Moth Night - Aug. 24th (UPDATED)

It was a mild, calm night turning quite chilly for the last couple of hours. There were eight attending including a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable young chap called Edward accompanied by his dad.

I counted 51 species on the night but Barry may have others.

UPDATE: Highlight for myself was the Gelechiid - Elm Groundling (Carpatolechia fugitivella). A typically plain species which needed it's bits dissecting.

 

This smart looking Grey Poplar Bell (Epinotia nisella) is of the form decorana which is new to all of us I suspect.

This Marbled Piercer (Cydia splendana) had me going for a while before it took  up a more relaxed posture a revealed it's true identity.

A female Dusky Thorn which was a photo lifer for me and looks laden with eggs in that plump abdomen.

One of a few Rosy Rustics that turned up late in to the night (morning).

A rather tatty Mouse Moth which is stated to be common but it's the first one I've ever seen so maybe not so common in our neck of the woods.

THE FULL LIST (ALL ADULTS)

Ypsolopha parenthesella

Argyresthia goedartella

White-shouldered House Moth

Brown House Moth

Carpatolechia fugivitella

Mompha raschkiella x 2

Blastobasis adustella

Light Brown Apple Moth

Apotomis betuletana

Celypha lacunana

Ancylis badiana

Epinotia nisella x 1

Cydia splendana x 1

Mother of Pearl

Agriphila tristella

Crambus pascuella x 1

Water Veneer x c10

Small China Mark

Pebble Hook-tip x 1

Riband Wave

Blood-vein x 3

Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet x 1

Yellow Shell

July Highflier x 1

Chevron x 1

Small Phoenix

Clouded Border

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Dusky Thorn x 1

Mottled Beauty

Iron Prominent x 2

Lesser Swallow Prominent x 1

Pale Prominent x 1

Straw Dot

Buff Footman

Copper Underwing agg. x 3

Rosy Rustic x 4

Flounced Rusic x 4 (Not Confused as thought)

Sallow

Angle-striped Sallow x 2

Smoky Wainscot

Flame Shoulder x 1

Large Yellow Underwing  one or two :-)

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Square Spot Rustic

Setaceous Hebrew Character.

There maybe omissions (or spelling mistakes :-)

Moth Night

This Saturday, August 24th from 8.30pm onwards - Bring a torch!

Weather is looking good for it with the promise of a hot day beforehand.

Cromwell Skylarks

Moth Night 10th Aug

Yes - trapping session, this Saturday night - I think 8.30pm onwards arrivals may be in order now.

Bring a torch.

Red Underwings

After finishing my Terrapin capture duties I set off home only to see these two roosting Red Underwings about 10 + 15 feet high up on Crowther Bridge as viewed from the towpath. I gave one a nudge with a stick to see if it would flash it's brilliant red underwings but it just took of and landed in almost the same spot. Super moths and a first for myself.

Nest Box Success 2019

In spring this year I was fortunate to spend a few weeks of my usual volunteering days on Thursday's helping Steve Downing open up our nest boxes on the reserve and, where appropriate, ring the chicks. Steve is a licensed ringer and we are fortunate that he is willing to spend time on our reserve doing this valuable work. To be ringed, the chicks have to be fairly close to fledging so the period that they are available for ringing in each nest is quite short and this required multiple visits to each nest box. Even with these we still managed to miss the ringing window for some of the boxes. 

We managed to find a total of 52 nest boxes. The summary of our findings is:

1) We ringed a total of 99 blue tit chicks in 12 nest boxes.

2) We ringed a total of 27 great tit chicks in 5 boxes.

3) 8 further nest boxes successfully fledged blue or great tits.

4) The percentage of nest boxes that were successful was 48%.

5) A further 17% of the nest boxes showed signs of attempted breeding.

Hi everyone I would like to thank all the volunteers for there help last week in the organisation, setting up and of course on the day for making it another special Open Day .
Apologies to all those who came expecting the Birds of  Prey display unfortunately it was out of our control and we wish Kevin a speedy recovery from his operation.
I’m sure you will all agree the weather gods were with us and I hope you all enjoyed your day ,we hope to see you all next year  .yours Graham

Pictures from our Open Day 2019

Once again we were blessed with fine warm weather. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Badger Group, Animal petting, Soft toys, Pencil holders, original paintings, raffle, walking sticks, face painting, bird feeders and animal skeletons, pond dipping, guided walks were all there. (I must have missed something). Yes I have missed the Cabin which provided tea, coffee, soft drinks, cakes, ice creams, chocolates and crisps, all provided by our splendid volunteers.

More pictures HERE

Open Day 2019 this Saturday August 3rd

Our Annual Open Day is here! This Saturday. We know that many of our volunteers bring cakes etc. Whilst we are very grateful for this may we respectfully remind you that we are not allowed to serve fresh cream. Please do not bring sausage rolls. Thank You.
< < < <    Click our poster on the left for full info.