I suppose I should make an effort to update the garden moth list page on here sometime. Another NFG last night which (I think) brings it up to 766 species - not to shabby for a small suburban garden with no decent habitat close by, but a long time in the making.
Acleris literana last night was one I hoped would pop up, seems to have been scarcer in VC55 away from decent woodland than eg A. cristana and A. hastiana up until the last few years, but seems to be spreading well now like A. kochiella and A. logiana.
Acleris literana
The only other highlight as such was a NFY Twin-spotted Quaker, not annual here though a fair run of records 2018 - 2022.
Twin-spotted Quaker
Here's a cracking track from Fat Dog, you're welcome.
Where the hell did the time go? Feels like I've been cheated, short changed or robbed. I've barely posted bugger all this year, and
it appears nothing since early June. But, for a change, that's not because there was nothing
to post about. But between bouts of activity I've been pretty busy and work and, you know, stuff. I'll have a bit of catch up one way or
another, though not chronologically (or indeed following any logic). For a starter, here's a few new for garden moths and one or two
highlights that haven't been posted.
Black Arches - new for garden, 29/07/2023
Bordered Straw - 27/07/2023, third garden record
Bordered White - 12/06/2023, the first here since 2002
Box-tree Moth - 30/06/2023, surprisingly the first here since adding it
to the VC55 list in 2017
Crescent - 27/07/2023, fifth garden record
Dewick's Plusia - 28/07/2023, a return after adding to garden list last
year
Obscure Wainscot - 12/06/2023, another return after adding to garden
list last year
Small Elephant Hawk-moth - new for garden, 24/06/2023
Small Rufous - 27/07/2023, fourth garden record
Toadflax Brocade - 19/07/2023, recorded for fourth consecutive year
here
Apotomis lineana - new for both garden and me, 09/08/2023
Lesser Treble-bar - new for garden, 15/08/2023
White-point - an overdue new for garden, 20/08/2023
No idea where the time goes these days. I've been: busy at work; busy
reconciling the 2022 VC55 moth dataset and starting to write a review of it;
watching LCFC disintegrate into a completely shite and relegation-worthy team;
listening on repeat to new albums from Depeche Mode and Orbital, and
recently starting to get my head around the idea of being a 'Grandad' in October
....
The rubbish wet/windy weather through most of March has not been very helpful to
getting out for anything, though a slightly better first week in April gave me
chance to waft a lure around and add a few more Pammene giganteana dots to the
VC map.
The garden trap went out last night for a few hours, I pulled it in
early ahead of more rain. Just as well really, as loitering at the bottom of
the dry trap was the first garden tick for 2023 (and it probably would have
drowned I'd left the trap out). So just over 11 years since I last saw one, and a very welcome addition to the
garden, is this Dotted Chestnut. I couldn't decide which pic to post so have a
few.
I mentioned listening to new albums, one being Optical Delusion from Orbital. I
went to Nottingham on Friday night to watch their live set, absolutely loved it
and it's about 10 years since I last saw them live. This one is probably my favourite track,
not least because it mentions 'Sandeels disappearing, Puffins lost at sea'.
A much more sombre offering, but one I've thoroughly enjoyed, is Memento Mori from Depeche Mode. Several great tracks, though I doubt this release will generate a new generation of fans. Sadly, as it stands their current World tour only has one UK date - which falls in the same June weekend that I'm away at the Isle of Wight festival. Hopefully more dates to be added either late this year or early in 2024 (if previous tours are anything to go by).
Blimey, a whole month or so since posting. I've not felt inclined to bother -
not due to having nothing to post, I've just been either busy, distracted or
so completely hacked off with the ridiculous and shambolic nature of our
government that I couldn't be arsed. I will make no attempt to fully catch up,
and in any case the majority of finds and activity have been leafmines. There
also won't be any posts in the next couple of weeks or so as we're off on a
long overdue holiday for which my post-cancer travel insurance is not far off
the cost of a typical summer low-star package holiday. Our last proper holiday was a
Caribbean cruise in late 2018 - and life since then has revolved around health
and covid restrictions. We're now heading off on a transatlantic cruise to the
Caribbean which somehow seems symbolic.
By far the best two moths in the garden were unexpected ....
