Name that Gnat

Time was at a premium last night, so I had to resort to trapping in the back garden. I had plans to set up the MV, but a drizzle set in at dusk and was still going a couple of hours later so the actinic had to suffice. My thanks to the BBC for failing to forecast that the whole of lowland England would be getting wet overnight.

Usually, low cloud and drizzle drops stacks of moths in, but only twenty graced the trap come the morning. Either the rain put them off, or we are just entering that post-spring lull when the Quakers and Drabs are tailing off and we await the first Ermines, Muslins and Prominents. It is akin to that early-March slot in the birding calendar when many of the winter visitors have pushed off and we await the first Chiffchaffs and Wheatears.

Scores were:

Double-striped Pug - 2
Early Grey - 5
Pine Beauty - 1
Engrailed - 1
Hebrew Character - 5
Chestnut - 1
Common Quaker - 3
Shoulder-stripe - 1
Agonopterix arenella - 1

Aside from moths, there was a thin crust of dead and dying insects on the bottom of the trap as well dozens of live ones hanging around outside. No idea where to start with these, so would be grateful for any pointers.

 

Double-striped Pug

 

Pine Beauty

 

Shoulder-stripe

 

Small, green mozzy-type thing

Mercury comes up trumps

I borrowed a 125w Mercury Vapour lamp yesterday and deployed it on the Skinner trap in a private garden just round the corner from me. I trapped here last season and it produced some good moths for the village list. What was once "just fields" is now a rich tapestry of maturing shrubs and trees.

Surprisingly, there were fewer moths in trap (44) than the night before on the 15 watt actinic (47). I suspect the clear skies may have played a part. What may have lacked in quantity was more than made up for in quality. I didn't appreciate that Red-Green Carpet over-wintered as an adult. The specimen in the trap was immaculate. How do they manage that?

Totals were:

Common Quaker - 12
Small Quaker - 7
Hebrew Character - 13
Clouded Drab - 1
Early Grey - 2
Twin-spotted Quaker - 1
Brindled Beauty - 1
Double-striped Pug - 1
Brindled Pug - 2 (although if anyone wishes to tell me differently once they have seen the picture please do)
Engrailed - 1
Nut-tree Tussock - 1
Powdered Quaker - 1
Red-Green Carpet -1

All of the images with the exception of the Powdered Quaker were taken in situ on the trap.

 

Powdered Quaker

 

Red-Green Carpet

 

Nut-tree Tussock

 

Engrailed

 

Brindled Pug (I think)

A good day all round

It was back to the private estate in the village last night with the actinic and hopes were high given the forecast mild night. 47 moths of 12 species dutifully presented themselves. Highlight was an Early Thorn which is a species I don't see much of and one I needed to study to rule out Purple Thorn. I had to stick the camera in to the trap to take this picture and I was glad I did as the moment I prodded him with a pencil he was up and off.

 

 

Totals were:

 

Early Grey - 5

Small Quaker - 8

Common Quaker - 22

Clouded Drab - 3

Hebrew Character - 2

Twin-spotted Quaker - 1

Chestnut - 1

Satellite - 1

Brindled Pug - 1

Early Thorn - 1

Agonopterix arenella - 1

Diurnea fagella - 1

 

The over-winterers (Chestnut and Satellite) were very tatty and many of the Common Quakers were beginning to look a bit tired. The fresher looking Common Quakers were smaller specimens. I always get the impression that the end of the generation tend to be runts. Some of them were the same size as the Small Qiuakers.

 

Later in the day at the wildlife garden there were four species of butterfly on show. The Green-veined Whites and male Brimstone came nowhere near, but the Comma and Peacocks were more obliging. One of the Peacocks spent all afternoon on sentry duty over the vegetable garden taking on rival interlopers, only to meet his match when this smaller Comma came along. An Angle Shades was spotted tucked up above the barn door as well.

 

Comma

 



 

 Peacock

 

 

Angle Shades

 



 



Slim pickings

Not much to report from the moth trap in the garden last night:

March Moth - 1 (pictured)
Small Quaker - 1
Hebrew Character - 3
Early Grey - 3
Common Quaker - 3

A warmer evening is forecast tonight so the trap is back on the private estate in the village. Fingers crossed for a better haul.

You never stop learning

My thanks to Richard Fox and @stewchat who pointed me in the direction of Oak Nycteoline as mystery micro on my blog last night. This was a species I hadn't encountered before so I forgave myself for thinking that it was a micro. It never ceases to amaze me how species like this along with Chestnuts, Satellites and a good few more see out the winter as adults tucked away in a nook somewhere. It was interesting to read that the Oak N. hunkers down in the epicormic growth of oaks.

Last night I made my first foray with the moth trap out to one of my regular spots in the village. There was a fair breeze, so I chose this place as I could set the trap in the lee of some outbuildings.

 

 

There is a good selection of mature trees (coniferous and deciduous), some scrub and open farmland and it easily outperforms my immature back garden which is less than a mile away as the moth flies.

 

Scores on the doors (those in caps are annual but infrequent around here):

 

Common Quaker - 23

Small Quaker - 33

Twin-spotted Quaker - 3

Clouded Drab - 8

Hebrew Character - 7

Chestnut - 2

BRINDLED BEAUTY - 1

SHOULDER-STRIPE - 1

RED CHESTNUT - 1

Oak Beauty - 1

pug (still to decide) - 1

 

And here are those bold ones:

 

 

Red Chestnut

 

 

Brindled Beauty

 



 

Shoulder-stripe

 

 





Macro-moth, macro-photography for beginners

A good night for moths with 37 in the 15w actinic of ten species. I was eager to have a go with the camera and took these of a Pine Beauty and an Early Grey this afternoon and applied some heavy cropping. This is all new to me, so any pointers gratefully received.

 

The vice-Chairman of the Stutton Moth Group (SMOG) runs a twin 30w actinic and consequently he was tripping over moths. Species that he trumped me on included Shoulder-Stripe and The Engrailed and this one here, which is eluding identification. Does anyone know please?

Lingerers

It was the last Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) count of the season today. It made a change to be over-dressed and being more worried about sunburn than my extremities freezing. The roost was sparsely populated throughout the count and only enlivened after high tide when a flock of 340 Dark-bellied Brent Geese came off the fields for a wash and a brush up.

Here's a shot of a few of them taken with the zoom cranked up to 30 times which I took laying down as the wind was right up (you can see the waves breaking in the background),

If the Stour Estuary stats are a reflection of trends elsewhere, 2012 was a very poor breeding season for these chaps up on the Taimyr Peninsula. Less than 1% of birds counted on the estuary were juveniles. Populations do fluctuate and their productivity is tied in with lemming abundance. Plenty of lemmings, means plenty of food for the Arctic Foxes. When lemmings have a bad time, the brent goslings become the foxes favoured food.