Nick Patel's Wildlife Blog

Mothing season is upon us once more! And with some decent weather and dry spells it has been the perfect time to put out the trap in the garden at nights.

We've been trying out different techniques, locations in the garden and even different traps to entice a different array of Moths down to the trap.

Nothing out of the ordinary and no Hawkmoths as we've been trying to find, however a good collection nonetheless. Pictures below are of several Moths caught over the last couple weeks on seperate Mothing ocassions:

Common marbled carpet

Unidentified sp.

Coxcomb prominent

Orange swift

Possibly a Spruce carpet?

Brimstone

Pug sp.

Another Pug sp.

Bright line brown eye moth

Small angle shades

Heart and dart moth

Buff ermine

Flame shoulder

Unidentified sp.

Common carpet (i think?)

Flame carpet

Peppered moth

Monday saw me and my dad take a trip up to the Silverdale AONB. It was a warm day but the sun we wanted didn't quite show itself through the day, this however did not prove too much of a hinderence in seeing plenty of wildlife on the trip.

All in all we visited Gait barrows NNR, Haweswater nature reserve, Meathop moss and Foulshaw moss.

Gait barrows:

we arrived at gait barrows in the morning just as we thought the sun was rising, it was warming up but we didn't realise the sun would not show itself much for the rest of the day. This was a dampener as we had made the journey up here to look for some key species of butterfly out at this time of year at this very special national nature reserve, in particular Duke of Burgundy and Pearl bordered fritillary.

From the car park to the main spot (where we have seen both the key species before) we noticed only Green veined whites flying and this straight away pointed out to us that it wasn't going to be our day to see these special butterflies this year. In the end i think it was a mixture of the fact the sun wasn't out enough to entice them to fly but also and mainly, the fact that 2012 was such a bad year for butterflies with the weather there wasn't much hope of seeing many or any this year.

There was still plenty of Flora and Fauna to see with many flowering plants out, such as Early purple orchids, many Primula species and lots of nice newly shooting trees, particularly Elm and Hornbeam. We even managed to find the shoots of the newly planted Lady's slipper orchid plants on the reserve but we were too early to see them flowering. Lots of Birdlife about as well, for instance Warblers and Bullfinches and Green woodpeckers.

Orange tip

Early-purple orchid

Haweswater:

Carrying on the walk at Gait barrows we walked down to Haweswater. Haweswater is a small natural lake just south of Gait barrows which is home to a rare plant, Bird's eye primrose. I have seen this lovely, small, delicate flower before at Hale moss, also in the Silverdale AONB, a few years ago, but wanted to see it again for we were in the area near enough to it's flowering time.

We arrived at the lake shore, where the grassy, boggy margins were perfect habitat for the Primrose and after a short while we noticed some new plants growing. These were very small however and without flowers, so we thought we were too early, but then we noticed further down the path in the grass, some lovely, nearly fully grown plants with great full flowers on them. A real treat of a flower to see and a rare one at that.

Black bog rush

Dad photographing Bird's eye primrose

Bird's eye primrose

Meathop moss:

Next was Meathop moss where we were glad to, upon arrival, even in the overcast weather, find tens of butterflies flying. Firstly Orange tips and Green veined whites near the car park, then on the moss itself, quite a few Green hairstreak which was nice. Walking down through the center of the moss we came across several small Moths (no Emperors though) and many beetle species. We also, as planned, came across an Adder very briefly before it shuffled away into the grasses. Tree pipits were singing all over the reserve.

Meathop moss

Cotton grass

Bog rosemary

Beetle sp. (any help?)

Green hairstreak

Adder (can you spot it!?)

Foulshaw moss:

Upon arrival at Foulshaw the sun had well and truly disappeared behind light clouds and it was cooler, but we persevered and through the fairly average weather we still managed to see plenty, all it takes is patience, persistence and perseverance! Birdlife was most notable on site. The usual Ospreys were visible at the nest in the distance. We had excellent views of 3 Birds here last year but this year it was just a distant view but still nice to know they're back. Not far from the Ospreys a distant Hobby perched on a Scots pine. A Cuckoo was heard calling throughout our visit, which was nice as this was our first of the year. There were many Redpoll about showing displays and a pair of Stonechat was a nice treat considering their recent demise in numbers UK throughout.

Insect life was still quite decent regardless of the lack in sunshine. Green hairstreaks showed well, on and off. Small tortoiseshells were flying everywhere. Also Common lizards were out in good numbers as is expected at Foulshaw but none of the usual Slow worms were showing themselves today. In the distance with a small flock of Red deer a striking Albino Red deer stag was seen.