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Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end
June 2006
June already and May seems to have disappeared as far as my diary is concerned. The weather has been very cold and at last May produced some rain, a little late for hose pipe bans etc. It seems unreal that in England there is a shortfall of water but the winter was dry again and even if May was the wettest since 1983 it seems it will not help. As a result of the poor weather the moth numbers seem to be low this year. Having said which there was a new species for the garden in May although it took me until June to discover what it was.
rustic shoulder-knot, apamea sordens.
The weather is now more promising and the
weekend was delightful although today, 5th June, grey skies have returned. The
only photograph from the weekend was this large red damselfly, two of which were
flying around our garden pond on Saturday, but I should not complain as the
moth count was up this morning with 7 species in the trap.
8th June and the weather continues fine, as I look out this morning the sky is blue and following an early morning mist the sun is shining. The moth numbers are looking up as well although I suspect things will have to improve drastically for me to see more than the 89 species I saw last June. Bill Oddie on Spring watch commented that the fledgling birds that are late hatching this year are doing well and possibly because they are late and have an abundance of moth caterpillars to eat. That could account for a shortage of moths now but I would like to know where the adults have been to lay the eggs for the caterpillars to appear. Still I must not complain as I had a new species in the trap this morning along with 5 old favourites.
Udea olivalis
The days continue delightful, hot with seamless blue skies. There are still very few moths around but again last night there was a first for my garden by way of a small elephant hawkmoth which is pictured below. This I understand from The Moths of Essex is resident/scarce so I am doubly privileged.
small elephant hawkmoth, deilephila porcellus
13th and another first for the garden, this time a peppered moth. There was also a lime hawkmoth yesterday and a pine hawkmoth today. There are still not large numbers of moth in the trap every morning but those I have had are worth seeing.
peppered moth, biston betularia
Having never seen a peppered moth before the 13th of this month it seems strange that today I had the form f.insularia in the trap.
peppered moth, biston betularia f.insularia
19th June and this
evening at about 8 p.m. we had three hummingbird hawkmoths in the garden
feeding on the Valerian, I even managed to get a short video clip.
April / July / Home / The garden / Equipment / email / Art Gallery project
Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end