Month: July 2022

National Moth Week

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It’s National Moth Week (or International since it’s worldwide) and for once I’m on the ball enough to be blogging on time and on topic! This is mainly due to the fact that I read a lovely blog post this morning on this very subject by Nature is My Therapy: https://natureismytherapy.com/2022/07/26/moths-not-just-for-after-dark/  So thank you Kim for the timely reminder.

National Moth Week celebrates the beauty and diversity of moths, a sentiment close to my heart as I’ve been fascinated by the moths in my garden since I started trapping in 2013. This week, after 9 years of moth trapping and perfectly timed for National Moth Week, I recorded the 450th species of moth in my garden! I never dreamt when I started looking at moths that I’d find anywhere near this number in my suburban garden. Just goes to show you don’t know what’s out there until you start looking. Of course of those 450 species, some have only been recorded once – often migrant moths just passing through. But a good chunk of the species are regular attendees at my moth trap.

So here is no 450 – the Brown-Line Bright Eye (Mythimna conigera) – so called because (not surprisingly) it has a brown line and a bright eye spot.

Coincidentally the same night I also trapped the very similarly named Bright-Line Brown-Eye (Lacanobia oleracea). So here they are side by side.

I trap 2 or 3 times a week through the summer and usually once a week in the winter. I started this year with a running total of 438 species, so another 12 have been added since then. Of the new ones, a couple are ones I’ve wanted to see for a while and others haven’t even been on my radar. The longed for ones include a Nut-tree Tussock a (Colocasia coryli) and a Muslin Footman (Nudaria mundana).

Of the more unexpected ones this Italian Tubic (Metalampra italica) micro moth was rather lovely and one I’d never even heard of. Apparently it’s a recent colonist that’s spreading north from the south of England.

So the trap is out again tonight and I’ll be up at the crack of dawn to check the contents, hopefully before the robin beats me to it. It’s one of the things I love about moth-trapping – you never know what you’re going to get – it’s like Christmas morning for moth nerds!

Happy National Moth Week everyone.

 

Holiday Snaps – Part 2

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It occurred to me as I wrote this that blogging is the modern day equivalent of boring your friends and family to death with a slideshow of your holiday pics – only with blogging you get to inflict them on a much wider audience! So apologies for indulging here and sharing more photos.

So just to prove that we do occasionally look at other things besides butterflies and moths, here are some of the best of the rest. The cottage we’d rented was on the edge of a nature reserve, so we were off to a good start without even going anywhere. There was a path leading own to the nature reserve’s lake (Hawes Water) and it was obviously a bit of a thoroughfare for a lot of wildlife. The trail cameras picked up what I think is a female Roe deer both at night and during the day, plus it was nice to see a hedgehog at dusk too.

 

The lake itself had plenty of damselflies buzzing around our little jetty. I identified at least 2 species – Azure (below top) and Blue-tailed (below middle – female, bottom – male), both beautiful insects.

Not exactly wildlife, but it was also nice to have a family of Gloucester Old Spot pigs in the field opposite the cottage.

Venturing out from our cottage we visited some amazing sites. Irton Fell, which we’d gone to primarily for the Mountain Ringlet, had plenty of other wildlife too. Despite the windy conditions up there, there were plenty of insects around including these 2 species of Tiger beetle.

There were lots of small birds flitting between rocky outcrops and fences. Bird ID is not a strong point of mine, but I think these are Stonechat and Skylark.

On our last day, freed from the need to search for butterflies, we went to Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve. Foulshaw is known for it’s Ospreys. Technically we did see them, via a webcam set up on the reserve. They’d got chicks which we could just about make out on the monitor. The nest was a long way from public footpaths (and rightly so), so no chance of photos – but it’s still the closest I’ve ever been to an Osprey, so it felt like a win.

Foulshaw was also known for a species of dragonfly that would be new to us too – the White-faced Darter. There were a few flitting around, but none were settling. One finally landed in front of me on the boardwalk. I managed a quick record shot, planning to then zoom in for a better one. Just got it focused and a small child ran up and scared it off – I may get over this eventually! So here’s the poor record shot.

So here endeth our holiday snaps. A couple of lifers (Ospreys & Darter) ticked off the list if not photographed properly and a few other favourites seen again. Our holidays tend to be primarily wildlife focussed, but just to prove we do manage a few other activities, here’s me doing the inevitable pose next to Eric Morecambe’s statue at Morecambe Bay.

 

Holiday Snaps – Part 1

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I imagine many people make a list of stuff they will need to take when they go on holiday: swimsuit, sunglasses, sun cream ….. bat detector, night vision googles, trail camera, GoPro camera and moth trap. Our packing list may not be 100% conventional, but for me these are all part of the fun of going somewhere new – essentials for discovering the wildlife in and around our holiday cottage. Last month in northern Lancashire, just south of the Lake District was no exception. The main target may have been the 2 new butterfly species in the last blog post, but we’re always keen to see what else is around.

In the end it was a bit windy for a lot of the week, so I only managed to put the moth trap out once, but it still produced some species that we’ve never seen in our own garden. This Mullein Wave was completely new to me, looking like a larger version of a Small Dusty Wave.

Then there were 2 purples – Purple Clay and Purple Bar, both new to me as the only purple we get at home is a Purple Thorn.

The rest of the moths in the trap were ones I had seen before, although in different proportions – lots more White Ermines than I ever get at home for instance. The Brown China Mark (below) was perhaps not surprising, given that their caterpillars are aquatic and we had a lake at the bottom of the garden at the holiday cottage.

We tend to keep an eye out for moths as well as butterflies when we’re out on walks and were lucky enough to spot a few day-flying ones. The Cinnabar is common at home, but is still always a treat to see with its flash of red underwings.

The Marbled White Spot was a bit more of an unusual find for us at the Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve.

I had initially noted the next moth down as a Brown Silver-line, but on closer inspection, decided it was a July Belle – another new species.

Mothy highlight for me though was finding this Clouded Buff up on Irton Fell –  a stunning moth, that my poor photo doesn’t do justice to, but it shot off before I could get a better pic (and having used all my energy just getting up Irton Fell, I was in no state to chase it!).

Although we’d gone keen to see the Mountain Ringlet and Northern Brown Argus, any butterfly sightings are always welcome. This faded Pearl or Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary (if anyone can confirm which I’d appreciate it) was spotted at Warton Crags Nature Reserve.

This Dingy Skipper at Arnside Knott was also a nice addition to the week, as it’s a species we don’t see that often.

Small Heath butterflies were fairly common at a lot of the places we visited and several had the decency to pose nicely for photographs.

We were particularly pleased to find Large Heath butterflies at Foulshaw Moss, as we’d only seen them once before at Whixall Moss. Unfortunately it was blowing a gale at Foulshaw and then started to rain, so we didn’t get any really decent photos, but it’s definitely a site to go back to in the future.

Finally we also saw a lot of Large Skippers, also at Foulshaw, but in areas more sheltered from the wind. Large Skippers always seem quite happy to have their photos taken and several posed peacefully on the bracken.

Our holiday photos are perhaps as odd as our holiday packing list, we don’t take many of each other, just the wildlife around us – it is after all far more photogenic!