Craneless

Several things conspired late yesterday that prevented me twitching; I had planned to get up in the early hours to drive to Suffolk and tick that twatting Crane, but late notice changes in work committments made such irresponsibility out of the question. I needed to be in the office for late morning and getting to Suffolk and back in the available time would have left little or no time to look for/enjoy the bird. Back in the days before I had real work responsibilities, I'd have gone without a second thought and sorted out the consequences with the manager later, but these days (being a manager) it's just not that simple. Luckily I have almost completely cured myself of the urge to bugger off on a whim to twitch out of county, but that Crane is starting to bug me now. I'll have no chance now as I fly to Seville on Saturday on business for a week, will be heavily constrained the following weekend and then I'm away on holiday for a week. Hopefully it will just sod off to France tomorrow.

I haven't sorted the records yet, but here's some moths from last night ....

Silver Y

Silver Y

Blood-vein

Spruce Carpet

Abberations and forms

Dean's great photo of a Water Carpet f.porrittii this evening got me thinking about the various forms and abberations of moths that I've seen over the years. Not that many to be honest, once you exclude the species that are prone to wide variation within the general population. Here's a few that I managed to find old photos of without trawling too deeply through the badly archived archives ....

Blood-vein, Enderby Quarry 13th June 2004

This one is referable to f. nigra, and as far as I can gather it's pretty rare.

Dotted Border, Whetstone 17th April 2003

This is referable to f. fuscata, a fairly common form, but the only one I remember seeing that was this dark.

Lime Hawk-moth, Wicken Fen 18th May 2002

This is referable to f. brunnea, again the only one I remember seeing.

Brimstone Moth, Luffenham Heath Golf Course 14th June 2003

No idea if this is a named form, or a genuinely abberant individual, but certainly the only one I've ever seen.

A few pics

I was overly optimistic last night about how much time I'd have this morning. I was up before 5am to empty the garden moths traps, but I was completely knackered and went back to bed for a 'lie in' at 05:45 but didn't wake up again until gone 9.

I've got the boxes and vanes for two new traps coming thanks to Adrian Russell (a 250W MV & a 160W MBT) so I needed to sort out a control box for the former and egg trays / sheets for both. I also had a fridge full of moths from the the last few days to photograph quickly, I needed to load up the car, I've had to clear out some memory cards etc - all in preparation for this afternoon and tonight at Ketton. If the building heat and humidity we currently have holds it will be a monster list in the morning.

Anyway, I've still got four nights garden trapping to enter into MapMate and summarise - but it's going to have to wait now. In lieu of the data, here's the pics instead.

Peach Blossom - smart

Buff Arches - ditto

Blood-vein - pretty in pink

Barred Yellow - high-vis

Common Emerald - still green when fresh

Varied Coronet

Tawny Marbled Minor?? Probably

Marbled Minor?? Probably - but I always aggregate these unless gen detted

Eudonia pallida - pleased to take this again after it being a garden tick last year

Plum Tortrix

Epinotia abbreviana

And last but by no means least - a garden tick!

Epinotia rubiginosana