Waxwing

Waxwing
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

From "Auguries of Innocence"

by William Blake

Wednesday 21 March 2012

More Worn Moth LBJ's!

Belatedly a brief post on moths trapped last weekend. The minimum temperature was minus 1.0 degrees centigrade so it was a surprise to find a few moths in the trap.

One was a nicely marked Hebrew Character but the other two were well worn noctuids looking remarkably similar at first glance (well, to me at least!)




I am pretty sure this is a Small Quaker but please leave a comment if I am wrong!



This particular individual is even harder! I thought Chestnut at first but a look at the Moth "bible" and various websites have revised that provisional id and I think it may be Clouded Drab.

Edit - many thanks to Stewart and Dean for correcting my id - this one is a Common Quaker!



Any correction of above id's would, as always, be very welcome!

Summary of Moths Trapped Sunday, 18th March, 2012
(GMS Week 3)

6.30 p.m. until dawn

Minimum temperature -1.0 degrees centigrade

15w Actinic Skinner Trap

Hebrew Character x 1

Small Quaker x 1 (NFY)

plus

Clouded Drab?? x 1

Edit Common Quaker x 1 (not Clouded Drab!)



Moth Species 2012 = 8


I was in North Warwickshire today so I stopped off in an area of huge "prairie" type fields where I have seen hares in the past. No sign today and the only birds around were crows, blackbirds, wood pigeons, black-headed gulls and pheasants together with a pair of yellowhammers (my first sighting this year).

4 comments:

Stewart said...

Hi Caroline, you are right with Small Q but your Drab looks more like a Common Quaker? They can be tricky. I find Drabs have a Greyish tone to them somewhere?

Rohrerbot said...

oooo....you should take pictures of the pheasants:) Please please please?:) I would love to see those birds in the wild. It's interesting that moths have a better tolerance to cold than butterflies. I thought of you the other day when we introduced the Atlas Moth into our butterfly house on Saturday. All the Moth people came out of the closet and drooled over this piece of art:)

Anonymous said...

Small Quaker it is, Caroline. And the other one is a Common Quaker.

Ragged Robin said...

Stewart and Dean - many, many thanks to you both for coming to my rescue again!! (I think I need to attend a moth id course :D!)I will edit the post. As always your help is really appreciated.

Chris - Sorry about lack of pheasant photo - it was right in the middle of the field and, even though I had camera with 70-300 lens with me, it was too far away to take a picture. However, I have found one I took a year ago so I'll post it in just a minute!

Atlas moths are beautiful (saw some once in one of the "Butterfly World" type places.) Certainly easier to id than my noctuids!