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Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end
June 2007
Already it is June, the year seems to have flown by. I have now completed the degree that I was doing and perhaps will have a little more time to stand and stare for a couple of weeks before the work begins again in ernest. This morning 3rd June, there was another new species, the fifth of the year. This time it was a Thistle Ermine, Myelois circumvoluta, a delightful little moth and one of the pyralids.
Not too many moths to report during the past few days as there has been a lot of heavy rain. But on the 15th I was fortunate enough to capture pictures of the greater spotted woodpecker that has been coming regularly to the feeders. I happened to have the right camera to hand when it stayed around long enough for me to take several pictures a couple of which are worth looking at.
22nd June and already today has proved brilliant for photographs although it is dull and grey. There were 2 new moth speices for the garden last night and this morning I managed a few slightly blurred photos of a greater spotted woodpecker. I decided that the ones above taken on a sunny day were the adult female. The ones taken this morning were of a juvenile. In the adults only the male has the red on the back of the head but and it tends to be towards the nape of the neck, whilst in juveniles both sexes have a red cap. Also note the rather grey patch around its eye.
The pictures below are of the two new moth species, the female ghost moth hepialus humuli humuli (left), I can define this as a female as the male is not as well marked and is nearly white, and the foxglove pug, Eupithecia pulchellata (right)
24th June and in spite of the showers, we've not had the really heavy rain some parts of the country have been experiencing, there was another new species in the trap this morning. The question now is did it arrive with the reeds that are being used for the thatching of a house nearby or is it a genuine migrant. The moth's identity was confirmed by Brian Goodey of the Essex moth group and is a sclerocona acutellus.
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Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end