end of 2004 / February /   Home/ The garden /  email

Moths seen in the garden to date A-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end

January 2005

A belated Happy New Year!
as I write this diary up on 8th January.

After all that has happened in Asia over the Christmas period with the news of so much death and destruction caused by the earthquake and Tsunami that resulted it may seem that this will be an impossibility for many, so perhaps a greeting wishing everyone a year that has within it peace and contentment may be more appropriate. Certainly my prayers as those of so many are with those who have suffered as a result of this disaster, the human response to it has been almost as overwhelming as the disaster itself but this will need to continue in the months and years to come, I pray that this is what will happen.

This morning began windy but dry with sunshine, now however it is sleeting outside and looks most unpromising for the rest of the day. Fortunately everything that I need to do today is home based.

One thing that I discovered this morning as I caught up on visiting some of my favourite haunts on the web is a calendar which can be downloaded in Adobe pdf format for free and which contains some excellent photographs. So if you do not already have a calendar or would like another with photographs of flowers, birds, insects etc. go to My Bit of the Planet and pick it up.

We have had some colder weather already this year and no doubt will be having some more. Meanwhile, and just to prove that I am still taking photos on a regular basis, even if I am not doing anything specific with them, here are a couple of the frost patterns on my car windscreen taken on 29th December 2004. Frost is always a bit of a nuisance if you are in a hurry but the patterns are amazing if you have time to stand and stare.

This is the first moth that I have captured a picture of this year and it is the early moth, theria primaria. For the last couple of years I have been keeping records of the moths seen in our garden, 2004 I was able to record 241 species and these are recorded in an excel worksheet file. Please click here if you would like to see the information. Peter records butterflies and because there are not so many I am able to include that information in the following table. The number indicates the total number of individuals seen on one day. You will note that we saw no painted ladies this year after a record number last year. We also saw no Essex skippers this year.
 
 

Species 

March

April

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Brimstone

 

1

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

Comma

 

1

1

 

1

1

1

 

 

Common Blue

 

1

1

 

1

 

 

 

 

Gatekeeper

 

 

 

 

4

2

 

 

 

Green  Veined White

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

 

Holly Blue

 

1

2

1

1

1

 

 

 

Large White

 

1

 

 

3

4

2

 

 

Meadow Brown Female

 

 

 

 

2

1

 

 

 

Meadow Brown Male

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

 

Orange Tip

 

1

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painted Lady

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peacock

1

1

 

 

6

2

 

 

 

Red Admiral

 

 

 

1

 

2

2

 

 

Ringlet

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

 

Skipper, Essex

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skipper, Large

 

 

 

1

1

 

 

 

 

Skipper, Small

 

 

 

1

1

 

 

 

 

Small Copper

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

 

Small Tortoiseshell

 

 

 

 

2

1

 

 

 

Small White

 

3

2

1

2

4

3

 

 

Speckled Wood

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

 

 

January 17th and the day has dawned dull. But I know that Spring cannot be far away. These aconites are springing up in the Rectory Garden, one of the early signs of spring. On Saturday, 15th we had a group og long-tailed tits arrive on our feeders. I think these little birds are delightful and we see them all too rarely. Amazingly enough I had the right camera to hand and wa able to take these 2 quick snaps before they left again.

January 21st and on the wall by the front light this morning was a herald of spring, literally. This moth is called the Spring Usher, Agriopis leucophaearia. Pete pointed it out as I had been doing some reading and was unable to focus as well as I would normally, in fact I thought it was simply the wing of a moth that a spider had left! It really isn't that long since I had my eyes tested. With this moth the number of species that I have seen is now 242 with 210 of them having been in my own garden.

click on any photo to enlarge.

end of 2004 /  February /   Home/ The garden /  email

Moths seen in the garden to date A-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end