We enjoyed a couple of sunny hours this afternoon at Bradgate Park. Ostensibly it was to get our granddaughter Ellie out for some sun and fresh air walking along, but I took along a MOL pheromone lure and the TG-6, because it would be mad not too. With so many ancient oaks, and a fourth consecutive day of sunshine, I fully expected a result with the lure and I was not wrong ....
Pammene giganteana, to MOL lure
What I wasn't expecting though was Tortricodes alternella also apparently coming to the lure. I was just exposing the lure in an open pot for ease, and at the first spot I had x2 fluttering about the trunk close to the pot. I could not exclude the possibility that I'd disturbed them whilst milling about the trunk. But at a second spot, another came to the pot but I watched this one fly in from some distance. So genuinely attracted to the lure, or just coincidentally day-flying.
Tortricodes alternella, to MOL lure?
I also found a fair few Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella with the deep crevices of gnarly oaks, easier to find than get good photographs of. All on the shadier side of the trunks.
Yesterday morning I had another chance to add Ring Ouzel to the 5MR
list, as Mark Andrews found another at the same area on Aylestone Meadows as
the weekend bird. Seeing it was another matter, as just like the first it was
quick to scuttle out of view and become lost in the scrub further back. But I
did get views, not the best but good enough. You think the record shots from a
couple of posts ago were shocking, what about this ....
Look at that full crop grainyness, but at least you can see it's a Blackbird
with a white bib! Singing Cetti's and Sedge Warblers were good to
pick up whilst there too. Whilst I'm at it, here's a couple of more obliging but
less interesting grey birds from the site ....
Shortly afterwards I headed up to Kinchley Lane, Swithland Res to meet up with
Adrian Russell and show him a couple of the recent larval finds that he'd not
seen as yet. We soon found a few mines of Elachista regificella, and an
obligatory wall search produced a few bits ....
Taleporia tubulosa
Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella
One of the whites. Probably.
It was a bit parky, overcast and didn't look like the sun would break through.
We next headed to the site for Infurcitinea argentimaculella, and then
on to Charnwood Lodge where we had a damned good but unsuccessful search for
Dahlica inconspicuella. Whilst there, I managed to grab a couple of
shots of a very active jumping spider, which looks absolutely right and fits
the habitat for Pseudeuophrys erratica and gained some confirmatory
comments on a British Spiders facebook group ....
Back at home, a couple of vegetative bits of note. We have a large flowering
cherry on the front garden, with big blousy pink blossom. It's been here since
the house was built before we moved in. It's grown pretty big over the years,
and we had to have it cut back a bit in 2019, but I'd never noticed anything
odd about the tree before. It throws up a lot of suckers from a couple of big
exposed roots, which I usually trim back at some point, but this year
something odd has sprouted ....
Here's the pink blossom that is just coming up to it's best all over the
tree now ....
And here's a bit of blossom that has appeared from a root sucker ....
It is clearly a cultivated specimen grafted onto some sort of wild cherry
root stock, but I honestly can't say that that has ever been evident before.
There was no sign of grafting on the young tree, although we moved here in
1994 so it's a long while to think back.
Also, remember back in January when I was convinced that there was no
Holly in the square, just before finding a bit. Well I found this sprouting
the garden at the weekend!
We've never grown any Holly in the garden and none of the neighbours have any
that I can see. This is right under the line where a bird could sit on the
fence and drop a dump of undigested seed.
This evening I've been out for a walk along the lane wielding my sweep net.
I had two particular species in mind, Brassica Shieldbug which I missed and
Woundwort Shieldbug which I found. Eventually, after sweeping loads
of White Dead-nettle. Pied Shieldbugs were much more numerous!
I've also ended up with a good range of Hemiptera and Coleoptera in pots to
have a good look at and increase the square list a bit more.
I've managed to get all of my summer and autumn dictaphone lists transcribed
and entered into Mapmate. It wasn't too arduous, which probably tells the
story in itself.
Whilst 2020 has had some excellent periods of hot sunny weather by day, giving
good opportunities for invert recording when out and about, there have been
relatively few periods of excellent overnight conditions suitable for big moth
trap totals. Excessively windy and/or wet weather have scuppered some of the
peak periods, and days when the temps are soaring followed by clear nights
with a significant temperature drop are not great either. Then with one thing
or another, I stopped trapping before some of the autumnal species were out
and about. So I already knew that the 2020 species total was going to be on
the low side.
