October Moths

October was a quiet month moth-wise, as you would expect.  I say expect because you wouldn't expect the same sort of numbers as you would in July or August.  October was relatively wet, so that also limited the number of occasions that the moth trap was employed.  In fact it was limited to 2 occasions.  But there were a couple of new species for the year, including the striking Merveille du jour.

18 October 2014 (abandoned mid-evening due to rain)

Green-brindled Crescent - Allophyes oxyacanthae

Barred Sallow
Green-brindled Crescent
Silver Y

30 October 2014

Light-brown Apple Moth (micro)
Large Yellow Underwing
Rusty-dot Pearl (micro)
Merveille du Jour
Smoky Wainscot
Yellow-line Quaker

Merveille du Jour - Dichonia aprilina

Merveille du Jour - Dichonia aprilina

September Moths

Okay, so it's November - and high time I got round to checking my records and letting you know what I found in the moth trap in September.  There were a lot of moths, a handful of relatively scarce moths, and a few striking ones.  There was also a rather delicate Mayfly - yes, in September!  Pictures of the best and full lists below.

5 September 2014

Angle Shades

Black-headed Conch (micro)

Pond Olive Mayfly - Cloeon dipterum

Four-spotted Footman - Lithosia quadra

Blood Vein

Bright-line Brown-eye

Brimstone

Brown China-mark (micro)

Centre-barred Sallow

Chinese Character

Clay

Common Grass Veneer (micro)

Diamond Back (micro)

Dingy Footman

Dusky Thorn

European Corn-borer (micro)

Feathered Gothic

Flame Shoulder

Frosted Orange

German Wasp

Knot Grass

Large Yellow Underwing

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Light Emerald

Light-brown Apple Moth (micro)

Oak Hook-tip

Peacock

Riband Wave

Ringed China Mark (micro)

Ruby Tiger

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Six-striped Rustic

Small Blood-vein

Small Grey (micro)

Small Phoenix

Smoky Wainscot

Snout

Spectacle

Square-spot Rustic

Straw Dot

Wood Sage Plume - Capperia britanniodactyla

Vine’s Rustic

Willow Beauty

Wood Sage Plume (micro)

14 September 2014

Brimstone

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Clay

Clifden Nonpareil

Clifden Nonpareil - Catocala fraxini

Dusky Thorn

Flame

Frosted Orange

L-album Wainscot

Large Yellow Underwing

Narrow Grey (micro)

Oak Hook-tip

Riband Wave

Ringed China Mark (micro)

Rosy Rustic

Ruby Tiger

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Small Square-spot

Snout

Straw Dot

Willow Beauty

27 September 2014

Pinion-streaked Snout - Shrankia costaestrigalis

Angle Shades

Black Rustic

Bright-line Brown-eye

Brimstone

Common Wasp

Dusky Thorn

Four-spotted Footman

Frosted Orange

Light Emerald

Light-brown Apple Moth (micro)

Lunar Underwing

Narrow-winged Grey (micro)

Pinion-streaked Snout

Rush Veneer (micro)

Sallow

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Silver Y

Snout

Straw Dot

Willow Beauty

Frosted Orange - Gortyna flavago

Black Redstart

You know how it goes, you are sat in your living room reading and out of the corner of your eye you catch a bird landing on the wall outside.  Your first thought is "it's a robin".   Then you notice the lack of a red breast.  Just as your brain is going through the possibilities, it flies off and you catch a glimpse of its red tail and rump and you know that you've just missed a black redstart.  A few moments later it lands again in the same spot and hops down behind the wall, then back on the wall before flying off again.

Time to grab a camera and a long lens so that you have it assembled and ready in case it returns.  It does return, so you lift your camera to find the viewfinder full of the robin that just chased off the redstart.  So no photo.  Here's one I prepared earlier - much earlier - about 2 and a half years earlier - and its a female and way down the bottom of the garden, not the beautifully marked male that perched just outside the window.  It did, honestly!

Black Redstart - Phoenicurus ochruros