Thursday 25 August 2016

Thursday 25th August - Mostly About Moths

As readers will no doubt have guessed I'm back home in Oxford now after an uneventful journey on Saturday. Looking back on the week, as a family we all enjoyed the holiday and from a birding perspective I achieved my two main goals which were to see the Dalmation Pelican (by the skin of my teeth!) and the Hudsonian Whimbrel (finally!). It would have been nice to have managed a proper sea watch (one of these years!) and I'd have like to have seen the Little Terns but we can't have everything. I managed to see a few new plants and all in all it was a good trip.

I've been waiting before posting this last post because I had a bunch of moths from my two trapping sessions that I wanted to go through and ID. I think that I've more or less achieved this now but do let me know if you disagree with any of the ID's. The main moth de la semaine was Flounced Rustic - I got good numbers of this as well as some Square-spot Rustic and Small Square-spot Rustic. 

Flounced Rustic
There were also the usual migrant moths: Rusty-dot Pearl, Dark Sword Grass, Small Mottled Willow and Rush Veneer

Small Mottled Willow

The things that I were most interested in were some specialities of either coastal regions or the South West, especially things that I'd not seen before. These included Devonshire Wainscott, Agonopterix umbellana, Hoary Footman, Notocelia incarnatana and Delplanqueia dilutella.

Devonshire Wainscott

Hoary Footman

Notocelia incarnatana
Delplanqueia dilutella
Agonopterix umbellana (sorry for the poor photo quality)
All good stuff! So that was my August trip. Next stop is the highlight of my Cornish birding year when I'm back down in October for the peak of the birding season.

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