A mothing jolly.....

College Valley at sunrise.

Last night myself, George Dodds, Ian and Keith Davison ventured to the remotest corner of North Northumberland to check out the moth action.

The College Valley is a protected area, but George 'knows people' so we had the privilege of being allowed to drive in. We soon found a tricky place to get the car up, but we set up camp and plonked out 3 traps over a 100 mtr stretch. As this area hasn't got a street light for miles, our three lights were a beacon to every insect in the vicinity, including some undesirable biting midges.

By midnight moths came in thick and fast and we had our work cut out to keep up, then in the first light of dawn emptying and logging the catch took a while too...

To sum up, we caught 251 moths of 42 species including - the ones in bold are noteworthy.

Taxa
0228  Monopis weaverella  1
1301  Crambus lathoniellus  1
1722  Flame Carpet (Xanthorhoe designata)  7
1753  Striped Twin-spot Carpet (Nebula salicata)  6

Striped Twin spot Carpet

1759  Small Phoenix (Ecliptopera silaceata)  11
1760  Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata)  1
1761  Autumn Green Carpet (Chloroclysta miata)  1

Autumn Green Carpet

1773  Broken-barred Carpet (Electrophaes corylata)  3

Broken barred Carpet

1778  May Highflyer (Hydriomena impluviata)  55
1817  Foxglove Pug (Eupithecia pulchellata)  1
1834  Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata)  6
1846  Narrow-winged Pug (Eupithecia nanata)  2
1851  Golden-rod Pug (Eupithecia virgaureata)  1
1857  Dwarf Pug (Eupithecia tantillaria)  2
1887  Clouded Border (Lomaspilis marginata)  2
1902  Brown Silver-line (Petrophora chlorosata)  39
1903  Barred Umber (Plagodis pulveraria)  8 (only 5 previous county records, last recorded 1971)

Barred Umber

1906  Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata)  9
1917  Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria)  7
1918  Lunar Thorn (Selenia lunularia)  6
1920  Scalloped Hazel (Odontopera bidentata)  6
1931  Peppered Moth (Biston betularia)  2
1951  Grey Birch (Aethalura punctulata)  1

Grey Birch

1955  Common White Wave (Cabera pusaria)  2
1981  Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)  4
2000  Iron Prominent (Notodonta dromedarius)  1
2003  Pebble Prominent (Notodonta ziczac)  1
2006  Lesser Swallow Prominent (Pheosia gnoma)  2
2008  Coxcomb Prominent (Ptilodon capucina)  3
2011  Pale Prominent (Pterostoma palpina)  4
2060  White Ermine (Spilosoma lubricipeda)  10
2102  Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta)  7
2158  Pale-shouldered Brocade (Lacanobia thalassina)  3
2162  Glaucous Shears (Papestra biren)  6

Glaucous Shears

2250  Dark Brocade (Blepharita adusta)  2
2289  Knot Grass (Acronicta rumicis)  4
2302  Brown Rustic (Rusina ferruginea)  1
2305  Small Angle Shades (Euplexia lucipara)  11
2326  Clouded-bordered Brindle (Apamea crenata)  4
2425  Nut-tree Tussock (Colocasia coryli)  4
2434  Burnished Brass (Diachrysia chrysitis)  1
2450  Spectacle (Abrostola tripartita)  3

Crepuscular Birding

After an unsuccessful late night expedition to Thrunton Woods on Monday looking for Nightjars, we decided to go back to more familiar ground where we had seen them in the past. It was with this in mind on Tuesday evening we headed for Holburn Moss, unusually the midges were almost non existent,was this a bad omen?. As we stood next to the moss Tawny Owls could be heard along with a very noisy Cuckoo , then suddenly, very distantly at first we could hear the churring call of a Nightjar, after some careful scanning we could make out his distinctive silhouette on a dead piece of conifer, it got better when at that moment another bird glided right past us and banked to reveal it's long pointed wings with white flashes on them, what a fantastic bird at a site which yet again came up trumps.

Redecoration...

Hi all, I have removed the spring daffs and chiffchaff background from the blog as I felt that despite the cool wind it must be summer now! The header image is a Common Blue butterfly and the back ground ( for those with wide screen monitors) is Howick pond field wild flower meadow in all its glory. If you wait a couple of weeks it should be just like this, as it is a bit behind....

Gary Woodburn sent me a better pic of the Golden Oriole John and I found t'other day at Low Newton, and what better bird to bring in the summer...please click on it for a better size...

Regards Stewart

Round the farm today and we came across this specimen of the large bracket fungus, Dryad's Saddle (Polyporus squamosus).  Not rare, but this one was in excellent condition and about 40cm across.

Golden Oriole.

Happened upon one of these today! It flew over Newton Pool early morning and showed for half an hour before flying off high to the west never to be seen again...poor photo, superb bird!

Golden Oriole

Out of area 2nd June

The last day of my holidays so we decided to have an early start and visit Allenbanks near Bardon Mill. The early start was justified as we were the only car in the carpark, as we wandered along the riverbank we soon picked out the lovely tones of a Pied Flycatcher,another one was added later. The only problem with Allenbanks is the volume of the noise coming from the river,even this could not stop us from locating the instantly recognisable call of a Wood Warbler and soon the little songster was located,we came across two more further on along with a very shy Redstart.
As the day was still young for our final visit we called in at the Derwent Valley and even though it was extremely busy with what seemed like all of Gateshead, we were soon enjoying  views of four Red Kites as they moved effortlessly across the clear blue sky,it just goes to show the huge variety of both wildlife and sites we have in our area.

   

Branton Ponds 1st June

Amazing, a second sunny day,and a walk around Branton Ponds showed that the breeding season is in full swing,both Greylags and Canada Geese with their goslings and a gaggle of 20 little "mint humbugs"otherwise known as Shelducks with their parents. The air is still full of the calls of Blackcaps, Willow Warblers, Garden Warblers and Sedge Warblers, long may this weather last.