This fallen leaf from the garden Silver Birch was a chance find on 16/10/2022 -
the only one with a 'green island' meriting closer inspection which revealed a
tenanted mine. Initially it looked quite short and appeared to be starting to
form a blotch after the initial contorted gallery which brough Ectoedemia
minimella to mind - though that would be very unlikely. I held onto the leaf and
after a couple of days the mine had developed into a gallery with some
scalloping along the edge. This is Stigmella luteella - new for me and
the garden.
The other highlight was this Caloptilia sp. to light on 03/10/2022 ....
This will need a gen det, but I am pretty sure that this will be confirmed as
the first VC55 record of Caloptilia honoratella - needless to say new for
me and the garden too. This is one that has fairly quickly established itself
into the UK since arriving in 2016 and seems to be spreading - so not entirely
unexpected as such, I just thought it would be a few more years before getting
this far.
I'll spare you another load of leafmine images showing tenanted mines of new-to-me Stigmella spp. etc.
Blaming everyone in the hospitals
Blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel
Blaming everyone who doesn't look like a fried animal
There are a handful of leaf-mining species that are so ubiquitous that any
square with no records of these is likely (though not 100% certainly) to have
no records of any leaf-miners. So the following was shared with recorders,
showing all VC55 tetrads with leaf mine records of Parornix anglicella,
Stigmella aurella and Lyonetia clerkella combined:
On Monday I headed out for a couple of hours or so in the middle of the day to
respectfully avoid the box shuffling and do a bit of square bashing. My plan was
to find something in the two blank squares in SP58, and then head across to SP39
and at least cover off the squares that were fully or mostly in VC55 (alongside
the Warks border). I wasn't going to traipse all over pathways and farmland -
this was going to be a quick hit by stopping on roadways and verges, a quick 15
minutes or so survey and move on.
A squint at the map suggested that one of the two squares in SP58 would be a
bit sparse with only one roadway through a corner, but the other looked a fair
bet. This turned out to be as expected, with 13 species found in SP5684 but
only 3 in SP5884. Amongst these were nothing unexpected or notable.
I then headed along the A5 to SP39 with good intent, only to find that the
further west I went the greyer and eventually wetter it became. I'd not
bothered at all to check the weather forecast. I turned off the A5 into
SP3296 and pulled up just outside of Witherley. By then the drizzle had
turned to rain and then stopped again. A quick look around yielded 10
species quite easily, before a light drizzle started again. Back in the car,
and I headed into SP3098 where I noted an amusingly named King Dick's Hole.
I stopped near a junction just west of Ratcliffe Bridge and found a slightly
different mix of species, 11 in all including Bedellia somnulentella and
Chrysoesthia drurella. After a couple of sarnies in the car, in another
shower, I headed east along the road through Ratcliffe Culey across to Upton
in SP3698. From there I intended to head south-west towards Atterton and
then south to Fenny Drayton - hence covering the five main squares. The
weather though had other ideas and within five minutes of getting out of the
car at Upton (during which I picked up 6 species) the rain properly set in
and I lost enthusiasm.
Overall I added records to five previously blank tetrads, with 48 records of
23 species in total. Had I managed to find any tenanted mines on oak it
could have been more, and if there been any birch, beech or apple. I'll head
back over to some of these squares again at some point for a better look.
View north at SP57148422
View north-north-east at SP31919979
View north-north-east at SP36399970
Chrysoesthia drurella
Bedellia somnulentella
I also found quite a few Stigmella mines on Alder at Witherley - sadly
though all vacated so indeterminable. Certainly one I'll be looking out for
in the next few weeks.
Earlier in the morning, I'd emptied the garden trap and grabbed a few snaps.
The catch included another garden tick that I've been expecting after recent
colonisation and spread - a Cypress Pug sitting on the egg boxes propped up
against the outside of the trap. I thought that would be the only highlight,
but on lifting out the funnel there sat a spanking Vestal - only the second
for the garden (first was in 2013).
Cypress Pug
Vestal
Satellite
Whilst grabbing some foliage from the front garden border to plonk the
Cypress Pug on, I stumbled on this larva which I'm going to try and rear far
enough to ID ....
