Busy end to the month

 

Much the most exciting moth I've seen since my last post is this Silver-striped Hawk, needless to say not here but on the door of some friends in Spain. They sent the picture with a request for ID which I was only too happy to provide. One day, maybe, a friend or relative of this lovely creature will turn up here. 

The Mottled Umber, above, is a perfectly decent substitute for the time being and also a 'garden first' for me this year as I did little trapping in January and February when the moth may also be around on warmer evenings. I was also very pleased to get this strikingly well-marked Autumnal, Winter or November Moth - three species which are so closely alike that I can never hope to be certain which is which.

There are lots of them about at the moment, both in and around the trap and fluttering like little Hallowe'en ghosts in the car's headlamps. Here are another half-dozen, less distinctively-marked apart from the darkish one on the left of the bottom row. 

I've been busy repairing the trap in between times; the transparent cowl is gradually increasing its ratio of Sellotape to plastic but should keep going another year or so.

The eggboxes have been only lightly populated as I'd expect this late in the year but the variety is holding up well and there are some interesting contrasts like this beautifully fresh Red-green Carpet on the left below which arrived the same evening as a much more careworn cousin, on the right. 

Goodness knows what the almost entirely descaled moth below might be. You seldom see them quite that denuded of the tiny little tiles on their wingswhich give moths their colours and patterns. It seemed quite happy on one of our home-grown parsnips and was perfectly able to fly.

Other visitors below have been Lunar Underwing, Sprawler, Yellow-line Quaker, Large Yellow Underwing, the delicate micro Emmelina monodactyla, another Large Yellow Underwing, the first December Moth of the year in its nice warm gaberdene, a Black Rustic and a handsome Feathered Thorn (sadly pounced on by one of our robins when it flew off).

Another excellent arrival was this Green-brindled Crescent, the standard form with the green metallic scales - enlarged on the right - as opposed to the milky brown ones of the variety cappuccino which came the other day.  It was also good to have the Silver Y below, a nice fresh specimen which I suspect only recently hatched from its chrysalis. It's one of the few UK moths which can be seen in every month of the year.

Here are three of the moths already described along with a nice bright Barred Sallow, bottom right. As you know if you've been reading regularly, I'm having fun with my updated iPhone and here's another of its features: the ability to copy parts of a photo, which appear excitingly circled by a ring of light, and then paste them in as standalone moths, as below. It's a very useful ploy for livening up emails to the grandchildren. 

Nearly there. Sorry for the very blurred focus, but I had fun stalking this Light Brown Apple micromoth, Epiphyas postvittana, along the canal bank in broad daylight, while below it is another interesting moth in the eggboxes, a Snout, common earlier in the year but seldom seen by me this late.

Finally, here's an Oak Bush-cricket, I think, and to end with, a water vole scampering across the towpath to safety below the reeds.