25th July 2021

Well after managing to stay free of covid for so long it finally arrived in the house (unsurprising given the free for all which seems to be government policy now) and the consequent extended period of self isolation was not conducive to great discoveries in nature but I did see my first Ruby-tailed Wasp in the garden plus this rather handsome leafcutter bee, Megachile centuncularis…

My release coincided with John setting a moth trap in the village. A fantastic catch with 531 moths of 90 species which must be the highest single-trap catch we have ever had in Ainderby. This included three new species for the parish: Gold-ribbon Argent, Double-striped Tabby and this Chequered Pearl…

This is a really scarce moth in VC65 (North-west Yorkshire) and was a new species even for John.

Always nice too to get your first Garden Tiger of the year…

And Ruby Tiger…

Later that day we went down the river at Morton bridge to try out two pheromone lures. This targeted two species associated with willows and there are a couple of good patches of them here. I wasn’t expecting anything to happen but within five minutes of putting the lure up a cracking Lunar Hornet moth flew in! Looking, and sounding, just like a very large wasp it was surprisingly disconcerting even when you knew it was a moth. Unfortunately it was extremely difficult to photograph so my only image is through a dirty pot lid which hardly does it justice…

The second target was Red-tipped Clearwing and two of these striking little moths also responded immediately to the lure...

A magic half hour.

11th July 2021

Another largely birdless week but John bought two moths trap over on Friday evening for an excellent catch. One was in our neighbours’ Tom and Kirsty’s garden and one up at Ladyfield. We recorded 449 moths of 101 species. This included six new species for the parish: Marbled Beauty, House Groundling, Yellow-oak Button and (four)  Beautiful Hook-tip…

This used to be very much a southern species but is another one that has been moving progressively further north and Alan Miller caught his first in his garden in Northallerton on the same night.

The other newbies included Bordered White…

And this micro, White-backed Marble…

This is a scarce moth in this area and was actually a new species even for John.

We also caught only the second parish record of Tawny-barred Angle

Some commoner, but stunning, others included Antler...

 

And Buff Arches...

To finish off I also had a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in our garden this week feeding, as always, on Red Valerian.

4th July 2021

After  an incredibly quiet period for birds there have been a couple of records of interest this week, unfortunately none of them were seen by me! Chris texted to say there was a Cuckoo calling near Thrintoft on Monday. Depressingly this is only the second sighting this year.

Five minutes later he rang back, Turtle Dove calling there too! I heard it purring on the phone and dropped everything and ran along there (alright walked briskly). Typically no sight or sound by the time I arrived. Turtle Dove used to be a regular breeder in the parish but, like many parts of Britain, it disappeared more than thirty years ago. Intriguing to think where this bird has come from? To finish off birds I didn’t see my wife had a Hobby low over the garden yesterday.

We have managed two sessions moth trapping since I last wrote and added a couple more species to the village list. Pick of these for me was this beautiful Map-winged Swift.

Not sure where this will have come from as it is a bracken specialist.

We also had a couple of these brilliant Spectacle moths, only the second and third records we’ve had here…

Noticeably more butterflies about in the last week or so including my first records this year of Large Skipper and Small Copper…

But the most interesting butterfly was this aberrant Small Tortoiseshell with much restricted black and no dark spots on the forewing.

I don’t think the photo really captures how striking it looked but it was noticeably different even in flight at distance.

I’ll finish off with a couple of cracking species from my travels. First is ‘Albert’ the Black-browed Albatross which graced Bempton Cliffs for a couple of days this week. Not a great picture but a brilliant bird.

I saw this on the 30^th June, exactly 33 years after I failed to see one on Unst (on our honeymoon!)

And these are Military Orchids…

restricted to just a handful of sites in Britain we saw this in Suffolk on a surprise weekend away for my wife’s big birthday.