Moth Bonanza

Wednesday October 17

Happy Birthday Pauline and Jim.

What a day. It started with an early trap opening ( 88 of 30+ species, Large Wainscot, Autumnal Rustic and Blair’s Shoulder-knot were new for the site) so that we could leave for Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory at 9ish. They tend to open the first moth traps at about 10. Now that we know the area a little better, we drove a few miles before programming the SatNav, and were taken on a much more relaxing drive than on Monday. No single track at all.

We arrived at 10.15 to find Stefan on the second trap already. He’d potted the ones he thought we’d be interested to see. Oak Rustic, L Album Wainscot, Feathered Brindle, Gem and a putative Archer’s Dart were all new for us. The latter might be a Spalding Dart only recorded once previously and in the west country. This Dart’s underwings are plain white – as are Spalding’s !  We’ll see.

Archer’s Dart

Feathered Brindle - a south coast speciality

Gem - top moth- photobombed by a Loonie

L Album Wainscot

L Album Wainscot

After a short foray to the bird ringing shed where there was a sizeable audience but, they were nearly finished, having started at a similar time. House Sparrows, Siskin and Blackcaps were the day’s catch. Not much movement at the moment. Unlike the moths which were blown north by the hot southerly  weather plume from North Africa.

Back to watch Andrew opening his moth trap before leaving for Dungeness, sixty seven minutes drive away via Dover. 
Pam’s never been to Dover. The view from the top of the hill as one drops down to the port is stunning. White cliffs on the right, enormous cross channel ferries anchored at the end of jetties, everything orderly and neatly laid out. No way could we stop to take photos.

Someone was definitely in at Dungeness Bird Obs. to-day. Two men inspected a moth trap roadside, four others sat in the small back yard.  Announcing on the pager that  they’d trapped a Beautiful Marbled will have been an incentive. We’d planned to come anyway before the message. Thanks Mike for making sure we hadn’t missed it. Mike had also seen the Clifden Nonpareil found at Natural Surroundings later yesterday. Good.

The warden of the last fifteen years, David, greeted us in the tiny yard, asking if one of us was Anne. Yes indeed. He’d been hoping we’d come to-day and had both kept the traps full and potted those he thought we’d be interested in seeing. The others left and we started searching through the treasure trove. Top of the list was the stunning Beautiful Marbled, The Streak, Gem, Clancy’s Rustic (Giles and Judy also had the latter on the Isle of Wight), and our first Vestals of the year. Seeing us photographing, David suggested that we take the interesting moths through to the porch where he’d set out a lump of wood as a background. And……….told us to take them out of the pot !! We only lost two (!!) but he soon caught them again.

Clancy’s Rustic

Beautiful Marbled

The Streak - unusual pose, shown as tented in books

Vestal

Palpita vitrealis

We'd already trapped a Palpita vitrealis at our cottage. This was the third after Andy's catch earlier this year.
Good to hear a Chiffchaff’s cheerful call from the nearby bushes.

After suitably effusive thanks, a very overwhelmed pair left for the RSPB reserve, where we could sit with a cup of coffee whilst reviewing the day’s moths.

Seeing the little train at the far station  again, a red engine to-day, we stationed ourselves at a level crossing and waited forty minutes. I read the paper and we both relaxed. I was happy with my photographic efforts, looked really good through the viewfinder – until I reviewed the results and up came the message ‘’no card’’.  I’d not done my usual programming where I set the camera to not work if the card is missing. Ah well.

We had sought permission to drive the Denge Marshes track again, hoping to see the eight Cattle Egrets present. I also wanted to try out my old 150-600mm lens on my new camera. The latter was a mixed success, not good at the upper limit in even reasonable Autumn light. Not bad at 400mm for some rapid flight shots of a Magpie chasing a Kestrel.

A Green Woodpecker called, before perching at the top of a bush, Water Rail squealed from the reeds and an occasional Great Egret flew majestically past. Waiting for the roost is tempting but, we were tired.