23rd Oct - White-rumped at last

For over a week now I've been sweating at the news of the White-rumped Sandpiper at Rutland Water, in association with American Wigeon and a host of nice waders, Rock AND Water Pipits. Today I finally got the free time to enjoy this cracking little bird (only my second ever WRS) and it's american compatriot. All this, and the pleasure of my little boy by my side too! What more could a guy ask for?

White-rumped Sandpiper left, American Wigeon right.









Video of the White-rumped Sandpiper, taken on my mobile phone through my scope.
Modern technology is wonderful!!

23rd Oct - A poor show

I knew it wasn't worth it...but I just had to try just to prove that I was right. The wind was blowing strongly, and although there was thick cloud cover and warm temperatures the moths did not arrive! Only 3 moths of 3 species. Flounced Chestnut, November Moth and Yellow-line Quaker, so all fairly nice moths, not many caught in the garden for each species. But still I was reminded of what a waste of electricity it was!

 Some people just don't get it!!

21st Oct - but it's more like June-iper

After a week of cold clear night with temperatures down to 3 degrees, it was nice to finally get a cloudy, relatively still night, with little prospect of rain! Out comes the trap with Actinic/CFL combo. The results were pleasing for this time of year 17 moths of 7 species but these included a massive haul of 9 Juniper Carpets! I've never caught this species until about a week ago.

Other highlights included my second for the year of Feathered Thorn and Brick (which actually agreed to have it's photo taken this time!) and also a return of Grey Shoulder-knot. I caught this species for the first time in the early Spring but this is the Autumn generation.

There will hopefully be a couple of warm nights next week so I may get a few more traps in before the close season. I suspect my yearlist won't get much further now, but 332 is a massive jump from last years total of 249 (no doubt down to my much improved id skills this year!!) so I'm very happy. Roll on next year....I reckon the Actinic/CFL combo could be a big hit based on the results I've had this autumn.

Early October catch-up

Following last weeks cooler temperatures, things calmed down sufficiently enough (for this time of  year) to put the trap out a few times.

7th October - 5 moths of 5 species! November Moth was new for the year, but has been in every trap since!

8th October - much warmer and cloudier and despite putting my rain sheet over the trap site, it didn't rain. I managed 22 moths of 13 species which I wasn't disappointed with, but if I hadn't put the rainguard over the trap maybe there would've been more! Juniper Carpet was a great new find. Also had a Shuttle-shaped Dart which I'd not caught since August, and my second Flounced Chestnut.




9th October - Another smaller catch as it was quite gusty, 9 moths of 8 species - but Brick was new for the year and my second Rusty-dot Pearl turned up.

12th October - Another better night, still and fairly cloudy. 20 moths of 13 species. The best moth for autumn graced the trap - a cracking fresh Feathered Thorn! Also got four Green-brindled Crescent (although having looked through W&T I suspect two of these which were much smaller may have been Brindled Green). Of course I only photographed the two that looked better, which are definitely GBC! Another surprise was my second Oak Nycteoline of the year. Finally, I had this worn micro. Any ideas would be gratefully received!










13th October - 13 moths of 9 species. No new species for the year or October but still a good selection of species including Red-green and Juniper Carpets, Pink-barred Sallow and Green-brindled Crescent

Finally, the downward spiral?

Looks like the October decline towards winter may have started. Cooler temperatures, higher wind speeds, bits of rain. This all meant a much smaller catch, only 14 moths of 10 species, although there was 1 newbie for me.

Epinotia sordidana was a surprise, I'd not seen much of these on other blogs. And it looked so plain that I wasn't too sure until I'd got photos of it to compare to the various websites. The others were more normal for this time of year, although Carcina quercana seemed very fresh for the time.

The rest of this week has not inspired me to risk putting the trap out, but hopefully the weekend looks a bit warmer with some more of the wet stuff so maybe....

Come on October, keep it up!

Another great night of warm temperatures, dryness (although it was still clear). And another three species to add to the garden list. Again these are relatively common species for this time of year, as were the the inhabitants of the last trap BUT they're all new to me!

So I was especially excited to receive this Figure of Eight, Flounced Chestnut and Phyllonorycter harrisella. The Phyllonorycter wouldn't co-operate however, so I've got some terrible photos of it that I'm not prepared to share!!



Other highlights included my second Red-line Quaker, Caloptilia stigmatella, another Apple Leaf Miner, another Green-brindled Crescent (different to the one from Thursday) and what must surely be the last Copper Underwing for the year, it was particularly frazzled!

More Nightjar news

The Nightjar that took up residence in Codnor has finally moved on, according to Birdguides. The owners of the house have posted a thank you note to everyone who visited, and have managed to raise £107 for the RSPB.

I visited again on Wednesday night and managed to take this crappy photo in the gathering gloom.

I also got some better video of it doing it little bobbing dance, having a yawn and a snap at some flies before streching it wings and having a flap round the garden. It was a pretty awesome sight, to be so close to it when it finally took to the wing and disappeared over the hedge at 720pm. It kept returning to the same spot every morning until today when it didn't come back.

The night of a thousand stars

This lovely warm weather is providing all of us moth-ers with plenty of interesting catch results! As it looked good all week I decided to do Tues/Weds/Thurs with Thursday being a slight difference in that I put out the 15W BLB lamp with the 22W CFL clip-on. This seems to have done the trick as I recorded no less than 6 new species!! And some cracking ones they were too...

First came a couple of micros to the white sheet - Tinea semifulvella (left) and Apple Leaf Miner (right)



And then some more autumnal species that for some reason I didn't catch last year, but I suppose that could be down to either trap position (it's now located underneath a mixed hawthorn hedge, as opposed to the middle of the lawn) or the weather? All these moths were in pristine condition. The Yellow-line Quaker (left), Red-line Quaker (right) and the fabulous Green-brindled Crescent (below right)

The last new species for the garden came whilst photographing the catch. I took out a Red-green Carpet that had it's wings folded up as it had just come out of the fridge. I managed to get it to stand on the wall (where I take my photos) whilst still in the pot. I left it for five minutes to relax and sure enough it flopped its wings flat. I took the pot covering it off to take it's portrait...and it was an Autumn Green Carpet!! Brilliant what you miss the first time round when you're rushing to get the trap emptied! EDIT: I've been corrected by the guys at BGM, and this is in fact a Red-green Carpet.