Moths

Usually my garden moth trapping in North Northumberland isnt very good in March. Single figure counts mainly consisting of Hebrew Characters or an odd Pale brindled Beauty as a result of windy nights or clear cold skies are the order of the day.

Tom Tams, County Recorder, advised me once to stop scratching around for a handful of moths in the garden and venture out to some woodland where you can catch a bucketful. I was thinking about this yesterday so dug out my small LED bucket trap that I bought a couple of years ago  that has lain largely unused ever since. To be honest, I didn't have much faith in the small LED purple, battery, light, being used to a 125w MV bulb that illuminates our village and attracts everything from migrating Pinkfeet to the Coastguard Sea King Helicopter Rescue.

As dusk arrived, I took my bucket and battery into the an estate wood near our village and hid it away below and old birch tree. I expected that when I returned in the morning, it would either be gone or full of rain water. When I left the house to retrieve it, it was raining quite heavily and had been for some time. That will be that then, my second option seems likely.

What a surprise I got when I arrived. For a start the little bulb was still operating 12 hours later and secondly, there were moths! Quite a few too. I wish I had taken my phone for a few shots in situ. There were two Water Carpets, a March Moth and a Common Plume on the tree trunk above the trap.. in total there were 50 moths of 11 sp. Not July figures but ok for a little light in March. 

Taxa

45.044  Common Plume (Emmelina monodactyla)  1

49.076  a moth (Acleris cristana)  1

70.103  Water Carpet (Lampropteryx suffumata)  6

70.245  March Moth (Alsophila aescularia)  4

70.247  Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria)  1

70.255  Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria)  2

73.069  Early Grey (Xylocampa areola)  3

73.194  Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii)  5

73.210  Satellite (Eupsilia transversa)  9

73.245  Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda)  1

73.249  Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)  17

Acleris cristana.

To keep some context, back home, the 125w Robinson had also been on all night. It was radically out performed by its smaller relative having only 11 moths of 4 sp. Still, one of these was a Red Sword-grass.

 Taxa

73.209  Red Sword-grass (Xylena vetusta)  1 NFY

73.244  Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi)  3

73.249  Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)  7

73.336  Red Chestnut (Cerastis rubricosa)  1 NFY

Red Sword-grass

Gardening Leave...

I didn't post yesterday, because there wasn't too much new to add on the bird front other than Black headed Gull with 3 flying S overhead.

Other garden wildlife picked up though as the temperature rose in the sunshine. Small Tortoiseshell and Tree Bumblebee were new for the year and in the afternoon an intriguing hoverfly stopped briefly. I though at first it was a Bee Fly, it was overall ginger and furry but without the proboscis. It has a pale whitish face too. It was too brief to be sure and I didnt manage a photo but it could have been  Criorhina berberina of the form oxyacanthae that mimics the Common Carder Bumblebee. At this early date I cant see it being anything else.

Mammals made a garden appearance yesterday with an emerging Hedgehog and a Brown Hare in the back field.

The moth trap has been good this last day or two, after a very poor February.

Pale Pinion

Powdered Quaker

Twin-spotted Quaker

Diurnea fagella

Red Sword-grass

Common Quaker

Early Grey

Red Chestnut

The Moth Trap...

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.

Late moths.

Red Sword-grass. Pic taken in poor light this morning.

Although we are hovering around the end of autumn, November can still provide some interesting species in the moth trap. A small catch of 5 moths this morning included a nice fresh Red Sword-grass. This is my third garden record, but my first in the autumn. The other two were spring records, as the moth winters as an adult. The only other time I have met with it is on holidays in Scotland where it seems to be a bit more common favouring upland moor and birch forest edges.

Not much else was seen today, having spent the best daylight hours in Newcastle shopping for furniture. On return, Bunty flushed a Woodcock from the corner of our garden, a Chiffchaff was in the village pond willows and 250+ Pink feet flew SE over head.

The biggies...

At this time of year moth trapping can get a bit samey with day after day producing the same half dozen similar species in varying quantities. This year has been even worse with a poor, cold, spring greatly reducing garden catches, so when I inspected last nights catch, this morning I was very pleased to find two quite sought after spring species.

The pick of the bunch were only my second garden record of Red Sword-grass and, also hoped for each year, a Pale Pinion.

Pale Pinion

Red Sword-grass

Other new species for the year this morning were Early Grey, Double Striped Pug, Red green Carpet and Diurnea fagella.

Double striped Pug

Red green Carpet

Early Grey

Diurnea fagella