank years in succession is unprecentented here though 2016 was also a miss. The best year here was 11 caught in 2018.

I'm not sure if some autumn species are cyclical as I've also checked Frosted Orange and Flounced Chestnut for garden stats. In 2010 I had 93 and 39 respectively but in 2022 I have 2 and 0 !   Lets hope things improve next year...

Busy Moth Trapping.

This current warm spell, I'm reluctant to call it a heatwave unless its been on until about September, has been great for garden mothing. On Friday night there were 494 moths of 95 sp and on Saturday night 719 moths of 119 sp. I was running two traps for the first time this year so these totals kept me busy all Saturday and Sunday mornings. A few good moths for here included -

This Celypha rufana is well out of range but is the 2nd Northumberland record after one in 2016. A RDB species scarce in the UK found mainly in Wales and Cumbria. 

My first Lyme Grass in 6yrs. The 4th for the garden.

Clockwise from top left - Coronet a new garden moth, Sallow Kitten, Straw Underwing and Blackneck all good for this area.

Diamond back, Dicrorampha sp, Bird Cherry Ermine and Eudonia lacustrata.

Latticed Heath, Mompha propinquella, Crambus perlella and Pammene aurana.

 Due to the heat on Friday I left some sugar water soaked kitchen roll in each trap for them to drink until dusk, but on Saturday I released them all in thick cover straight away in the morning. Some night species will feed during the day if its warm so I gave them a chance to do that.

Some quick moth stats...

 We've all been saying that 2021 has been a poor mothing year so far, but just how bad?

In my garden the species totals for 1st Jan to 20th May each year over the last decade are as follows -

2021 47

2020 85

2019 69

2018 60

2017 87 [best year]

2016 33

2015 47

2014 83

2013 32 [worst year]

2012 43

Average 58.6 species over the period in 10 years.

So yes 2021 is below par but its way off being the worst. There have been 5 better springs and 5 equal or worse...and its looking grim until Thursday when hopefully things will pick up.

Sugar table...

In less than optimum conditions my tray of mashed fruit and beer attracted a star turn the other night - a Red Underwing. Only my second after one in 2009, this may be the furthest North Red Underwing in the UK! Note my comment about this species in the previous post, now, where is that Old Lady?

Taking a photo in near black darkness is tricky, so I lit the moth with my headlamp and manually focussed on it with the on camera flash set. I took half a dozen shots and one came out sharp...

Still on the moth theme, decent records continue to arrive this week to more conventional means with 2 Butterbur in the same trap and my first Scarce Bordered Straw, a nice fresh darker specimen....

Scarce Bordered Straw

Butterbur is annual here, but usually only one at a time. This is my first multiple occurrence in the trap. Here with two Rosy Rustics for size comparison.

Grey-Chi seem to be getting scarcer year on year...

Scotland...

There has been a paucity in blog posts this month for one reason or another. Early on we were away to our usual hidey hole, Allt Beithe, near Acharacle, Ardnamurchan.

The weather was a bit disappointing but we had a couple of good sunny days, one write off day and the rest were 'mixed'. I took the moth trap this time and it gave some great highlights, with a few new species for me. Here are some pics from that week away...

This is Allt Beithe, hidden away in thickly wooded gardens....

The drive way over the moss...

The moss...

Looking north towards Kentra Bay with Eigg and Rhum beyond.

The moth trap on the moss...

Ardnamurchan. Nowhere like it...

A day trip to Tobermory on Mull is a bit of a tradition now...

Sunset from the garden.

Our only Eagle of the week, this imm White tailed flew low over the car near Kilchoan...

It took until our last night before we caught up with two Pine Martens. This one came to the bird table.

The local and rare Chequered Skipper at Ariundle Oakwoods...

Large Heath of the form 'scotica' just came on the wing at the end of our stay.

Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary along the track to the cottage.

The Saxon, one of my most wanted moths was captured on our first night!

The Beautiful Brocade.

The Clouded Buff is anything but...