"I've been a long-term disappointment to myself, but it hits like a hammer when I'm that to someone else. And the circle doesn't fit its little square, it bulges with opportunity. Bulges"
Ok, so I got the final outcome from the consultants at a post-op follow up
last Friday with Nichola. Bottom line - no discussions about how long I've got
and no further treatment; lymph nodes clear and resection margins
microscopically clear (r0) so essentially I am cancer-free and can get on with
planning and living my life like anyone else. No guarantees of course, although ongoing surveillance for five years is reassuring, but
it's absolutely the best outcome I could have hoped for. Just got to get on
with physical recovery, though I'm feeling a bit stronger every day and from
today I'm logging on to work for a while to get back on top of things.
I'm also taking on the VC55 CMR role formally from hereon in. I've been
covering the role since Adrian's passing, but of course was hesitant to
formalise anything too quickly and whilst I had my own health cloud. There is
much to do, initially just to get a grip on a few things.
I ran the garden trap for a couple of nights before the weekend, and picked up
x3 new micros in the process - one of which was completely new to me.
Ironically though, the first new micro was almost overlooked.
From 28/07/2022 there were x2 Brown-line Bright-eye in the trap that I
couldn't remember having here before, and x2 Caloptilia semifascia that has
been turning up in gardens regularly over the last couple of years or so. It
didn't remotely click that mine wasn't one of them. It was only when checking
for last dates that the penny dropped, and thankfully I'd potted both to
ensure a photo anyway. Turned out that after all I had recorded Brown-line
Bright-eye here before - albeit way back in 2000 & 2003.
Caloptilia semifascia - garden tick
Worn but welcome Brown-line Bright-eye - not a garden tick!
The following night, another couple of micros that this time I knew were new
....
Caloptilia cuculipennella - new for me and the garden
Nephopterix angustella - seems to be having a good year locally
"All you've got to do is feel, your body's going to start to heal, Fingertips
of holy fire, everlasting sweet desire, It don't matter what the
doctors say, Healer man, sail away, Immortality for two, miracles
will come to you. The faith healer, the faith healer"
On Sunday afternoon, whilst I was out at the KP watching LCFC win, I
speculatively left the MOL pheromone lure in the trap out in the garden. I put
it out at 13:00, literally just before I got in the car and headed off to the
game.
Here's a very sketchy map: the blue dot is home, the green dots are definite
oaks that I know of that are closest to home, and the orange dots are a large
tree that I think is oak (I can't get close to it and I've never bothered
trying to look at it to see, but looks like it 'naked' from the lane) and an
area on Whetstone Golf Course that I think has oaks (again to be checked). The
green dots to the SW of home are those at Victory Park (see last post). There
are almost certainly more oaks within this image than I can recall. Either
way, as you can see there are oaks dotted about reasonably close to home
(within 1km) but it is not exactly abundant.
I had no expectations, but with good sunshine, a bit of warmth and a light
breeze it was as good a time to try an any. I got home at 16:30 and headed
straight to the garden to check the trap. Well, blow me. x2
Pammene giganteana were within it. I am 100% certain that these are
completely unrelated to the use of the trap on Saturday: the one I took to
photograph was still in the fridge, and had there been any inadvertently taken
into the car they would have been buzzing around the trap on the passenger seat
for sure. It's perhaps not an entirely unexpected garden tick, as there are
plenty of similar experiences being posted on the 'Pheromone' Facebook group of
garden records. This was considered a rare moth in VC55 before last spring, but
it is clearly quite common - just inconspicuous and perhaps poorly attracted to
light traps.
post-script: whilst I was writing this I'd left out my new ARG lure (intended for Pammene argyrana) in the garden for the last hour of daylight. I checked just after posting - another x2 Pammene giganteana, so they're clearly not coming from too far away!
x2 from this evening on left, x2 from Sunday afternoon on right
I finally had the tackle of a number of specimens from the summer and early autumn checked
out by Andy Mackay, which confirmed new for garden species and a
couple of surprises:
Endothenia marginana
Endothenia oblongana - a full blown tick for me, and only the 4th or so
VC55 record (all recent)
Cnephasia genitalana - proving that it is worth getting individuals
checked through the season
Dichrorampha flavidorsana - another British tick
Apodia bifractella
Adaina microdactyla
I've also realised that this one appears to have slipped through without being
mentioned in the blog: Gelechia sororculella, a tick for me and only 2nd
VC55 record.
Here's post-Clash blast from quite a long while ago ....
