One Man Went To Mow ....

.... went and bloody well mowed the meadows I was hoping to sweep on Wednesday evening for an hour or so after work. I nipped to a local site that I refer to as Countesthorpe Meadows. I haven't been there for a long while, and as soon as I got there I had de ja vu.

It probably looked great a week or so before ....

Anyway, I swept around the margins and pointed my camera at a few bits. Nothing new or exciting, but still good practice. I was keen to see if I was still capable of pointing the camera at anything hand-held in the field without specs. Confirmed I need specs, these were lucky!

Cardinal Beetle

Common Malachite Beetle

Cantharis nigricans

Red-and-Black Froghopper

I was home very late from work yesterday, but managed to get the trap out for around 22:30. Turned out to be well worthwhile.

Puss Moth

Eyed Hawk-moth

Elachista albedinella

Chocolate-tip

Ephestia unicolorella

From the garden trap - Choccy

Had a few nice garden-trap moths over the last couple of nights, nothing new or particularly exciting but just nice to see in the garden again. The main one being ......

Chocolate-tip, only the fifth garden record, first since 2009

Waved Umber, just about annual since 2010

Why are these nearly always tattered and torn!?

More standard fare included ...

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Spectacle - couldn't decide which shot so have two

Narborough Bog & Garden Tick

Yesterday was mostly spent drinking a few refreshing ciders at the Tigers Rugby (hosted by my work), so it wasn't until late in the evening that I decided to take a few traps out to a couple of local sites (and even later in the night when I got around to posting the photos from Friday night).

I hadn't actually checked the weather - it just felt like a reasonable night with cloud cover holding the temps up until dusk. The first site turned out to be a non-starter as the gated entrance to Enderby Quarry had been fitted with a new padlock - quite possibly by the adjoining timber frame business without consent from the quarry owners. This will be followed up as I wanted to get in there again a few times this year.

With this setback, I headed back over to Narborough Bog and set about carting the cheapo 2-stroke gennie, a couple of traps and three cable reels down to the reserve from the main track. I usually drive up but a new gate has been installed .....

Everything was running without issue at 20:50, and I left the site at 21:15 with every intention of being back at first light. At least that was the plan. This morning I was suddenly aware of my phone alarm going off at 06:20 - it had been self-snoozing for almost an hour without me stirring. I needed to get going quickly, and was concerned when I opened the front door to see that it had rained in the previous couple of hours or so. Now I was very cynical about my chances of enjoying the catch - the gennie would almost certainly have run out of fuel if not died though the rain, and the traps would be full of water surrounded by soaking wet sheets.

I got there at 06:40 and all concerns were immediately allayed when I could hear the rough-arse chuntering of the gennie and see the lights still on. What a superb bit of kit - almost 10 hrs running with 2 x 125W MV traps and cable reels plus resiliance to rain. The traps were wet and the sheets were soaking, but still plenty of moths.

The wood at Narborough Bog is damp and shady at the best of times, so I was not expecting the sort of variety and numbers that I'd get in a more typical broadleafed wood. I was therefore pleased with the overall catch of 166 of 21sp. The main highlights were what I think is a site-first Pale Pinion, Early Tooth-striped and an early Chocolate-tip.

0288 Caloptilia stigmatella 2 [yeartick]
0667 Semioscopis steinkellneriana 8
1746 Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 1
1750 Water Carpet (Lampropteryx suffumata) 2
1852 Brindled Pug (Eupithecia abbreviata) 8
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 1
1881 Early Tooth-striped (Trichopteryx carpinata) 5 [yeartick]
1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 2
1919 Purple Thorn (Selenia tetralunaria) 2 [yeartick]
1927 Brindled Beauty (Lycia hirtaria) 21 [yeartick]
1947 Engrailed (Ectropis bistortata) 2
1957 White-pinion Spotted (Lomographa bimaculata) 1 [yeartick]
2003 Pebble Prominent (Notodonta ziczac) 1 [yeartick]
2019 Chocolate-tip (Clostera curtula) 1 [yeartick]
2186 Powdered Quaker (Orthosia gracilis) 2 [yeartick]
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 5
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 20
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 69
2236 Pale Pinion (Lithophane hepatica) 1
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 1
2469 Herald (Scoliopteryx libatrix) 1

Chocolate-tip

Early Tooth-striped

Purple Thorn

Brindled Beauty

I also found a large noctuid caterpillar - possibly Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, retained to rear - and also a fresh noctuid pupa attached to the back of some bark I collected for photographic backgrounds.
Slightly less welcome was a fecking huge queen Hornet in one of the traps - don't remember seeing Hornets here before. The other trap was free of Hornets, but surprisingly had a good few Common Carder Bees in it plus a huge queen White-tailed Bumblebee. Both traps had a couple of wasps and one or two Yellow Ophion. I was handling every tray carefully!

Common Carder Bee

The garden traps also did well last night, including another garden tick micro. The total catch was 38 of 14sp. (125W MV 21 of 10, 80W actinic 17 of 10).

0602 Elachista apicipunctella 1 [FIRST FOR GARDEN]
0688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
0695 Agonopterix alstromeriana 1 [first for year]
0998 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 2 [first for year]
1288 Twenty-plume Moth (Alucita hexadactyla) 2
1497 Amblyptilia acanthadactyla 1
1524 Emmelina monodactyla 2
1728 Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata) 1 [first for year]
1760 Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata) 1
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 5
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 3
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 5
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 10
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 3

Elachista apicipunctella - smarter in life than I can capture

Light Brown Apple Moth

Twenty-plume Moth

Agonopterix alstromeriana

The garden traps were emptied with the regular Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroat in competition. Later this afternoon, I picked up my first Swifts of the year as two soared over the garden.

