A new moth for me.......is it the Yorkshire Brown?

The first night out for a short while, and the woodland around Kilburn beckoned.  The wind dropped and the temperature remained above +9, and the half-moon was low enough in the sky so as not to impact on the trapping.  The trapping session was brought abruptly to a close with a rain shower.....water and very hot bulbs do not go well together.  While going throught the assembled moths, there was one in the egg boxes that immediately stood out....was it the legendary Yorkshire Brown.....no it was a Lutestring but which one?  A quick check in Waring and Townsend and my Lutestring cribsheet, it was soon narrowed down to Poplar Lutestring. 

Poplar Lutestring

Poplar Lutestring

On returning home, a quick check of Sutton and Beaumont suggested only a couple of old records, but the NMRS website showed several other squares in a small group in the Yorkshire area.  The County Recorder Charlie Fletcher kindly confirmed the pictures and sent the current distribution map for the moth for the previous ten records, and my record was a new 10km square and the earliest county record.

 

A total of 98 moths of 26 species, with 33 Brown Silver-line and 11 Pale Tussock the commonest, and new for the year were singles of Common Lutestring, Poplar Hawk-moth, Alder Moth and Rustic Shoulder-knot.

A trap for the unwary....

Back in mid-March on the 12th at Pilmoor, I caught a moth that was immediately different from the Pale Brindled Beauties I had been catching and rashly identified it as a Brindled Beauty.  Following comments that the record was rather early for that species I checked the photos I had taken, and withdrew the claim.  While perusing the photos again this evening, I checked the identification again, and conclude that the species involved is the rather scarce dark variant of Oak Beauty.  On reflection, the specimen is rather worn, and should have raised alarm bells for what would have been a very early emergence of Brindled Beauty.

Oak Beauty abb.

A gem of a place

Just 5 miles or so south-east of Boroughbridge is a small wet carr nature reserve, at Upper Dunsforth.  It is a small oasis of scarce damp habitat surrounded by improved (?!) grassland, and monocultural crop fields.  It consists of several rough meadows with juncus and rough herbage, and a boardwalk through some damp woodland and a small amount of reeds and phragmites.

On the odd occasion that the sun peeked through the clouds, a few butterflies braved the cool breeze, and a small number of daytime moths were flushed from the grass.

Small Copper

The highlight was a Small Yellow Underwing, a daytime moth of damp heath, and of the butterflies the bright and beautiful Small Copper.

Adela reaumurella, eight Crambus lathoniellus, an Orange-tip, three Small Copper, a Common Blue, two Red Admiral, two Peacock, a Silver-ground Carpet, five Common Carpet, a Silver-ground Carpet and a Small Yellow Underwing.

Not a bad night out

With 100% cloud cover and the temperature not dropping below +13, it was only the breeze that one had to find shelter from.  Silton Forest on the north-west side of the North Yorkshire moors was the chosen site and at least 238 moths of 56 species was the reward.  

Dwarf Pug

19 Coleophora species, an Eriocrania subpurpurella, 18 Syndemis musculana, two Crambus lathoniellus, a Fox Moth, Scalloped Hook-tip, three Pebble Hook-tip, Peach Blossom, two Common Lutestring, two Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet, a Silver-ground Carpet, four Common Carpet, two Water Carpet, seven Small Phoenix, a Common Marbled Carpet, two Spruce Carpet, a Broken-barred Carpet, May Highflyer, two Oak-tree Pug, Dwarf Pug, Clouded Border, Tawny-barred Angle, 24 Brown Silver-line, a Barred Umber, Scorched Wing, three Brimstone Moth, three Engrailed/Small Engrailed, two Grey Birch, six Clouded Silver, a Poplar Hawk-moth, five Elephant Hawk-moth, two Small Elephant Hawk-moth, two Pebble Prominent, nine Lesser Swallow Prominent, a Swallow Prominent, Coxcomb Prominent, Pale Prominent, 22 Pale Tussock, an Orange Footman, 11 White Ermine, two Buff Ermine, 24 Flame Shoulder,  two Shears, two Pale-shouldered Brocade, a Bright-line Brown-eye, ten Broom Moth, a Pine Beauty, eight Hebrew Character, five Dark Brocade, two Alder Moth, a Brown Rustic, three Small Angle Shades, a Clouded-bordered Brindle, four Green Silver-lines, a Spectacle and a Small Fan-foot.

What was interesting about the Dwarf Pug besides the very obvious small size was the noticeably patterned underside to the wings, shadowing the pattern towards the wingtips on the upper surface.

A few days away.....good news and bad news

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to Hungary for a few days R&R the end of this last week.  The omens bode well with the registration of the car being very apt - LEP!  I was fortunate to have one of those cars that can go literally anywhere...yes, a hire car!  I will be honest it did me proud, 1000km and did not ground once, despite some of the very challenging off-roading....

Registration LEP 748....

The fabulous blue skies of Yorkshire seemed to be Europe-wide, and I spent Friday about Hortabagy, looking mainly at birds, as the cool wind seemed to suppress any butterflies until the afternoon.  The hungarian plains have loads to offer, and were a bit wetter than previous visits.  Loads of Marsh Harriers, summer-plumaged waders including magnificent Spotted Redshanks with Ruff, Quail and Golden Orioles from every field and copse, plus Cranes, Storks, various Herons, of which Great White Egret was by far the commonest, and Pygmy Cormorants.

Pygmy Cormorant

Great White Egret

White Stork 

Purple Heron

Friday night was cold, and 3 hours with an actinic produced just the two moths.  Saturday was spent on the limestone ridge in the north-east of the country around Aggtelek on the Slovak border.  The cold weather and increasing cloud and wind was just not conducive to butterflies, and most of those I saw were ones I could see in the UK...except for the Woodland Ringlet I suppose...

Silver-studded Blue

Dingy Skipper

The morning started fine but cool, but the deteriorating weather getting cooler, windier and eventually wet too made butterfly watching rather difficult.  Checking out the valleys north of Szin (an interesting place to live in I'm sure...) produced a few more butterflies.

Some proper meadows..

Wood White

Woodland Ringlet

The rain eventually closed in and a drive through the beech woods of Bukk produced dozens of Hawfinches, probably the commonest bird, seemingly collecting roadside grit.

Beech woodland in the Bukk hills

On the last day with the weather starting poorly and improving, gave me a last stab at the plains area again, and was lucky enough to get good views of Imperial Eagle and a fine Montagu's Harrier.

Imperial Eagle

So a great few days, with perhaps not as many moths/butterflies as I had hoped for, but was still an incredible pleasure just to immerse myself in many common and not so common species of Hungary.

So that was the good news, and the bad....well I lost my job today.  So every silver lining has a cloud.

Farne Islands

Eider

Puffin

Another fantastic day with wall to wall blue sky and unlike previous days, the wind dropped to give a more manageable 3 or 4 on the Beaufort scale.  Took Mum and Raine on a boat trip from Seahouses round the Farne Islands, and had fantastic views of Razorbills, Guillemots and Puffins.  There were plenty of splendidly plumaged Eiders, the immaculate Kittiwakes, and of course a few seals beached on the rocks.

Puffin

Kittiwakes on the nest

Requiem For A Moth - BBC Radio 4, Friday 6th May, 11.02am

The details of the programme which several of us contributed to can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010t6nr