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

Tuesday 31 March 2015

Garden Moths


Garden Moths - GMS Week 4 Friday 27th March

Min Temp 6.7 degrees centigrade

15w Actinic Skinner Trap



Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) x 1








Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) x 1 (New for Year)





Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) x 3


Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) x 2



and I am pretty sure this is Beautiful Plume (New for Year) Amblyptilia acanthadactyla



The 2015 list for Garden Moths now stands at 10.


I have been checking my Emperor moth pupae daily. At the moment they are still outside in the Coal House as I am hoping they will emerge at the same time as those in the wild so that I can put one of the females in the garden and see if I can lure any male Emperor Moths from a local population (if one exists). I've bought them a rather expensive new cage so they have somewhere roomy to fly around in before I release them in Sutton Park which is the nearest local site that has a resident population. I do have the County Recorder's approval for this - in fact, it seems to be the release site for captive bred Emperors in Warwickshire! If all goes well and some moths do emerge I may keep just a few eggs this year to raise about 6 caterpillars. Last year I had up to 50 which was fine when they were tiny but it became very difficult to clean them out daily when they became larger.




I treated myself to some rather cute Bee socks the other day - aren't they lovely? :)








Sorry for lack of posts recently the whole family has gone down one after another with the most foul of viruses which starts with a dreadful sore throat and cough and then develops into a chest infection. Hopefully, we're now all on the mend! I shall scream if I don't get out into the countryside soon!!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for the moths! A Lovely selection. If this wind dies down here tonight I shall get the box out as it's been ages and seeing yours has made me miss them :o)

You posted before I could email and see how you were- I've not been blogging much the last couple of weeks but knew you'd been absent too. Glad all are on the mend- hopefully in time for some warmer weather! x

SeagullSuzie said...

Ooh the moths are back! Love the socks very very cute. So sorry you have all been unwell-hope it passes soon.

Ragged Robin said...

Countryside Tales - Thanks so much for your comment and good wishes. I haven't been on blogger much tbh - in fact the computer wasn't even turned on for about 4 days - an all time record apart from when we are away on holiday!!

Hope you get some good moths - too windy here at the moment to put mine out again.

SeagullSuzie - Thanks so much for your comment and good wishes. Glad you liked the moths and socks :)

I do hope your husband continues to make progress - have been thinking of you.

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

Hope you are all soon on the mend. Great socks, Love all the Moth shots.

Amanda Peters said...

Lovely moths to see, I would be interested in seeing the "tank" "cage" you have your Emperor moth pupae in, and what you put in with it. I fancy having a go at watching Butterfield/ Moth caterpillar to watch as it develops over its life span. How did you start ?
Amanda xx

The Quacks of Life said...

you have my sympathies i have come back with a cold!!

Ragged Robin said...

Margaret Adamson - Thanks Margaret for your comment and kind wishes :)

Amanda Peters - Thanks Amanda. I'll do a post showing the tank I reared them in and the fancy netting cage I've bought (they need mesh sides when they emerge to climb up and dry their wings). B was going to make one but decided in the end it was just as cheap to buy one.

The Emperor Moth eggs I was given by the County Recorder - he has hand reared them for some years.

But in the past I have collected caterpillars from nettles and hand reared those - you can use a very large sweet jar. The cage I bought last year for the Emperors wasn't very expensive - certainly less than £10. The moment when they emerge from the pupa and slowly pump up their wings is wonderful to watch.

I think too you can buy educational kits that include cage, eggs/caterpillars (the sort meant for children). Although I personally would only buy native butterflies/moths.

Pete Duxon - Hope you feel better soon Pete - looks as though you had a wonderful holiday.

Sadly, the thing we have had wasn't a cold as such. 3 weeks later son is still suffering and B was admitted to hospital with pneumonia :( A particularly nasty bug :(

Stewart said...

Good luck with the Emperor Caroline, I caught one in the garden in 2010 and have not seen one since!

Ragged Robin said...

Amanda Peters - Follow up to previous comment :) On reflection, if you are just going to raise a few caterpillars you might be able to get away with a large icecream container covered in clingfilm. I had to buy a container for the Emperors because the caterpillars became huge and I had so many! :) Will do a post anyway in a day or so and show the two cages.

Ragged Robin said...

Stewart - Thanks so much Stewart - am really excited as I have never seen one - just hope some do actually emerge!!!

They are pretty scarce in Warwickshire - there is the colony in Sutton Park and occasional (more historic) sightings suggest they may occur in low densities in South Warwickshire. I very much doubt if I will attract a male if I put a female in the garden but who knows :) It will be exciting to see :)

Grosmontine said...

Great to see the moths again, especially the Oak Beauty which certainly lives up to its name. I think you are right about the Beautiful Plume as well, a moth we seem to get in good numbers up here in Yorkshire early in the season.

Ragged Robin said...

David Turner - Thanks so much David - good to hear from you and I hope you are well and soon be moving back into your cottage.

The Oak Beauty is rather lovely - I only caught my first last year but this year have had two already :)

Thanks so much for the confirmation re: Beautiful Plume.