Another Newby

What started off as a warm day, quickly developed into a cold night. I turned the garden lights off at 9.30pm after recording 2 moths early in the evening. Both found under the now deceased 25w BLB compact lamp fixed on the shed at the bottom of the garden. It broke at I removed it from its fitting...........never mind. Just 1 Common Quaker and this-

Satellite

Surprisingly, I don't get too many of these despite being fairly common. NFY 25th February.

Garden.......24/02

Best night of the year so far..............

Common Quaker

 Dotted Border

 Hebrew Character

 Pale Brindled Beauty

Upper Caldecote Garden- 12 of 8 species-

0688	Agonopterix heracliana		3
1524	Emmelina monodactyla		1
1926	Phigalia pilosaria	Pale Brindled Beauty	1
1932	Agriopis leucophaearia	Spring Usher	1
1934	Agriopis marginaria	Dotted Border	1	NFY
2187	Orthosia cerasi	Common Quaker	2	NFY
2190	Orthosia gothica	Hebrew Character	2	NFY
2259	Conistra ligula	Dark Chestnut	1

Garden Update..........

This Pale Brindled Beauty was the only moth of note last night (23rd), slim pickings really with only a couple of A. heracliana to keep it company. A Chestnut on 20th was a welcome addition to the list. However, in the next couple of days the wind will drop slightly, allowing for a foray into Home Wood. This will probably be on Tuesday 28th. In the meantime I'm still hoping for Early Moth as its now getting a bit late.............

Pale Brindled Beauty

A Warm Spell..............

...............gave me a chance to turn the lights on again. Though as I write this, its back down to 2°C. Most productive was the nights of 15th and 17th, though macro moths are certainly slow. By this time last year I had double my current tally, so targets for the next week or so are Pale Brindled Beauty, Early Moth and Dotted Border.

March Moth

1 of 3 caught so far...........

688 Agonopterix heracliana

695 Agonopterix alstromeriana

1025 Tortricodes alternella

Combined catch for 15/16/17-02-12. Upper Caldecote Garden- 12 of 6 species

• 0688 Agonopterix heracliana  5 NFY
• 0695 Agonopterix alstromeriana 1 NFY 
• 1025 Tortricodes alternella 1 NFY 
• 1524 Emmelina monodactyla 1 NFY 
• 1663 Alsophila aescularia March Moth 3 NFY 
• 2259 Conistra ligula Dark Chestnut 1

Like Buses......25-01

So, no Spring Ushers for almost three years and then two in a week. Well, that's mothing for you I suppose. Quite a good night really and since then we've been back in the freezer with not a lot new to talk about. Roll on Spring!

Spring Usher

Result for Upper Caldecote Garden- 25-01-12- 4 of 4 species-

•  0461 Ypsolopha ustella 1 NFY 
•  2259 Conistra ligula Dark Chestnut 1 
•  1799 Operophtera brumata Winter Moth 1 
•  1932 Agriopis leucophaearia Spring Usher 1

Home Wood- 24-01

Trent and I put a battery powered Actinic/UV Skinner in the Wood last night as the temperatures seemed pretty favourable. No wind, but unfortunately a fine drizzle persisted well into the evening. This probably hampered the catch slightly as there was nothing really out of the ordinary.
Trent picked the trap up this morning and recorded- all obviously new for the year.

Home Wood- Location #4- 20 of 5 species-

• 1025 Tortricodes alternella 1 
• 1799 Operophtera brumata Winter Moth 3 
• 1926 Phigalia pilosaria Pale Brindled Beauty 2 
• 1932 Agriopis leucophaearia Spring Usher 10 
• 2258 Conistra vaccinii Chestnut 4

New Year, New Moth- 18-01

...................And to complete the set on page 64 of my ring-bound copy of the 'Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland' by Townsend, Waring and Lewington. My garden finally turned up one of these. This was the only moth I found this morning, after a cold forgettable week of no trapping.

Spring Usher

This is a not a wholly unexpected find. But it's another gap filled and another step closer to 300 garden macros. I hope to achieve this target during this year........

Paid in full.......for 2011

Well, that's another year out of the way! All the counters now have to be set at zero so we can do it all again.

But I have to say when it came to 2011's mothing I was pushed to the absolute limit as a 'most species' mothing competition took place against Trent Duval of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.

To be honest, I thought I would easily win; the size of my garden and my more rural location surely made me the odds-on favourite. But time and time again Trent confounded me, managing to pull all kinds of surprising stuff from a town garden roughly 35' square.

In fact, at one point during the year he was 15 species in front and looking like running away with it.

Most people would be devastated to lose their job- I know I would be. But Trent reveled in it and spent night after night tending to multiple traps well into the small hours in the morning, a feat I couldn't compete with.

But slowly I managed to peg him back, mainly because of the diversity in the garden and it was the micro moths which really saved my bacon. Firstly, the kids armed with nets would constantly trap micros, pot them and put them in my 'beer' fridge for later identification. Secondly, micro recorder David Manning spent a good couple of hours in the garden during September and managed a leaf mine count of 24 species. As well as all the valuable help with various photos and micro queries I had throughout the year.

It was now down to macros as Trent didn't have a chance of catching up on overall total or my now impressive micro list. Luckily at the last knockings I managed to pull clear of him; the final nails in the coffin proved to be singles of Mottled Umber and Scarce Umber. Both only second records, plus one of three December Moths- another one he couldn't get..................

To the Victor, the spoils!

