Early Grey Day

Stuck the garden trap out last night, first time in a few days as it's been pretty chilly overnight. But even then it was decidedly nippy when I had a quick check at around midnight. Not too much to get excited about this morning, Early Grey NFY, nice to see another Twin-spotted Quaker, a nice cloudy Clouded Drab and a couple of Small Quakers [I like Small Quakers].

Clouded Drab

Twin-spotted Quaker

Small Quaker

Small Quaker

Brindled Beauty

Early Grey

Diurnea fagella

There was also a Caloptilia sp. which I feel sure will turn into C. falconipennella when it is checked out properly.

PG Dots

I had to nip into work yesterday late morning, so whilst out I briefly stopped off at some of the large open parks that are local to my workplace and home with the MOL pheromone lure. This lure is specifically intended for Grapholita molesta (an orchard pest and non-native non-naturalised species that is not likely to be here, not yet anyway) but like many of the lure it has turned out to be very useful for attracting other species within the Tortricidae. This one is excellent for Pammene giganteana as I saw last year, albeit a bit later into the flight period.

Conditions were certainly not perfect, as although very sunny and reasonably warm the wind was absolutely blasting in persistent gusts. Nevertheless, I tried at four locations and within a few minutes at each I'd added four dots to the VC55 map which I expect will be filling out quite widely over the next year or so.

All four locations are open parkland with large oaks, but none are 'oak woodland' - in fact none are really woodland at all with large open space around the trees and at the Cosby park the oaks are actually within the boundary scrub alongside a road with housing on the other side.

Western Park

Braunstone Park - northern end

Braunstone Park - southern end

Victory Park - oaks in boundary on eastern side

This one on the trap at Victory Park ....

.... and one potted up at Western Park for a proper shot

With the wind blasting, I managed to hand the trap from snags on the bark at most of these sites and in the process found a number of resting Diurnea fagella and Luffia lapidella (f. ferchaultella) at Braunstone Park. I shall try and get out with the lure again before the end of the month, targeting similar large parks and large mature oaks.

Meanwhile the garden trap has been out the last couple of nights, no big numbers but it's starting to wake up a bit. A couple of different Twin-spotted Quakers is nice for the garden; it has never turned up in numbers here, usually one or two a year at most and it wasn't annual but this is now the fifth consecutive season it has turned up.

Garden Life

The moth trap went out again, with no higher expection but actually a better return: x5 Hebrew Characters, x3 Common Quakers, x1 Clouded Drab, x1 Twin-spotted Quaker, x1 Early Grey, x1 Double-striped Pug and x2 Diurnea fagella. I made an effort to grab some shots late this afternoon, the first moths I've photographed at home for months. I then remembered that I'd cleared out all of my photographic props, so had to make do with a bit of broken fence panel which worked out okay.

Double-striped Pug

Twin-spotted Quaker ab. immaculata

Really pleased to pick this one up; not annual and never in numbers in my garden, so seeing one this year with the crappy wet early spring was unexpected.

Early Grey

Perhaps the best behaved individual I've ever pointed a camera at.

Common Quaker

What you can't see from this shot is that it was tiny; I actually potted it up thinking it was Small Quaker, and only looked at it properly when preparing the camera.

Today has been another lovely sunny day with a bit of warmth, so I made a point of loitering in the garden for ten mins or so every time I grabbed a coffee and rested my eyes from the PC whilst working. It really did feel like things were stepping up, with more new for year insects including Peacock butterflies, Tree and Buff-tailed Bumblebees, Tawny Mining Bee, and a few of these ..

Dark-edged Bee Fly (Bombylius major)

Eristalis pertinax

I also listened and looked out for any bird activity whilst out there, seeing and/or hearing House Sparrow, Chiffchaff, Wren, Pied Wagtail, Common Crow, Feral Pigeon, Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Herring Gull as well as the usual ten or so species I get in the garden. I ought to join in the 'lockdown listing' challenges, but I haven't got literally all day to peer hopefully into the airspace I can see from my house and garden.

My garden itself has nothing attractive to a wide variety of birds other than the feeders. Most of the genuinely interesting birds on my garden list are absolute one-offs, lucky flyovers or heard only - eg Woodcock, Kingfisher, Reed Bunting, Sedge Warbler, Black Redstart ...

