Garden disruption

Though the moth trap was not out last night, the bit of garden tidy up yesterday must have unsettled  a few bits in the garden. On the wall, window sand fence this morning were the same or another Frosted Orange and Angle Shades

Angle Shades

Frosted Orange

and 2 Pine Carpet, the latter being the first of the year.

Pine Carpet new for year

A couple of fly over birds this morning were also seen, 2 Skylark and a Grey Wagtail, both species perhaps on the move.

Another go at the moth trap

I decided I'll to have another go at the moth trap last night as it will soon be packed up for the winter (sort of). Only 1 Tawny  Owl called night. Ib took the previous night's catch taken for a walk to avoid duplicates,  the contents were examined this morning and consisted of  14 moths of 11 species -

 Brown House Moth (Hofmannophila pseudospretella)  1
 Clepsis consimilana  1
 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)  2
 Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata)  1
 Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata)  1
 Spruce Carpet (Thera britannica)  1
 Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum)  1
 Blair's Shoulder-knot (Lithophane leautieri)  2
 Sallow (Xanthia icteritia)  2
 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa)  1
 Rosy Rustic (Hydraecia micacea)  1

Nothing new so the Waldridge moth list for the year list remains on 239




2-3 Peacock butterflies visited the garden this afternoon, where I disturbed a number of Seven-spot Ladybirds during a tidy-up.

The Hermitage Owl Choir

There was still a singing Chiffchaff on Thursday, looking at him closer reavealed it was a young bird getting a bit of practice in before next year. Also practicing were the Tawny Owls in the Hermitage Wood with lots of various sorts of hoots, whoos and k-vicks coming from at least 4 birds during the night. They were at it most of the evening and night. Presumably this was again young birds practising, and by some of the sounds coming from the trees, they certainly need to practice. This was not the best performance of the Hermitage Owl Choir.

Unknown at the moment (Sawfly?) larvae

With the chance of only a very light shower and the temperature staying in double figures overnight I set the moth trap up in the evening. The result was 15 moths of 9 species with three being new for the year.

Lunar Underwing 

Brown-spot Pinion

Hook-marked Straw-moth - very worn and very late

The Hook-marked Straw as can be seen in the photo was very worn but not surprisingly as it was also very late, my latest by several weeks and probably one of the latest ever in the county


The full list was
Hook-marked Straw-moth (Agapeta hamana)  1
Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)  2
Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata)  1

Red-green Carpet

Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes)  1

Lesser Yellow Underwing 

Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum)  2

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Blair's Shoulder-knot (Lithophane leautieri)  4

Blair's Shoulder-knots

Brown-spot Pinion (Agrochola litura)  1
Lunar Underwing (Omphaloscelis lunosa)  1
Silver Y (Autographa gamma)  2

Silver Y

4 Siskin, 2 Meadow Pipit and a Pied Wagtail flew over the garden this morning and a White-tailed Bumblebee braved the grey overcast conditions.

Also by the trap was the small green caterpillar at the top of the page which I think is probably a Sawfly but which I have still to identify. It's looking very grey overhead now so it's an excuse to get my reference books out and try and get a name for the little critter.

Swift questions

Work and weather stopped me seeing much so far this week apart from a Speckled Wood butterfly on Tuesday and 65+ Linnet at Smith's Field this morning.
That is apart from a late Common Swift this evening. I see the odd late Swift, even later than this one but what I don't understand is what it was up to. Most late Swifts are fly-overs/ fly-throughs but this one was happy to be feeding around the train station and the Avenues area as long as I watched it. Now this area is the main brreeding area for the species in Chester-le-Street and there could be well over 75 pair breeding here mid summer. But they all left more than three weeks ago. Pesumably this could not be a late bred youngster as I pass this area most week days once or twice per day and there have been no sign of Mummy & Daddy or any Swift for, like I said, three weeks. So is this just a bird from further north that has stopped off to feed and perhaps even and roost,  over this area by coincidence or is there something much more instictive happening? I couldn't see it well enough to tell if it was an adult or ypung bird but what made it decide to stop off here, presumably on it's journey from the north? Was it a bird born and bred here previously?  Plenty of questions,bu no answer.

