Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Monday 4 July 2011

Some Spanking Garden Moths

It's that time of year when keeping up with MapMate recording is hard work, with ever growing garden lists in conjunction with mothing forays around the county. As soon as I catch up and have a couple of nights off, I start again and I am back behind. As it stands I have garden lists from 1st, 2nd & 3rd July to enter, plus the Watermead and Cossington lists to sort out from 2nd. In the meantime, here's some shots of a few from the garden over the last two nights including some corkers!

For the garden mother, there is only one thing better than picking up a garden first and this is when a really smart/scarce/outlandish species reappears. There's nothing worse than having lots of single individual/record species on the garden list - I should know as I have lots of them! So really pleased that these two turned up again:

Small Ranunculus - second record, first was 25/07/2010

Blackneck 02/07/2011 - second record, first was 02/07/2010 (amazing coincidence)

Another one to reappear was this:

Carpatolechia alburnella 02/07/2011 - second record, first was 13/07/2008


There is a potential garden first in the offing as well though - depending on how the gen det turns out. I've been looking out for Rufous Minor in the garden for years and it looks like I may finally be in luck ..

Rufous Minor 02/07/2011
CONFIRMED - gen. det. by Jon Clifton Jan 2012


This one is a definite garden first - albeit just a form of a regular species.

Lime Hawk-moth f. brunnea 03/07/2011


The last three are just cause I fancied getting a shot of them.

Lilac Beauty 03/07/2011 - stunning moth

Acleris forsskaleana 03/07/2011 - common in my garden

Slender Pug 02/07/2011 - subtly smart when fresh(ish)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to have some repeat show`ers after a few years.
Smart images as always, Mark.

Stewart said...

Aye some belters in that lot, most would be new for me...I'm hoping for a Slender Pug...

The Leicester Llama said...

I had my first garden Black-neck the other night (29th), and Heart & Club the following night. Not had Small Ranunc yet this year. Pine Hawk was nice last night - probably my favourite hawk-moth for some reason even though it's less colourful than most of its relatives. Although I might change my mind if a Bedstraw turned up in the garden!

Skev said...

Thanks all,

Agree on the Pine Hawk Andy - maybe it's because the brain still remembers when it was pretty rare. I still get a buzz when I see a Chocolate-tip thinking back the one we had a Pickworth when it was rare as rocking horse shite. Bedstraw would be nice, Striped or especially Silver-striped would have me dancing naked in the street.

Trent Duval said...

Nice to see those Small Runcs I sent made it up the M1

Skev said...

Yes - thanks Trent. Now can you get some of those Toadflax Brocades up here please.