I've never bothered to run a trap every night regardless, as some do. Whilst
this would indeed be a consistent approach my (usual) work life means that
getting up early every morning is too much. I will try and run it
consecutively for several nights when conditions (or my enthusiasm and working
pattern) make it worthwhile, but more usually I will run for a few nights,
miss a couple and start again. There is still enough trapping to make some
sort of year to year comparison valid, until - like this year - there are big
gaps between trap dates or a late start / early end to the trapping effort.
Before the first national lockdown, we'd had some pretty wet and crappy
weather. The garden was waterlogged for most of the time until mid-March, and
so aside from a couple of nights trapping didn't really start until the back
end of the month. For most of the year I've just run a single trap,
alternating between a synergetic/actinic combo and a 125W MV. I knocked up a
quick summary of traps dates and type because I have nothing else pressing to
do ....
Green blocks are the synergetic/actinic trap (59 nights), blue blocks are the
MV trap (16 nights) and black blocks are the seven nights when I ran both
together. So trapping results from 82 nights in total, with 89 'trap-nights'.
By far the biggest impact on overall numbers recorded are the big gaps between
27th June - 9th July, 18th - 28th July and 15th August - 31st August with
little or no trapping. These are primarily due to weather (or weather-related
apathy!). No trapping after 21st September will have knocked fewer species
from the total.
Aside from trapping, there are a few records of individuals dayflying,
attracted to lit windows or an external light fitting, and a couple of
larval records. In total, I've recorded 319 species in 2020 - way down on
the 425 species in 2013, but actually only around 30 species down on the
average of the last ten years. There is a slim chance of one or two more
species for the year, I'll update this post if that happens.
There were seven new species in the year, and I managed to point the camera
at all but one - an Ypsolopha horridella on 9th August which flew off from
the egg box whilst I fumbled for a pot.
Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella (26/04/2020)
A surprise find on a low wall in the garden
Spuleria flavicaput (21/05/2020)
One I'd not seen anywhere before - and sadly it was knackered!
Gillmeria ochrodactyla (02/06/2020)
Another full British tick
Brown-tail (24/06/2020)
Maybe not a surprise, although this was still a VC55 rarity not that long
ago
Cydia fagiglandana (25/06/2020)
I've recorded this not too far away at Narborough Bog in the past, but it's
not like we have an abundance of beech around here
Toadflax Brocade (12/08/2020)
Another British tick, and one I was hoping would turn up after arriving in the
VC a couple of years ago
The garden list is up to 705 species. 2021 will definitely see some disruption
in the early spring if the garden works go ahead as planned, but I hope we get
a better run of trapping between June and late August at least. I also hope
that I'll be able to trap in the later autumn again having missed a few
species both this and last year.
I'm glad I've got a bit of a surplus of stuff to post, as weather-wise it's gone a bit overcast and dull with less invert action in the garden during the day. That does mean some better potential for mothing and as the trap was relatively good last night I'll use that for now with one exception - the garden bird lockdown list.
Before all this started, I'd already highlighted that Red Kite, Raven and Peregrine were hoped-for garden ticks, almost expected if I spent enough time at home / in the garden looking out for them. So the fact that the first two have come along during lockdown is great, but not a surprise and I've then been expecting a flyover Peregrine to come along any time. But what I wasn't expecting was that I'd add another raptor first! Very early this afternoon I nipped out to the garden with a plate of salad (yes, real actual salady salad) to enjoy in one of the sunny spells, and as I sat eating it a Buzzard came very low over the garden mewing. I went and grabbed my bins thinking it would come back and circle around like they usually do, and to look out for any other birds whilst I was out. No more Buzzards or any other large raptors in the next few minutes. But then out of the blue, a falcon came tearing into view. I immediately knew what it was from the long slim-looking wings and relatively slight body, and I got the bins up in time to see a superb Hobby blast over heading north-west. Brilliant. Not completely outlandish as I've seen a couple over the years down the lane. Much later in the afternoon a flock of at least 15 Swifts came over the garden screeching, and they loitered in the vicinity for a good while feeding overhead before gradually drifting north-ish.
