When bulbs go pop in the night.

I put the moth trap out again last night as I hoped to catch a couple more moths to take me over the 200 mark. After the previous night's totals it was sheer greed and I got my comeuppance. When I checked this morning the bulb was dead and a relatively small number of moths were still inside the trap.  I'm not sure what time it popped, nor why, but  it was a noisy night with 2 different burglar alarms and a car alarm all going off  it one time or another.

The moths that were present numbered 52 of 19 species and nothing new for the year. The best being Buff Arches, Silver Y, Antler moth and 3 Light Arches.

Antler moth 

This afternoon, the forecast rain stayed away and it warmed up a bit.

I thought I would have a look on the fell for some butterflies, Hairstreaks in particular, as both Purple & White-letter have been seen in the Gateshead area the last couple of days. Despite a bit of searching I failed to find either today but there were a lot of butterflies about. Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small Skipper, a couple of Common Blue and three Whites (Small, Large and Green-veined) were all out in decent numbers. Also several Small Tortoiseshell,  two Red Admiral and a Painted Lady. My first Common Darters here this year were also seen.

Red Admiral

Painted Lady

When I moved here in 1999, I used to see Small Skipper and Large Skipper in about equal numbers. Small Skipper have been gradually increasing, especially over the last few years whereas the Large Skipper I saw regularly, though in decreasing numbers until 2006 but not since. I don't know why they declined here.  Therefore I got a bit of a shock when I found that a worn skipper perched up on some Bracken was actually a Large Skipper, my first here for 5 years. 

Large Skipper

On the way back through the South Burn Woods, a Southern Hawker buzzed me a few times before flying off.

I also managed to add four more flowering plants to the OFFH year list. Common Honeysuckle, Bladder Campion, Perennial Sow-thistle, and Mouse-ear Hawkweed.

OFFH List this year Flowering plants - 298

Birds - 104

Moths - 198

Butterflies - 20

Dragonflies - 7

Hoverflies - 11

Mammals - 10