25 November 2011 - Warburg Reserve, Oxon

Had a great few hours catch this evening thanks to a trip to the Warburg Reserve. 12+ Plumed Prominents and 50+ December Moths being the highlights...

Plumed Prominent

Plumed Prominent - now that's a plume....

Plumed Prominent - or two!

Plumed Prominent

15 Oct 2011 - Warham Greens, Norfolk

With news of a Rufous-tailed Robin the evening before, and with J Clements still in China, I had to go for the twitch. A pleasant evening spent in Wells-next-the-Sea ended up being the highlight of the trip.

Here's a couple of pictures of the morning after the night before

14 Oct 2011 - Crowmarsh Gifford, Oxon

A wee bit of small mammal trapping resulted in a trapped small mammal...

Field Mouse

Field Mouse being weighed

11 Oct 2011 - Little Wittenham Wood, Oxon

A few hours at Little Whittenham Wood resulted in a nice Mallow, a Brick - and not much else of anything.

Mallow

Mallow

Brick

5 October 2011 - Little Whittenham Wood, Oxon

A evening visit to Little Whittenham Wood produced one of my all-time most wanted moths; Merveille du Jour - fantastic beasts!

Merveille du Jour

Red-line Quaker

Green-brindled Crescent

Green-brindled Crescent

Sallow

Barred Sallow

4 Oct 2011 - Back Garden, Didcot, Oxon

An interesting brown Pale Mottled Willow was nearly the overnight highlight:

Pale Mottled Willow

Large Wainscot

2 October 2011 - Little Whittenham Wood

A quick trip out to Little Whittenham Wood produced an interesting second generation Lilac Beauty.

Lilac Beauty

Frosted Orange

1 October 2011 - Bagley Wood, Oxford

A visit to some woods south of Oxford produced a nice crop of Oak Lutestrings.

Oak Lutestring

Yellow-lined Quaker

Spruce Carpet

And a few Chestnuts - some of which were dark, but were still not Dark ChestnutChestnut

26 September 2011 - Back Garden, DIdcot, Oxon

More garden catching resulted a few niceties:

Dusky Lemon Sallow

White-point

Willow Beauty

Sallow

Spruce Carpet

23 September 2011 - St Combs, Aberdeenshire

In 1991 I had been at a trade show when the Shetland Sandhill Crane turned up. In 2009, I had been in Australia when the South Ronaldsay bird arrived on Orkney.

News of the adult Sandhill Crane on mainland Scotland gave the potential to see a much wanted blocker. 18 hours after news broke, John Clements and I were watching a Sandhill Crane at St Combs - job done!

Adult Sandhill CraneSeen feeding at 70-80 metres range, the bird was feeding in recently harvested cereal crops. It seems that the bird has actually been around 6 days already as a visitor to the RSPB's Loch of Strathbeg reported a crane last Saturday....

18 September 2011 - Didcot, Oxon

A few moths in the garden trap this morning:

Frosted Orange

Large Ranunculus

Beaded Chestnut

Lunar Underwing

Heart and Dart

10 Sept 2011 - Wittenham Clumps

A very late evening trip to Wittenham Clumps resulted in very little being caught in the woodland. Moving to the rough grassland area produced a lot more moths with an occasional highlight. Moth of the night was a Tissue - new for me.

Tissue

Blood-vein

Angle Shades

Snout

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla

24-spot Ladybird

4 Sept 2011 (pm) - Didcot, Oxon

Couple of minor interest bits in teh garden trap this morning:

Toadflax Pug

Orange Swift

Silver Y

4 Sept 2011 - Paradise Wood, Little Wittenham, Oxon

Decided to pop out for a wee bit of moth trapping.

I had initially thought this was a White-point, based on size, shape, markings and clear circular white mark (it didn't have a black belly so was a female whatever spp), then I thought Clay. Now, thanks to expert help, I'm settled on White-point (Thanks to Martin Harvey for the comments).

Lots of Common Wainscot

Rustic spp aggregate - picture taken to compare shape with Suspected, caught in Scotland a couple of weeks ago. Epiblema foenella

Endothenia quadrimaculana