Charnwood Lodge 08/08/2009

I ran a couple of traps overnight at Charnwood Lodge on Saturday, around the bomb rocks near to main site entrance. I ran the 250W metal halide and a 125W MV in the hope of picking up early emerging late summer noctuids. No success on that score, but an Angle-striped Sallow was nice, and otherwise there were good numbers of expected species, especially Antler and Dotted Clay. Main highlights though were a Ling Pug (smaller, greyer moorland form of Wormwood Pug), and a couple of Chocolate-tips - new to the site. Total catch was 449 of 63sp. Ling Pug Chocolate-tip Angle-striped Sallow Dotted Clay (greyer form) Antler Moth Rosy Minor Orange Swift (big female)

Pickworth Great Wood - 26/07/2008

Pickworth Great Wood is one of, if not the, best mothing sites in VC55. It is a mainly broad-leaved woodland including some very ancient stands. It is managed by the Forestry Commission, and over the last couple of years has undergone some fairly extensive thinning/coppicing. The wood is in the north-east of Rutland on the border with Lincolnshire. Immediately adjacent to the wood is Clipsham Quarry, which is still operational. This is itself an excellent site and the oldest part of the quarry cuts into the edge of the most ancient part of the wood - accessing this on a regular basis would no doubt provide some extremely interesting species. The following map shows a few key points: dark blue dot - Clipsham Quarry yellow dot - shooting tower at the end of the main ride through Pickworth Great Wood red dot - turning circle along the main ride, roughly 200M up from the tower pale blue dot - locked gate at the entrance to the main ride green dot - Holwell Wood, Lincolnshire Saturday 26th July looked to be just about perfect for mothing, provided the weather held. It could either be one of the best nights in recent years or a thundery deluge. I decided to err on the optimistic side and pack all of my gear to set up for an all-nighter. I ran 3 x 125W MV traps spaced evenly from the shooting tower to c25M short of the turning circle, and the 80W actinic and another 125W MV c50M & 100M further along the main ride from the turning circle. I also ran a 125W MV light over a sheet on the turning circle from 22:00 - 00:30. From the early activity at the sheet, it was clearly going to be a huge list. The sheet and tripod were coated in moths and other insects. It was a bit catch-22 as there were so many it was difficult to keep track of numbers and pick out new species. One or two moths on the tripod. A few more on the legs. Try sticking your head in this lot to identify something on the tripod or sheet! Moths flying into ears is a well known and unpleasant experience that I don't want to have. By half past midnight I was knackered! The traps were also doing very well and having topped up the gennie I decided to knock off the tripod light and leave the traps whilst I grabbed a few hours sleep. I woke up with a start just before 5am and it was already easily light enough to start gathering up the traps. The 3 x 125W MV traps looking down to the shooting tower. The 80W actinic and other 125W MV trap. All of the traps were coated in moths on the outside, leading to great expectation of a mammoth emptying session. Plenty of moths to count before turning off the lights and gathering the traps up. More moths clinging to the light arrays. How many Coronets!? Once all the traps were blocked off and gathered at the turning circle, and I'd grabbed a bit of breakfast, I started the task of emptying and recording. Thankfully I use a digital voice recorder otherwise this would be a stupidly long task. It took a good two and half hours as it was! Every trap had egg trays packed like this! So, the total catch for the five traps and the part-time sheet: 3192 of 233 species 132 macro species 101 micro species Pro-rata this must rate as one of the best lists ever for VC55, and overall I think it must be easily in the top five. Certainly there aren't many lists with 100+ macros and micros. The main highlight was a single Ancylis laetana, albeit a worn individual. This was recorded as a first for VC55 by Graham Finch only a few weeks ago, so really good to pick up another individual. It was more on the deceased side of moribund by the time I photographed it though. Ancylis laetana See Graham's photo of a smart fresh individual for comparison. Other highlights included: Morophaga choragella 1 Ypsolopha nemorella 3 Schreckensteinia festaliella 1 Agonopterix angelicella 6 Ethmia dodecea 1 Syncopacma larseniella 1 Acompsia cinerella 4 Psoricoptera gibbosella 1 Mompha lacteella 1 Choristoneura hebenstreitella 2 Evergestis pallidata 2 Pine Hawk-moth (Hyloicus pinastri) 1 Maple Prominent (Ptilodon cucullina) 1 Chocolate-tip (Clostera curtula) 2 Black Arches (Lymantria monacha) 59* Four-dotted Footman (Cybosia mesomella) 2 Coronet (Craniophora ligustri) 66* Mere Wainscot (Chortodes fluxa) 40 Ear Moth (Amphipoea oculea) 1 Species above 50 individuals (aside from *) were: Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 429 Buff Footman (Eilema depressa) 137 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) 127 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata) 121 Yellow-tail (Euproctis similis) 94 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) 79 Dingy Footman (Eilema griseola) 74 Small Fan-footed Wave (Idaea biselata) 69 July Highflyer (Hydriomena furcata) 58 Buff Arches (Habrosyne pyritoides) 57 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua janthe) 53 All in all a great session and a superb list. The full results are posted on the VC55 Moth Group for subscribers. A few shots for interest - click for big on all. Black Arches - a VC55 scarcity that is a PGW speciality. Ear Moth - not one I'd expect at PGW, not sure if recorded there previously. Mere Wainscot - another PGW speciality.   Morophga choragella - only two previous records I think. Ypsolopha nemorella - one of the scarcer Ypsolopha sp. in VC55 Epinotia solandriana Eudemis profundana - highly variable Chocolate-tip - small second-brood individuals Scalloped Hook-tip Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing