Post 432 - A Mostly Mothy and Media update

Elephant Hawkmoth - one of the biggest and brightest in my trap so far

Hey everyone today's Post 432 and was thinking about what I was going to do over the Summer Holidays and realised that I hadn't done a post in a while as I've been busy promoting my petition. I've got quite a lot to update you on. So I thought I'd start with a recap on moth trapping as it's been very exciting on this side of things as it's still quite a new activity for me!

I've been putting the moth trap out pretty much whenever I can, definitely over the recent weekends as the weather's been so much better here in Yorkshire than earlier in the year. On most nights it's been the perfect trapping weather, warm, but cloudy, and in the day, it's been the perfect insect and bird weather, sunny with no clouds! It did mean some very high temperatures though. It's been up to 36*C in some parts of England!

Well like I say, the trap's been going very well as I have got loads of new species in the garden just this week! Friday's catch for example, brought:

6 Common Footmen

Crassa unitella

5 Ribband Wave

1 Flame

1 Codling Moth

15 Chrysoteuchia culmella

1 Magpie Moth

16 Large Yellow Under-wing

2 Diamond Back Moths

3 Dark Arches Moths

The Phoenix

1 Silver-Y

1 Double Square Spot

1 Iron Prominent

1 Phoenix

2 Buff Tip

1 Pale Prominent

2 Scalloped Oaks

1 Brimstone Moth

Acleris forsskaleana - little moth, big name!

1 Crassa unitella

1 Acleris forsskaleana

1 Barred Red

2 Marbled Beauty's

1 Shark

1 Spectacle Moth

1 Clay

Barred Red

1 Elephant Hawk Moth

1 Dun Bar

1 Dot Moth

1 Dark Fruit Tree Tortix

1 Mother of Pearl 

1 Red Barred Tortix


(The ones in bold are new ones to my garden list!)

So you can see that I got quite a few species. I am going to set up a page somewhere to show all the species I get in the garden but I am also recording them on Mapmate so they can be added to the local records,

Esme in action!

A nice thing that happened this week is that I got some new technology that I've been considering for a while now. I got a new camera!! This basically means that you should be getting a lot better quality of photos once I work it out properly. It's a Cannon EOS 700D and it is a huge upgrade from my old-ish camera, the Nikon Coolpix L830 which had some good abilities, especially macro, and great quality of picture, but the Canon is just amazing even with the standard lens! I will be getting new lenses when I can afford them to improve the zoom and the macro functions. I've been testing it out on Esme as you can see in some of the photos.

And again!

It has lots of different modes (several of which I haven't worked out yet) but I mostly use the sport, macro, and Creative Auto settings. Each enabling me to get shots of different individual things.

Sport - If I'm taking a photo of something moving, such as a bird or butterfly (or Esme!).

Macro - If I'm taking photos of plants or insects, that are moving.

Creative Auto - Pretty much anything else.

But the most exciting thing that has happened his week, happened last Monday morning, from about 7:30 until 9:00.

I had another radio interview!

3 Poplar Hawk Moths!

This one was another that wasn't in the studio, but in two places, my back garden and the Forest! Joanita brought her 'Studio on wheels' to our house first to talk to me there. I had put my moth trap out (again) so there was something else to talk about. What I was surprised about was the fact that I got 2 Poplar Hawkmoths in the trap, and one on the hedge next to the trap! I had three in my garden! We'd had them before but only one at a time, so afterwards I took the opportunity to get a triple bugs eye view as you can see in the photo.

Skip to 1hr 33mins of the programme here to listen to me!

New camera is pretty good with hoverflies on the wing!

After this interview, we drove down to Silton Forest, where, because we had enough time, we walked about for half an hour to see what there was at half 8 in the morning at Silton. The answer is, a lot! We saw several species of butterfly, Meadow Browns, Green-Veined White etc, a Broad Bodied Chaser, an owl that was too fleeting to identify it fully, and several other things. In both of these interviews, the main point was all of the awards that I have been getting recently! Such as my Unsprung Hero awards and my Big Bang Awards. Aside from this, we talked about pretty much anything else to do with my blog. I had great fun talking and I'd love to do it again!

Skip to 2hrs 50mins of the programme here to listen to me!

Well, that's one update for you on some new and exciting activities. I have some interesting species to do blogs on and a big reserves challenge update to do, so watch out for more soon.

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.