Most of the stuff that uses my garden actually nests on the scrubby embankment that runs adjacent to my immediate neighbour's garden, and which partially restricts the open view I have of anything flying through. The neighbour's garden is a thin wedge that doesn't get much sun; we got the much better share of back garden space when the plots were laid out, though they have more land at the side and front.

Looking pretty much due-west over our knackered fence ...

... and looking north-west over our front conifer border

Ours is the red dot: sprawling suburb to north/east, sterile farmland to the south, industrial estate and motorway to the west .... but you see where the embankment turns from larger trees (mainly sycamore) to more scrubby before petering out

I pointed the camera at some Starlings which looked superb in the morning sun, and a pair of the Collared Doves that are still knocking about.

Ripping off the Olive Branch

Yesterday I nipped into one of our garden centers in south Leics. Whilst mooching about with Nichola, I noticed some olive trees and had a moment of de ja vu. I looked them over and sure enough found clear evidence of larval feeding with spinnings and frass. It was then that I remembered that I'd seen the same feeding damage in the same place last year and completely forgot to follow up in any way. When I got home, a quick check online and a browse through photos on my phone and I got a bit closer.

Here's a snap from yesterday:

Larval feeding signs on Olive Tree (Olea europaea)

This feeding damage was actually quite high up on a well established (and very expensive) tree. There was no way I could serruptitiously rip off the olive branch. At least not on this visit! The older photos I found were from 14/07/2018. These were on smaller and more accessible plants, but given that I wasn't sure what to look for I didn't acquire any samples. Here's a selection:

I'm absolutely convinced that this feeding damage is lepidopteran. There's really not much that is likely to be feeding on olive in this country, and the two prime contenders are both adventive species recently added to the UK list. Neither has been recorded in VC55: Prays oleae (new to UK in 2009) and Zelleria oleastrella (new to UK in 2006). There is a chance that it could be from a native polyphageous species, but what is more likely!

Either way, I am now better clued up on olive-feeding species and will be watching this place over the coming weeks to nail the ID.

Earlier in the week I had another look at local Holm Oaks, with the specific aim of finding mines of Stigmella suberivora. I found some, all vacated, on a couple of trees:

This leaf has a vacated S. suberivora mine, and two tenanted Ectoedemia heringella mines. They are similar except that the heringella mines are more convoluted at the start and around half the size (this E. heringella mine is about finished).

What I also found was that of three trees checked, one was so heavily infested with E. heringella that it was hard to find anything else at all and there were barely any 'clear' leaves. Another was infested but no quite so heavily, and there were S. suberivora mines including the one above. The third tree appeared completely clear of E. heringella, with S. suberivora mines evident. But, the clear tree is virtually in the middle of the other two:

Tree A heavily infested, tree B clear, tree C infested. Doubtfully any Holm Oak inbetween.

Here's a couple from the garden last night to close:

Early Grey - 15/03/2019

Small Quaker - 15/03/2019

Late Early

A quick catch up on a few from the garden, with two 'Early' moths appearing a bit later than might be expected:

Pine Beauty, 06/04/2018

Early Grey, 13/04/2018

Shoulder Stripe, 06/04/2018

Early Thorn, 14/04/2018

Double-striped Pug, 07/04/2018

A very knackered Oak Nycteoline, 14/04/2018

Post-eclipse Moths

Like many did up and down the country, I spent a few minutes yesterday at around 09:20 - 09:35 waiting for darkness and impending doom. It didn't happen, and to be honest I was surprised at how light it remained despite the c89% eclipse we had over clear skies in Leicestershire. A few of us were up on the roof car-park at work making good use of welding masks to view the spectacle, just like I did at my old workplace back in 1999 - good enough protection for brief peeks but not for extended viewing. Once the spectacle was over we were back to full sunshine until later in the afternoon when it clouded over which looked good for getting the garden moth traps out.

Total catch 42 of 9sp.
125W MV 17 of 7sp., 22W/20W Synergetic/Actinic combo 25 of 7sp.

0688  Agonopterix heracliana  7
1524  Emmelina monodactyla  2
1663  March Moth (Alsophila aescularia)  1
1746  Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata)  2
2182  Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda)  1
2187  Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi)  17
2188  Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta)  8
2190  Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)  3
2243  Early Grey (Xylocampa areola)  1

Early Grey

Clouded Drab

Shoulder Stripe

March Moth

Small Quaker