And all too soon our week was over and work beckons...

Yesterday, a walk with Bunty to the pond field produced a patch tick for me, 2 drake Mandarins.

Mandarin Duck has occurred here before just not long enough for me to see it, so I was quite excited at seeing these two shiny lads skulking at the back of the pond. I have been along tonight to try and get a photo, but there was no sign. I wonder where these exotics go?

Last night was mild, calm and overcast ideal for moth trapping. This morning there were 55 moths of 13 species, including some other than the obligatory Orthosias...

Best was this first for the garden, Acleris literana, a nice pale mint green and black tortrix, only the 7th for VC68.

Nut Tree Tussock is always good to see and marks the way out of winter into the proper mothing season.

This Coxcomb Prominent was a surprise and is the earliest Northumberland record by 9 days.

   Today I was looking around Google for some more tips on moth photography and noticed that some of the first results of the search were hopeless. Photos of moths face on or from almost below, pics in pots etc...I think I'll do a post on here after I take a few set up shots of my methods.Its not rocket science!

Mothing has started...

As the book says... Pale brindled Beauties...

Satellite.

Creatures of the night.

It seems like ages since I've done any proper birding, but I make no apologies. There will be plenty of time for that after mid-August when things start to pick up. Then it'll be all eyes to the weather forecast and keeping fingers crossed. In the mean time, I like to spend mid Summer with the insects, in particular, lepidoptera. 

We have had a pretty poor summer this year so far but this week has seen an increase in temperature and a rise in moth activity to match. Without much time to trap during the week these days, I used two traps in my garden on both Friday and Saturday nights with excellent results. I used my own Robinson trap and a Skinner on loan from Roger Forster for the first time this year. Both burn 125w MV bulbs, so the place was well lit.

On Friday I had 415 moths of 91 species, of which 137 were in the Skinner, and this trap also accounted for 13 species not in the Robinson. Whether they would have found their way in had only the usual trap have been used, remains to be seen. Saturday was the same set up with even better results. This time I had 518 moths of 104 species, my first treble figure count of species this year.

So without further ado, here are a few from this weekend...

Double Lobed

Lime speck Pug

Gold Spangle 

Lempke's Gold Spot

Only my second ever Small Yellow Wave.

There you are!

After my frustrating miss with the Yellow-browed Warbler next to the garden, things have improved on the patch. That was a week past Tuesday. Since then I've been a bit too pre-occupied with other things to get blogging so this is a short catch up.

Friday 2nd October....
The first white frosts of autumn here, on the car windscreen and on grass shaded by pines at RAF Boulmer radar base this morning. The only bird of note was a Peregrine that flew low over the road uplit by the evening sun.

Saturday 3rd October....
A trip to the smoke to see Ian Fisher's photography exhibition and very good it was too...
Back home 22 Barnacle Geese flew N and nicely on to the patch list.

Sunday 4th October....
Birding with John around Craster where there was little to show for it, then Warkworth with the highlight being 3 Crossbills N. Back home at lunchtime either Tuesday's or another Yellow-browed Warbler appeared in the rowan along our drive. I hovered around the garden for the next three hours trying to get a photo without success. At least I saw the bird about 5x well but just too quick to get an image.

The ever elusive Yellow-browed Warbler in the garden.

Monday 5th October....
Yellow-browed Warbler still in the garden. Heard calling as I left for work...At work in Ashington 30+ Redwings and 1 Brambling flew W overhead.

Tuesday 6th October....
A day off to look for migrants. Heavy rain all day and 100% overcast ensure a couple of good soakings for yours truly.
Still, up at Craster, 3 Yellow-browed Warblers in rapid succession was good, but other birds were scarce - 2 Blackcap, 4 Chiffchaff, 1 Woodcock, 15+ Redwings, 20+ Song Thrush, 6+ Goldcrests. I missed out on 5 Ring Ouzels here later.
At home, the Yellow-browed Warbler was still in the garden with 2 Chiffchaffs, 1 Blackcap and a Brambling heard calling.