All you need is time

Yesterday I only had time for a half hour looking from the garden and with the rain on Friday night, I decided to leave the moth trap for 24 hours. There was a little bit of visible bird migration during my stint, probably in front of the band of afternoon rain that was heading my way. In the 30 minutes or so I was there looking skywards, I counted 17 Swallow, 6 House Martin, 3 Starling, 2 Wood Pigeon, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Jay, 1 Goldfinch, 2 Yellowhammer and best of all a late Sand Martin, all of them southbound. I only get a few Sand Martin over the house, and this was my latest ever here, so that was nice. Another thing I only get occasionally at home is the 14-spot Ladybird (Propylea 14-punctata). This is the small yellow species with a variable number of black spots, merging together. There was one sitting on the car yesterday, until it flew of when I went for the camera.

I put the trap out last night and managed to get 2 new species for the year in the form of Blair's Shoulder-knot and Frosted Orange.

Blair's Shoulder-knot

Frosted Orange

The weather was variable to say the least today with sunny spells, thick cloud, light rain and heavy showers all getting a turn. However as I had some time to look properly it shows that there is always something to see at this time of the year.
A flock of 60-odd Grey Lag Geese flew south-east over the fell and may have been Icelandic birds, as opposed to a flock of the very many feral ones that are around these days.

A Skien of Grey Lag Geese flying SE

 More Swallows were also heading south today, I counted 46 during my walk, as well as 4 Siskin. Despite the lack of wind and the showers, it was good for raptors, with Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and a Red Kite all being seen and I could hear a Common Buzzard mewing from the trees in the Cong Burn but it didn't reveal itself. A Great spotted Woodpecker perched up on an isolated tree amongst the heather.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

A few Common Darters were around on the fell and on the pools at Daisy Hill, with one of these small areas of water also hosting two Southern Hawker Dragonflies.

Souther Hawker

The only butterflies seen today were single Large White and Small Tortoiseshell.

One of the adjacent fields was ploughed just a few weeks ago but already a host of arable weeds were in flower with Field Pansy, Redshank, Pale Persicaria, Long-headed Poppy, Fat-hen, Common Fumitory, Common Orache, Black Bindweed and Scentless Mayweed all being present.

Field Pansy, one of a host of arable weeds in one of the fields.

So a good day, despite the weather showing all you need is the time.

Oh so quiet

The wind has finally dropped, it's not raining but it certainly feels like autumn. The overnight temperature with the clear skies dropped to 4.6C last night, the coldest night since spring I put the moth trap out overnight but knew it was a mistake on a cold, starry night in September. It was only because it was the first time for four days that it has not been too windy. Of course it was rubbish and with the contents after midnight of  a single moth, to save on electricity I gave up and switched the power off. The results of the overnight trapping session equalled one Garden Carpet, not even a Yellow Underwing.

The total contents of last nights moth trap - 1 Garden Carpet

Prior to this it has been extremely quiet because it has been extremely windy, with a record breaking 40.6 mph registered on my little weather station. Hence the lack of sightings. Last Sunday a single Red Admiral and a singing Chiffchaff was the best, and since then, the odd southward bound Swallow flying overhead on a couple of days was all there was to be seen.

With the cloud, came the rain and wind

Three Small Tortoiseshell yesterday but nothing else. A rather clear night last night to start but with the cloud, came the rain and wind. Only 17 moths of 11 species in the trap when I checked it, plus a couple of Common Wasp. A late Phoenix was my only one this year and 3 Mouse moth were the best there was.
Apart from that it was very quiet, a couple of flyover Siskins weren't much compensation neither was my first Common Evening-Primrose (Oenothera biennis), growing on the grass verge along Waldridge road.
Just back to work and the remains of a hurricane to look forward to.