26 May 2012 - Blairgowrie, Perthshire

First night up in Scotland produced a modest catch. Most interesting for me was a couple of Scarce Black Arches - a species I hadn't seen before.

Scarce Black Arches

Scarce Black Arches





Beautiful Golden-Y

Scorched Wing

Yellow-barred Brindle

Light Brocade

Brown rustic

Brimstone Moth

22 May 2012 - Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Oxon

A lunchtime mooch round the grounds at work produced this lovely wee Small Yellow Underwing. The size was micro-moth rather than macro-moth - but ceratinly a fine addition to the macro moth list of CEH.

Thankfully news of the find eventually got to Biodiversity colleagues, who managed to relocate the wee beastie an hour or two later - phew!

Small Yellow Underwing

22 May 2012 - Neptune Wood, Oxon

A trip to Neptune Wood near Little Wittenham produced nearly 200 macros of 35 spp. A nice selection - and just nice to be out between rain shows...

Pale Tussock

Silver-ground Carpet

Dwarf Pug ?

Dwarf Pug?

Light Brocade

Marbled Minor

 

Chocolate Tip

Yellow-barred Brindle

Coronet

Peppered Moth

Beetle spp

Treble-line

19 May 2012 - Warburgh Reserve, Oxon

An opportunistic catch at the Warburg Reserve was really productive even if numbers were a little low. Amongst five species of prominent was a fine Great Prominent. Marbled Brown was also new, whilst catching both Treblebar and Lesser Treblebar provided a great opportunity to photograph the two species side-by-side.





Great Prominent



Great Prominent

Marbled Brown

Marbled Brown

 

Lesser  Treblebar

Lesser Treblebar (above) & Treblebar (below)

6 May 2012 - Farmoor & Didcot

A quick trip to Farmoor failed to produce the Red-rumped Swallow - but did get me Swift as a year tick.

Pied Wagtail - longest tertial looks a newer generation



Swift

Swallow

Coot



My pet parasiticised 7-spot - see yesterday's blog for the earlier stage. How clever of the parasite to use the warning markings of the ladybird to fend off any foes!



Scarlet Tiger - one of two caterpillars found in the garden this afternoon



Two Hedgehogs in the garden this evening.



5 May 2012 - Warburg Reserve & Didcot

Had a morning visit to the BBOWT's Warburg Reserve - managed to fit in a wee bit of pond dipping resulting in 1 Palmate Newt amongst 10 Smooth Newts. Several Odonata remained unID'd...

Arrriving home, found a 7-spot Ladybird with this parasitic wasp larva on its back + rear. An hour later and the parasite had spun his (or her) little cocoon underneath the ladybird (I'll take another snap tomorrow) and was about to begin the process of transforming in to a wee wasp.



Parasitised (Dinocampus coccinellae) 7-spot Ladybird



Palmate Newt (with filament end to tail + palmations)

Odonata spp

Odonata spp - Broad-bodied Chaser perhaps?

1 May 2012 - Paradise Wood, Long Wittenham

In between the breaks in drought/rain, managed a quick evening trip out to Paradise/Neptune Wood, Long Wittenham. Though the number may not have been fantasic (31 macros of 16 spp), it was nice to see some year-ticks and others that I have no pictures of.



Scalloped Hook-tip



Dotted Chestnut





Mullien





Oak-tree Pug



22 April 2012 - Warburg Reserve, Oxon

With a seemingly dry night ahead, I decided upon a quick Mothing request at the Warburg Reserve. Unfortunately the temps were down to 6oC when I left, so had little hope of anything special by the morning...

Pebble Prominent

After a couple of Lesser Swallow Prominents, this Pebble Prominent was a welcome find. Purple Thorn was great as always.

Scarce Prominent

Final moth of four traps - 2 x MVs and 2 x actinics, was this Scarce Prominent - new for me.

Last activity of the morning was a bit of pond dipping with Max - several newts and a few other odds and ends managed to jump in to the net...

Junior Baldie - happening upon some newts

13 April 2012 - Blairgowrie, Perthshire

Junior Baldie with Tree Sparrow

Final bit of garden ringing on last day of Easter hols. Lots of Tree Sparrows in the garden as ever - superb wee things in the hand.

12 April 2012 - Struan, Perthshire

A visit with Marc to the Bog Myrtle growing on the roadside near Struan yielded many posts but few moths... Some close inspection revealed a smartly patterned Engrailed - and just below it was my first female Rannoch Brindled Beauty. Further searching of the posts produced a second specimen 'calling' for males.

Other things seen included two Orange Underwing, Red Squirrel and a couple of Short-tailed Voles.

Rannoch Brindled Beauty (female)

Engrailed

Rannoch Brindled Beauty (female)

11 April 2012 - Blairgowrie, Perthsire

Not much of a catch last night owing to temperatures. One Pug spp looked interesting but is currently being 'dismissed' as a Brindled Pug. A Clouded Drab was yet another colour variant - and trying to look like Twin-spotted Quaker (but failing).

Clouded Drab

Presumed Brindled Pug

Sexton Beetle - caught earlier at Loch of the Lowes