Tuesday, January 25, 2011

3 in 1 Tree......24/01

Well, it's not moths and there's no photo. But when Mark Thomas told me about an Arctic Redpoll that he'd seen near Coronation Pit- mid Beds a week previous, I was anxious to get over there. I couldn't get out of work and visit until Sunday so had my fingers crossed. Soon after we arrived Mark located a distant flock of c30 Repoll sp. which unfortunately were very flighty. They were flying between 2 stands of birches, so after waiting for 15 minutes or so the birds finally arrived. As luck would have it we located the Coue's Arctic Redpoll almost immediately, even beside 1 of a few Mealys the frosty white plumage and stocky build really did prove 100% diagnostic. After some lengthy observations, I finally got a view of the pure white, unstreaked rump. So there it was, 3 species of Redpoll in 1 birch tree, Mark is hoping to go back for photos in better light as it might be a while till we see that again, especially in Bedfordshire.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Winter Beauty...........22/01

A slight rise in temperature gave me reason to power up the trap for the 1st time in a few days. The reward was almost instant as I found this on the shed wall at 8.00pm. Nothing else to report as the trap was empty this morning..........
Pale Brindled Beauty

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Earlier the better........14/01

Putting the trap out early in the year is sometimes a bit tedious. But it does give you a chance to see what would otherwise slip under the radar as a few of the Moth bloggers have found out in the last few days. As my garden is surrounded by Hawthorn, I can more or less expect this pink-tinged geometer every year.

Early Moth

New Wave!.........

...........Well, more like misidentification really. On 2nd July 2010 this rather battle hardened moth turned up in the trap. Due to the lack of black markings around the trailing edges I originally called Satin Wave. However, once submitted, the VC30 recorders immediately correctly identified a very faded Small White Wave. To be honest either way it's a winner as Satin Wave with 6 records hasn't been seen in the county (Beds) since 2004. But SWW is almost as rare, after not being seen in the county since 1985, two were found in Chicksands Wood in 2010. Of the 13 records in VC30 so far (including this one) this is one of the only examples that hasn't been caught in woodland..........

Small White Wave

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The New Year..........12/01

The 1st meaningful Mothing of 2011 and after the addition of Winter Moth early in the month, I managed to add a couple more. I don't get many of these, so it's a welcome early scalp!

Dark Chestnut
During the day I also caught my 1st micro of the year too! A single Twenty-plume Moth (Alucita hexadactyla) was found in the workshop- probably disturbed from hibernation. This brings the year list to......well, 3!