Its Scarce...and not very Prominent.

 

Scarce Prominent Odontosia carmelita Howick 26/04/25 

I began moth trapping when we moved in here in 2009. 

Over the years, the garden list has steadily increased by annual stages, with some moths that are very common and others less so. Some species trapped have been firsts for Northumberland and no less than 90 species have been recorded here on only the one occasion. These are made up of a few migrants but most are strays on the wind from other habitats.

Over the years one species fired my imagination . The Scarce Prominent Odontosia carmelita. 

This is not a rare moth in Northumberland with 240+ adults recorded from 50 different widespread sites, but it is not abundant either. North Northumberland VC68 only has 12+ records. It is a moth of old birch woodlands, favouring taller, mature trees that are mainly found at inland upland sites in the county.

The Victorian Lepidoperists found it a very rare insect that was difficult to obtain. Adults don't feed so it wasn't attracted by Sugaring. The larvae were always too high, so this left digging lightly around the base of birches in autumn looking for pupa or looking around the base of birch trunks in spring for newly emerged adults. It wasn't until the invention of electric Mercury Vapour Moth traps that this moth became more widely found.

In recent years I've pondered taking my battery bucket trap into an old birch wood on Alnwick Moor to try and find it but never got around to it. 

Fast forward up to Saturday night when this moth wasn't even in my hindsight. Late, before going to bed I thought I would check the garden trap to see if there was much doing. At the minute is all Orthosias with a few geometers like Shoulder Stripe and Water Carpet for interest. Peering in to the egg tray lined depths a furry head could be seen so I lifted another tray to get a better vie of the half hidden stranger within. Only then did it reveal itself. 

Its always great to find one of your hero's or most wanteds in the trap, but even more so at this early time of year. 'carmelita was duly potted and placed in cool storage until the morning where these photos could be taken. On the evening I took it into Village Wood ,where there are a few old birches, for release. I tried to sit it on an old gnarled trunk but it was having none of it. After a bit of a flutter around it launched itself up and off over the canopy. 

I wonder if I'll ever get another...

  

April

 Last time, I mentioned the possibility that we were experiencing a ‘false spring’, however, it has continued until this post too. In my notebook, the last time precipitation gets a mention was on 16^th March with an odd drizzle shower. Since then, we have had dry but cold weather, often in bright sunny days. 

 Another sunny day on the 29^th March brought the first Hairy footed Flower Bees or our garden. Always an absolute pleasure to see as they bump from flower to flower in a cartoon like fashion.

 By the 29^th, up to 150+ Kittiwakes were back around the Howick / Cullernose cliffs while 31 Whooper Swans flew N in two parties of 22 and 9.

 Another Boulmer search on the 30^th found that the female Black Redstart was still present, but the male was long gone. 9 Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks. In the afternoon on a visit to Amble we found a colony of Tawny Mining Bees in a raised bed by the Memorial. Lots of small males danced around the soil interspersed by a few bright tawny orange females.

 March bowed out with more Whooper Swans heading over Howick back to the Icelandic breeding grounds. 27 came over very low, you could almost feel the down draught from the wing beats.

 The first week of April finally saw an emergence of butterflies around the patch with several Peacocks, a Comma, a Red Admiral, 2 Small Tortoiseshells and a few Large White. More Hairy footed flower Bees and a few Dark Edged Bee Flies too.

Dark edged Bee Fly

Comma

Hairy footed Flower Bee, male.

A late afternoon walk at Boulmer on 4^th  was still cold but a few migrants battled on. A smart male White Wagtail  was with half a dozen black and white Pieds, a Lesser black backed Gull flew N followed by 3 Sandwich Terns. A good number of 32 Shelducks kept company with a  Pale bellied Brent Goose.

Pale bellied Brent with the Shelducks

Male White Wag...

For a change on the 6^th April we walked from Cullernose Point to Craster, hoping for a Wheatear sighting but that plan failed. We did make it worthwhile though with a close Raven, the first Willow Warbler, 2 Blackcaps, 4 Swallows and 2 Sand Martins of the year.

Now the evenings are lighter there is more time to be spent in the field ( while neglecting jobs at home), it could just do with warming up to 15 or so degrees…

 In the fine spell, a few moths kept the trap going while a nice spider graced the bathroom...

Acleris literana

Brindled Pug

Early Tooth Striped

Harpactea hombergi only my second, both from the bathroom.

Purple Thorn

Finally, on a cool sunny day last Sunday we checked out the new scrapes at Alnmouth Buston Links. It looked well for waders and wildfowl but not today.4 Shoveler and 2 pairs of nesting Lapwing were the highlight, 3 Whooper Swans moved N while the first Grasshopper Warbler of the year reeled unseen from a thick bramble at Hipsburn.

Male Lapwings very vocal and acrobatic.

Shoveler

This Yellowhammer sang from the ground in the car park at the cricket club for 5 minutes.