More mothing...

Last Tuesday I continued my butterfly survey up at Clifton Grove and was again disappointed with the results. The weather was pretty perfect for butterflies with the temperature around the high teens and only a slight breeze, but the butterflies were very few and far between. It may be due to the poor weather last year, although my transect seemed to do OK despite the rain, or it could be the horrid cold spring we've had. I've also noticed at some sites, the Grove included, that the grasses seem to be growing very thick, giving other flowering plants little room to flourish, which could also be a factor for the small numbers of butterflies. In the whole transect I only recorded 11 individuals, though it was nice to record the first Meadow Brown of the year.

Speckled Wood, Clifton Grove

I had a good wander round the rest of the patch and got a reasonably good bird list for this time of year, with nearly 40 species present. The highlights were a Lesser Whitethroat in the Rough Wood hedgerow, some juvenile Blue Tits and a few Buzzards as well as the resident Red-tailed Hawk. Despite seeing all these species, it did seem very quiet, but it comes with the time of year I guess.

The following day, I had a day off so in the afternoon I biked to Gunthorpe for a pint by the river before heading down back to Nottingham on the North bank, stopping off at Netherfield Lagoons on the way back. It was very warm in the sunshine, but there was a brisk wind which scuppered my plans of seeing some insects, but I still had a good walk round. The reserve looks great at the moment with lots of wildflowers covering the banks of the gravel pits and lining the paths. There were several Early Marsh Orchids in flower amongst the commoner plants and it made for a pleasant hour or so's walk.

Orchids at netherfield

Bird-wise there was a fair bit about, including a singing Cetti's as well as several other warbler species. On the scrapes was a single Little Ringed Plover, the first i've seen in a while, but little else. Overhead there were swarms of Swifts and Sand Martins which seemed to have found something tasty to feed on. Otherwise there were quite a few ducks on the slurry lagoon, mostly Tufties and Gadwall, as well as some of the resident Pochard, a scarce species to see in Notts in summer. It was also good to see a young Song Thrush on the banks of the Deep Pit, hopefully they've had a good season.

Now... moths.

I ran the moth trap a couple of times last week, the first on monday night. Sadly however, my UV bulb had broken and so I had to make do with a standard energy saving bulb. In the morning I was extremely disappointed to find only one moth in the trap, which escaped before I could ID it...

I thought it may have been due to the bulb that the catch was so poor but I wanted to try again, especially as I couldn't get a new bulb til the weekend. The weather was poor for the rest of the week so the next chance I got was Sunday night. It was quite muggy and so I hoped for a better catch and was happy to end up with 9 Moths in the trap, which is actually quite good for what I've managed so far. Here's the list:

Green Pug

angle shades - 1
Straw dot - 1
Green pug - 1
Pug sp. - 1
Chrysoteuchia culmella -2
Small magpie - 1
Epiblema sp - 2 (disappeared before confident ID was made) - 2

angle shades

It was awesome to get a small magpie, what a stunning little moth.

Small Magpie

This Tuesday I was invited to join the wildlife trust at Ploughman's Wood for a charcoal making session. I did it last year and had an excellent time so was excited to do it again. The process of charcoaling is good fun and it also gives us a bit of time for doing other fun things in the wood too. This included birding, and I got a nice list of classic woodland birds. This is an ancient woodland and I really would like to explore it more, although I have visited it many times before, but it is a lovely site and great for birds, and the highlight was hearing a Marsh Tit, a declining species which seems to do quite well at this site. Other good birds included Treecreepers, the 2 commoner woodpeckers, a Grey Partridge on the meadow and lots of loud Tawny Owls in the dead of the night. We also found several 'batches' of Peacock caterpillars too in the meadow, something I haven't seen for a few years.

Caterpillar frenzy

Meadow Brown

One of our party brought along his MV Skinner trap with him, so as night fell we got that on and ran it for several hours. It was the first time I've used an MV trap and doing it in such an excellent habitat was awesome. We couldn't move for moths and it proved very difficult to keep track of them all but we identified all we could and tried to keep numbers without recounting too many. We identified 27 species, with 77 individuals, what we couldn't ID we had to let go as we just didn't have time to do them all but here is a list of everything we could get to grips with.

Light Emerald

 Macros
Willow Beauty - 10
Silver Ground Carpet - 8
Clouded Silver - 8
Peppered - 7
Double Square Spot - 4
Brimstone - 1
Minor spp. 3
Light emerald - 3
Snout - 2
The Uncertain - 2
Poplar Hawkmoth - 2
Ingrailed Clay - 2
Flame - 2
Peach Blossom - 1
Tawny Speckled Pug - 1
Green Silver Lines - 1
Green arches - 1
Green Carpet - 1
Riband Wave - 1
Common Marbled Carpet - 1
Dwarf Cream Wave - 1
Common Wave - 1

The Flame

Micros

Pseudagyrotoza conwagana - 5
Pandemis cerasana - 5
Epiblemia spp. - 2
archips pordana - 1
Timothy Tortrix - 1 (i'm unsure of this due to habitat but 2 others thought it was correct)

Peach Blossom

Green arches - the photo doesnt do it justice

One of many peppered moths

It was excellent, especially as a complete beginner, to see so many different species in one sitting, and it really helped me along in my moth ID. The majority of them were new to me, but having had my head firmly in my concise guide for the last 2 months I was able to identify a lot straight away and the others at least down to family level before referring to the guide. Highlights were definitely the Green arches, Peach Blossom, and of course the Poplar Hawk, and the Light Emeralds were stunning too. I'm looking forward to going out in the garden with my little DIY trap again, but I think I'd sooner go back to the woods.

Poplar Hawk.