30 Days Wild:Days 8 & 9 - Swallows & yes, More Moths ;)

                                                     

   A double day blog for these two days, linked by setting up the Moth trap on Day 8 and emptying it on Day 9. I will get back to the Moth trap in a bit, but first earlier in Day 8 I had a 15 minute bug hunt around the garden.
  A few Bees were out and about.

  Also found one of the larger weevils, the Vine Weevil, considered a garden pest but love the markings.

  Flies are not my favourite species but I love the colour of this Greenbottle Fly.

  Found this couple of 14 Spot Ladybirds doing their best to increase the Invertebrate population of our garden, not sure why the Ant was watching though lol :)

  I tried hard to find some Arachnids but this was the only Garden Spider I could find, the usual Zebra Jumping Spiders that frequent the house wall were nowhere to be seen.

  Okay so back to the Moth trap, I got my Skinner trap set up around 9.30pm, went indoors and rechecked it about 11pm.There were already plenty of Light Brown Apple Moths about and also the first Small Magpies of the year.

  Another moth that seem to turn up in good numbers early on were the Heart & Darts, 12 in total.

  The only other arrival before bedtime was the first Sandy Carpet of the year too.

  An early 5.00am start to empty the trap on Day 9 to see what new attendees were in my trap.

The stunning White Ermine and Buff Ermine were there along with a Small Rivulet and a Brimstone.

White Ermine

Buff Ermine

Small Rivulet

Brimstone

  I managed an hour back in bed before getting back up for work, on such a nice day too :( We did manage to have a lunch break in Barton-Upon-Humber so shared it with the locals.We bought seed from the Waters Edge centre, I didn't share my actual lunch with them. ;)

Coot relaxing in the sun.

  While driving through another nearby village, Wootton which has a village pond we decided to stop and spend 10 minutes there.The gorgeous water lillies were covering a large portion of the pond.

  It was then we noticed the Swallows swooping down to the water surface to drink or take flies.

  Even while at work most people should be able to take just 5 minutes out and spend that time connecting with Nature instead of being attached to their phone(unless they're using it to take a photo of wildlife ;)).

  Apologies for the lengthy blog, it seemed to carry on longer than I first thought so thank you for sticking with it ;)

30 Days Wild:Day 6 - A Walk In The Yorkshire Sun

                                                                  

  It was a very warm , sunny day in Yorkshire so we headed over to YWT Potteric Carr for a mixture of bird watching and bug hunting.

First Bug of the day, a Green Shieldbug

  Around the ponds there were lots of Dragonflies, all Four-spotted Chasers.Majella took this photo of me taking the photos below.

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  Lots of birds were heard but not seen including Blackcaps and a Cuckoo.Viewing was easier at the Willow Pool Feeding station.

  A couple of young Coots.

    A Magpie that had decided the original holes in the feeder were not to his liking lol

  The water in the Mother Drain was beautifully clear as usual , no Grass Snakes there this time but nice to have good views of the Roach and Perch.

  Butterflies on the wing included Brimstones, Large Whites, Orange Tips and Speckled Woods.This Speckled Wood looking a bit worse for wear.

  Walking down a trail I noticed a lot of movement in the nearby vegetation and was excited to see newly fledged Willow Warblers, 4 of them with an Adult.

    Plenty of other birds around such s Grey Herons, Tufted Ducks, Moorhen, Black-headed Gulls, Greylag & Canada Geese.

  Female Mallard, you can see the meaning "water off a Duck's back" ;) (photo by Majella Fox)

  Mute Swan

  We were hoping to see a Bittern fly by but no luck so had to be happy just watching this Marsh Harrier hunting over the reed beds.

  A few photos of different parts of the reserve.

  So overall a fantastic 3 hour walk around part of YWT Potteric Carr and worth all the (now itchy) Midge bites lol Something that really ended the walk on a high was a Mammal encounter on the access road back to the centre.Unfortunately I didn't get a photo but it was a Common Shrew rummaging in the grass at the edge of the road, amazing to see :)

  Thanks again for taking the time to check out my blog, lots more to come over the next 3+ weeks.

30 Days Wild:Day 4 - Moths In the Garden

  Day 4 meant getting up at 5.30am to empty the garden Moth trap.It is always an exciting time as you never know what you're going to get, a bit like a box of chocolates as Forrest Gump said and indeed I did get one in the form of this stunning Chocolate Tip moth(non-edible) ;)

  The massive influx from France of Diamond-back Moths had not missed our area as I found over 30 in the trap.

  One of my favourite moths was hiding among the egg trays, the Peach Blossom.

  The furry front end of the Pale Tussock.

  A few more moths from the trap.
Scalloped Hazel

  Flame Shoulder

Treble Lines

Bee Moth

Spectacle

Clouded Bordered Brindle

Phtheochroa Rugosana

  I also had Shears, Dark Barred twin-spot, Garden carpet, Scalloped Hook Tip, Cream Wave, Bright Line Brown Eye  and a lot of Light Brown Apple Moths.

  It's also that time of year you get non-mothy wildlife in the trap and one of the regular visitors are the Garden Cockchafers.

  If you do not have your own moth trap yet but want one you can buy them from quite a few online places.

I got mine from Paul at http://www.pwbelg.clara.net/mercury/index.html

  If you cannot afford one at the moment then you can just try with an outside light directed at a white bed sheet hung out or try sugaring with a syrup, brown sugar, wine and beer mixture.The extra wine comes in handy while waiting for the moths to arrive ;)

  It is well worth it to see what moth species you have in your garden.I have recorded nearly 200 so far in my garden in North Lincolnshire.

There will be more Moths later in the month as I will be taking my trap down to Pembrokeshire and also running at Gigrin Red Kite Station :)

  Thanks again for browsing my photos and reading through the blogs :)