Recent Moth Finds.

 With few highlights for me with either butterfly or bird it has been mainly the moths that have given me the odd small highlight. Having run the moth trap a few times on the suitable nights a few species have appeared which I've only caught a few times before with the most spectacular being the wonderful Merveille du Jour. Such a beautiful moth that only when seen on lichens does it become clear why it is coloured the way it is

Merveille du Jour.

Yes, there is a Merveille du Jour there.

On the same night a very nice Red-green Carpet was on the fence and a few Delicate were also in the trap.

Red-green Carpet.

Delicate.

The following trap 2 nights later gave me a superb Clancy's Rustic and Chestnut. Neither of these species are rare here but both examples were the best I've had of these moths.

Clancy's Rustic.

Chestnut.

Meanwhile, about a mile away I had a text from Clare saying she had caught a September Thorn and a Gem. Both species I hadn't seen before. 

September Thorn.

Gem.

Whilst photographing these we also came across a Common Newt in her garden. A brief encounter and a quick grab shot of it followed.

Common Newt.

Numbers have grown recently in the amount of Box-tree moths coming to the traps in the vicinity and I have had several over the past couple of months. Having taken a few shots of the normal colour I did have quite a smart dark form moth recently. I have only managed a few poor shots of this form so I was pleased to get a slightly better photo of this one.

Box-tree Moth. (Dark form).

Red Admiral.

 A couple of days ago I went for a bike ride and as I took the bike out of the garage I noticed a Red Admiral asleep on the wall. When I returned the butterfly was still there, and I also noticed the pupa case that it had emerged from hanging from a nearby drainpipe.

With the front of the house staying in shadow until the early evening I decided to take the butterfly to the back garden where it would stand a better chance of warming up and feeding before the cold night came. With light winds and quite cloudy conditions it only warmed up slowly which gave me plenty of opportunities to get some photos of the obviously very fresh individual.

Red Admiral posing on Purple Toadflax.

The Clearwing Year.

 This was my 3rd year of hunting the rarely seen Clearwing moths. With 15 species in the UK I was pleased to see two thirds of the species this year.

I may one day get over to the West of the country to see the Welsh and the Thrift and just maybe one day I will see the extremely rare Fiery and scarce Hornet Clearwing. The other one I didn't see this year was the Sallow Clearwing which is only regularly seen on even years, as the lifecycle is over 2 years and this is the first year that any have been found on an odd year as far as I know.

It's only a few months of the year when these special moths are found, and the only way to see them easily is with a pheromone lure that imitates virgin females. 

My first Clearwing of the year was the 6th June when I saw both the White-barred Clearwing and the Large Red-belted Clearwing, and my last of the year was the 12th August with the Raspberry Clearwing. Of the 10 seen the only new ones to me were the Currant Clearwing, that I caught in my garden and was the first Seaford record since the 1990s and the Orange-tailed Clearwing, that was also my favourite species and gave me my best photograph of a Clearwing this year.

White-barred Clearwing.

Large Red-belted Clearwing.

Currant Clearwing.

Yellow-legged Clearwing.

Six-belted Clearwing (showing variable sizes).

Six-belted Clearwing.

Orange-tailed Clearwing.

Red-tipped Clearwing.

Red-belted Clearwing.

Lunar Hornet Clearwing.

Raspberry Clearwing.

Three of these were caught in the garden which without the pheromone lures I would never have known I had these insects so close to home.

I would also like to thank Derek Barber and Dave Palmer for their help and encouragement in the searches for them all.