So here it is; the wine. More than worth waiting for too! I'm not really a  connoisseur, but know what I like. In the centre a passable 'Frenchie' which has already been consumed. Flanked by four bottled of 'The Black Stump' reserve. One of my favourites- read a review HERE.
This year's competition (2012) will hopefully be slightly more laid back and will be contested over macros only.


Some very brief stats-


Trap days- 265!

New Macros for 2011- 35
New Micros for 2011- 74

Macros species caught in 2011- 253
Micro species caught in 2011- 207

Species list for 2011- 460
Species list for the garden since August 2009- 521


Happy New Year all and here's for a good 2012................

Garden & Woods- 21/12

For a while it was looking as if there would be no further chance for any more Mothing this year. But after a two week spell of cold, wet and windy weather, things improved. It was still a heady 10°C at 6.00pm last night, which is a massive difference from the 2°C just two nights previous.

I put on three lights last night; my usual trap, a 36w BLB tube and further down the garden, a 25w BLB compact lamp.

December Moth

I also took a last opportunity this year of putting a battery powered Actinic/UV Skinner in Home Wood. On arrival just after dark, I could see plenty of Winter Moths in the car headlights. It would have been a good idea to net some to check for Northern Winters. I may try this after Christmas as you seem to see more fluttering around early in the evening compared to the relatively small number recovered from the trap in the morning. I counted a good 30+ flying at night, but only found 4 in the trap.

Result for Upper Caldecote- 4 of 3 species-

• 1631 Poecilocampa populi December Moth 1 
• 1799 Operophtera brumata Winter Moth 2 
• 2256 Eupsilia transversa Satellite 1

Result for Home Wood- c63 of 4 species-

• 1631 Poecilocampa populi December Moth 26 
• 1799 Operophtera brumata Winter Moth c30 (4 in the trap) 
• 1935 Erannis defoliaria Mottled Umber 6 
• 2258 Conistra vaccinii Chestnut 1

28th Nov.

The weather has been shocking of late; if it isn't cold, it's blowing a gale. But the mild, unseasonal couldn't continue forever.

I put the trap on last night expecting not a great deal as the wind began to pick up. However, my reward was waiting under the egg boxes in the morning.

Scarce Umber

Not really that 'scarce' but difficult to get in my garden. This is only my second ever record after a single in 2009. I thought I'd missed out this year too; this one is on the late side.
This brings the overall species list for the year to 460, a nice round number. The only addition I could possibly make is Northern Winter Moth- as I have had it in the two previous years.

The only other highlight of late was a single December Moth, caught on 24/11.

22/23rd November

After a couple of blanks, (20th & 21st) it was back to winning ways. Nothing new, but the unusual late records continue with yet another Large Nutmeg and this- what looks to be an Uncertain! both caught along with Emmelina monodactyla on 22nd.

On the 23rd only one moth; a Shuttle-shaped Dart, which is also pretty late.

Uncertain?

Large Nutmeg again!

Unsurprisingly, not a lot in the traps of late. But another late Large Nutmeg under the egg boxes this morning proved it is still worth putting the lights on. I believe this is easily the latest one in VC30 to date, but it's difficult to see this being the last unusual record of the year.

All three moths were caught at the Twin 15w actinic/UV Skinner, even though there was another trap on at the bottom of the garden.

The result- 18-11-2011- 

• 0874 Blastobasis lacticolella 1 
• 1524 Emmelina monodactyla 1 
• 2333 Apamea anceps Large Nutmeg 1

Late records are not just confined to moths, there was a Wheatear found on Dunstable Downs today and the long staying Ivel valley Osprey is still fishing in the trout farm at Warren Villas! Both birds are the latest ever seen in Bedfordshire.

Home & Away 17/11

Despite the threat of a possible cold snap, the mild nights persist. This was certainly the case last night, though possibly hampered by a heavy dew.

The Garden trap claimed another NFY, as a December Moth obliged. In fact just two moths were caught, the other, an unusually late Dark Arches. Incredibly, two other VC30 moth-ers also caught one on the same night. Could this be a coincidence, or a possible foreign influx?.......

December Moth

 Dark Arches

I also persuaded Trent to go on another foray into Home Wood. This time we tried the 80w MV with sheet again, as not to many people bother at this time of year. We used this for about 1 1/2 hours, but left the battery trap over night. Trent collected it in the morning, there is a combined list at the bottom of the post.

 Winter Moth

461 Ypsolopha ustella

It was good to get another three new species for the survey. I will probably try one more time this year, possibly in mid December in the hopes of finding Northern Winter Moth.

The result- combined from location#1 & 4-

• 0461 Ypsolopha ustella 1 NFS 
• 1631 Poecilocampa populi December Moth 6 NFS 
• 1799 Operophtera brumata Winter Moth 6 NFS 
• 1923 Colotois pennaria Feathered Thorn 4 
• 1933 Agriopis aurantiaria Scarce Umber 2 
• 1935 Erannis defoliaria Mottled Umber 2 
• 2227 Asteroscopus sphinx Sprawler 16 
• 2258 Conistra vaccinii Chestnut 2

...........16-11

On the 15th November, I had the dubious honour of recording my first blank of the season. However, just one moth on the 16th proved to be a good one. Another NFY, the first for ten days- I suppose the only target I can possible attain now is to reach 460 species for the year. There's not too much more I can get now though........

Mottled Umber

Only my second record, the first was 18th January 2010. This one was found in the trap, under the egg boxes.