16 May - Muston moths

A good night with more moths. A male muslin moth (Diaphora mendica) was another first for the year.










Another pale tussock moth showed itself
(More in the insects gallery)











and there was the first shuttle-shaped dart (Agrotis puta puta) of the year. This is the male moth and the species is named after the pale oval that is elongated.



This is a diamond-back moth (Plutella xylostella), which is a micro moth. It is a breeding migrant and its larval foodplants are the brassicas.

15 May - Muston moths

A great night of colour at last!
More cinnabars (Tyria jacobaea).









Firsts of the year:
a pebble prominent (Notodonta ziczac)











a coxcomb prominent (Ptilodon capucina)
















and a pale tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda).






It is nights like this that make mothing so worthwhile. Although there were no new moths for the garden the range last night was good. Unfortunately this means an even earlier rise to photograph them. At least it is a lie in compared to landscape photography!


For the techno buffs amongst us:
All the above photographs were taken on a Canon 40 D and a Canon 180 L macro lens with fill flash from a Canon MT24EX, all supported either on a shoulderpod or a tripod. The Raw files were developed in Adobe Lightroom when the exposure and fill-in was adjusted. Adobe Photoshop was then used to resize and convert the Tiffs to jpegs for upload. This process involved Neat Image noise reduction and then sharpening using unsharp mask.

14 May - Muston moths

Today there was a single peppered moth (Biston betularia), 2 powdered quakers and interestingly 5 cinnabar moths (Tyria jacobaea)...


...and the first poplar hawkmoth (Laothoe populi) of the year.

13 May - Not much happening

The moth trap only had a hebrew character again. Above is a shot from Askham Bog earlier this week. Why not visit the landscape galleries.









A large red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) from the same site.

12 May - Muston

Cold and windy and only one moth overnight - a hebrew character.

11 May - Muston moths

A pale prominent (Pterostoma palpina) was the first of the year and was accompanied by a waved umber, a clouded drab and 2 hebrew characters.

09 May - York and Askham Bog

A trip to York for the weekend with the family allowed a couple of landscape shots (more in the North Yorkshire - the rest gallery).


Along the River Ouse there were a lot of geese (mainly greylag) with goslings of all ages.

We also managed to get to Askham Bog on the south of York. This is a great reserve run by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. There were 6 species of butterfly seen (brimstone, orange-tip, large white, peacock, green-veined white and speckled wood.

08 May - Muston moths

Only one moth - a flame shoulder (Ochropleura plecta) which is the first of the year.

07 May - Muston moths

Singles of powdered quaker, small quaker and hebrew character.

There was a cockchafer (Melolantha melolantha). This is the most familiar of our chafers and is often called the 'Maybug'. The adult beetle flies at night and often crashes into lit windows on warm evenings in early summer. Its large size (25-35 mm long) and buzzing flight make it a little frightening, but the beetle is quite harmless and will not bite or sting.

Adult chafers eat the leaves and flowers of many deciduous trees, shrubs and other plants, but rarely cause any serious damage in the UK. However their grubs live in the soil and feed on plant roots, especially those of grasses and cereals, and are occasional pests in pastures, nurseries, gardens, and in grassy amenity areas like golf-courses, where they can cause damage.



More in the insects gallery.

06 May

Cold and wet overnight so I again avoided running the trap. However it is warmer today and so I will run it tonight.