So to the moth trap. I ran the 125W MV last night as there was a potential for rain around dawn and my actinic trap is still electrically unsafe. The barbeque is currently sitting in the exact spot against the kitchen wall where I usually run the trap, so I had it positioned about two meters further out on an old curtain lining as a sheet over the pebbles. I had a good feeling when on the first check there were two Pale Tussocks and a Flame Carpet already in. When I went back out a little later, I noticed a movement on a low wall that was close to the trap (but would normally be a couple of meters further away from it). This is the wall ....
It is absolutley nothing special and it's been there as long as we've lived here (26years now I've just realised). The contents of the planting were culled along with everything else before the winter, so it's just got some scraggy bits that have come back up. The bricks have some fine algae and lichen bits on it, and somehow it has avoided being pressure washed to death by Nichola. The movement I notced was near the middle of the front face on the lowest brick .... here ....
So a quick look with phone torch and I could not believe my eyes ....
Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella
How the actual F does an apterous parthenogenetic species manage to get onto one of my garden walls? Some lepidopteran larvae are thought to be able to 'balloon' to disperse but probably not this one. Surely it can't have crawled very far to get on my wall! Anyway this most unexpected event meant that I'd managed to add a new species to the garden moth list before emptying the trap. Species 699 - one to go!
Today I've had a good look around, and I can't find any other cases on walls, fences or trunks. I didn't collect this one as, quite frankly, there's not much point trying to rear one out as I don't think the female even bothers leaving the case before laying and dying. It's got a much better chance of surviving and multiplying if left alone.
The trap this morning was relatively busy, and happily it was bone dry. The total catch was 31 of 20sp., and of those there were 10 NFY species. I filled up lots of tubs to photograph a few moths for a change.
Pale Tussock
Flame Carpet
Small Magpie
Foxglove Pug
Currant Pug
V-Pug
Shuttle-shaped Dart
Brimstone Moth
Bee Moth
The moth trap is out again, and again there is a chance of rain pushing up from further south just before dawn. Hopefully it will pick up something before then. In the meantime I've got some sawflies and diptera to try and pin tonight.
I made use of a couple of free hours this afternoon. First off, I headed to Swithland Reservoir in glorious sunshine. I'd only just got out of the car when I noticed a few ducks close to the dam by the overflow, including two of my favourite species beginning with G ....
Gadwalls were preening and having a drink in between bouts of courtship ...
No such luck for this lone drake Goldeneye.
After grabbing a few snaps, I set about my main purpose. Staring at walls. It didn't take long to find the expected Psychidae.
Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella
Dahlica sp. - found a good number of cases in a slightly different section of the boundary wall to where I usually look. All looked to be D. lichenella, no potential D. triquetrella.
I noticed one moving about, surprisingly. They overwinter as full-fed larvae and should be pupating by now. When I got my hand lens out to have a good look at this one I noticed something else very close by .....
Bristly Millipede - never ceases to amaze me how these are invisible when you are actually looking for them.
Whilst I was enjoying these wall-dwellers, they were not what I was actually looking for. News came through during the week that Keith Tailby and Mark Hammond had found putative silk-tube cases of Infurcitinea argentimaculella. The photos seemed compelling, if a little inconspicuous. They'd been found at Ulverscroft and along the Swithland Res walls, but I was seeing nothing. After a quick call to Keith, I decided to head over to Ulverscoft and try there.
I was soon looking at a much more promising habitat, with the dry stone wall covered in a powdery blue-grey lichen (Lepraria sp.). If you think looking for larval cases of Psychidae is tenuous, you ought to try this .....
This is likely to overwinter as a small larva, but should be starting to become active again in spring, so it seems likely that bigger cases are old and vacated. I've collected a couple to have a look at, but definitely this is one to make an effort to return to in a couple of months. With lichens generally doing better now, and with eg the spread of lichen-feeding footmen spp., seems likely that this has also done well in the last decade or so and could well be wide-spread. After all, even when it's on your radar (which it wasn't) it is not exactly jumping out at you!
Just before getting back in the car, I had a quick look at the outer wall and quickly found more Psychids.