Thursday 8th October...
I gave a talk about my notebooks to the Northumberland and Tyneside Bird Club at Gosforth. It seemed to go down well and I really enjoyed it.

Thats us up to date then. This weekend has been quite busy with family commitments so no real birding. Its a bit frustrating as there seemed to be a lot of good birds around the county today with 2 Little Bunting, 7 Yellow-browed Warblers and a Barred Warbler at Bamburgh, Great Grey Shrike on Holy Island, Firecrests at St Mary's Island and Tynemouth etc.
A few dog walks around our village had 1 Blackcap, sev Goldcrests and the usual suspects viz migging S.

The mothing has been interesting this weekend with a  nice selection of autumn goodies -

Red Sword-grass

Large Wainscot

Merveille du Jour

This week looks a bit interesting weather-wise, so I'll need to check my work calendar tomorrow for another day off....

142. Yellow-browed Warbler.
143. Barnacle Goose.

More Moths...

A good catch last night, the full list is on here, of 458 moths of 86 species.

More with one trap than  the night before's two! Best of the bunch was a new species for the garden and one I haven't seen for over 15 years, since we lived at Stobswood - Figure of 80. I like these moths, shaped like another fave of mine Yellow Horned. Lilac Beauty was also nice but it wouldn't really sit for a pic, whilst Cydia splendana  was new for the year Cydia fagiglandana was anew species for the garden, 2nd for VC68 and only the 4th for Northumberland. Thanks to Tom for spotting my photo...

Figure of 80

Cydia splendana fagiglandana

Little beauty...

Until this morning I thought this years moth trapping was to repeat that of 2013 when I failed to record one of my favourite garden moths, the Pine Beauty Panolis flammea. It was with some relief that on top of the egg trays was a single nice specimen of the moth, so no blank in 2015...

You can see from the list below that this is not a particularly abundant moth here, but it is regular. 2011 was an excellent spring for them, far outstripping the other years I've trapped here at Howick.

Qty    Date

1 22 Mar 2010

1   02 Apr 2010

3 09 Apr 2010

1 27 Apr 2010

2 28 Apr 2010

1 21 May 2010

1 23 Feb 2011

1 24 Feb 2011

1 20 Mar 2011

1 21 Mar 2011

7 22 Mar 2011

2 23 Mar 2011

1 25 Mar 2011

2 01 Apr 2011

1 02 Apr 2011

1 07 Apr 2011

4 08 Apr 2011

1 13 Apr 2011

1 15 Apr 2011

1 24 Apr 2011

1 06 May 2011

1 16 Mar 2012

1 20 Mar 2012

1 27 Mar 2012

1 01 Apr 2012

1 13 Mar 2014

2 17 Mar 2014

1 18 Mar 2014

1 09 Apr 2014

1 16 Apr 2014

1 28 Apr 2014

The trap is on again tonight so lets hope for a repeat...

Another good highlight today were the 3 Swallows that flew right over our house this evening and carried on north up the coast. My first for the year and bang on time, to the day.

106. Swallow.

Seconds please...

I suppose that there will be more photos of this morning's solar eclipse than there are of wheatears on the blogosphere today. Not to be out done, here is another. We got up to clear blue skies this morning though a few clouds soon began to show, making us a bit anxious that we would never see the partial eclipse. We need not have worried and the morning remained very pleasant with 75% clear skies with some thin, steadily moving clouds.

This is my second eclipse after the one in 1999 and I cant wait for my next in 2026. I heard on the BBC today that there have only been 8 solar eclipses visible in the UK in the last 500 years, so to have been fortunate enough to be around for two of them is a privilege indeed.

How it started seen through reversed binoculars on the back door. 

And later when there was cloud cover I managed a proper direct photo.

 While waiting for the 09.35 Armageddon, a check of last nights moth trap catch was a nice surprise - 24 moths of 9 species including the second garden ( and 12th Northumberland ) record of Acleris cristana, though this one was of the form cristalana.