23rd June

I still hadn’t caught up with Little Owl this year so when my wife rang to say she had seen one on her run, I headed down Thrintoft Lane (along with our neighbour Sue who for some reason had never managed to see Little Owl). Fortunately the bird was still there…

This seems to be the last bird/territory in the parish. I’ve mentioned before the apparent catastrophic decline in Little Owl numbers, I’m still not clear what has caused it or whether this is reflected elsewhere.

Nice to hear two Lesser Whitethroat singing down here as I haven’t had them in this area before.  

Elsewhere the Meadow Rue is starting to flower in the Magic Garden…

Just part of this tiny patch of fabulous habitat, and a reminder of how rich this area once was…

I must mention orchids again, a couple of trips this week. First up to a beautiful site in Arkengarthdale where we found these beautiful, and rare, Small White Orchids…

And yesterday I went to see the atrata form of Northern Marsh Orchid….

The only British site for this form is a couple of fields near Hartlepool nuclear power station! A bit of a contrast with the Yorkshire Dales...

16th June

Hard work at the moment particularly with the wet weather which has vetoed most trips out but a brief spell of brighter weather got me in to the Magic Garden.

I first saw these cracking Longhorn Moths last year…

but this year the numbers are amazing with probably around a hundred individuals seen including a group of 40-50 dancing males in a patch of sunlight.

The little fen area in the magic garden was alive with insects including this Wasp Beetle

Clouded Border moth...

And on the Flag Iris, Pellucid Hoverfly…

And Snout moth…

And talking of moths, the trapping from a fortnight ago left a few unidentified moths John has added a further three to the parish list with Bud Moth, Marbled Minor and this little micro  Epermenia falciformis… 

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This is only the second ever record for VC65 (North-west Yorkshire).

Finally, I know this is against my policy of just covering the parish but I did get out to photograph some more orchids, in this case a veritable swarm of Bee Orchids at Nosterfield...

2nd June

Back to mothing in the Magic Garden last night with what looked like being ideal conditions. It turned out to be a good catch with over 370 moths of 52 species (with another half dozen still to be determined). There were also record number of Cockchafers in the traps.

New species included this Seraphim…

Lime-speck Pug and five new micro-moths including a superb little Twenty Plume…

And it’s always good to get these brilliant Eyed Hawkmoths in the traps…