Thanks Peter, I must admit I am struggling to see the upsides of work currently...I suppose it helps me to afford to do the things I want to
Glad to hear you got to see the Clouded Yellows
Cheers Wurzel, and by now you will know that after another decent few days last week, we are having yet another weekend of lousy weather. Loads of rain here Friday night and yesterday and as I write this it is lashing down again and looks to be set in for the day
Thanks Andrew, your experience of the Woodpecker by you is similar to mine in the summer but they usually start visiting the feeders around this time and through the winter months
I know what you mean David. I think that one of the effects of the internet these days is that we sometimes see stuff posted from more favoured parts of the country and forget that our own areas can be very different. For example my own patch always starts a couple of weeks later than the south-east corner and finishes a couple of weeks sooner which effectively gives me a local season that is up to a month shorter.
Sunday 14th October
As I look out of the window as I am typing this in the middle of the morning is looks like it has not got properly light yet and the heavy rain is drumming on the windows. Yesterday was similar during the morning and although the rain stopped during the afternoon and the sun attempted to break through a couple of times, the wind was blowing a gale.
All this after yet another week during which there were some nice warm sunny days...Oh well! I am working on a cunning plan which will hopefully see me taking early retirement in a couple of years so I will be more able to get out mid week a bit more.
Anyway, the mild weather last week saw me run the moth trap a couple of times in the garden, on Monday and Wednesday nights. Monday night was a bit breezy and produced total of 23 moths of 9 species (20 of 7 macro and just 3 of 2 micro). Wednesday night the breeze was lighter and produced a total of 31 moths of 10 species (27 of 8 macros and 4 of 2 micro).
Among Monday nights catch was my first Blair's Shoulder-knot for this year. I usually get a few of these each year and it is now a common and widespread species over most of the country. This species was first recorded in the UK on the Isle of Wight on 1951 and subsequently spread north steadily, reaching Warwickshire in 1978 and Scotland in 2001. This expansion was no doubt assisted by the widespread planting during the 1970s and 1980s of its larval foodplant which consists of various forms of Cypress including the infamous leylandii which was used for many a hedge or screen.
- Blair's Shoulder-knot - Coverdale 08.10.2018
Tuesday nights catch included a 'new for year' November Moth agg. This is one of three closely related and very similar species - The November Moth, Pale November Moth and The Autumnal. These three are very difficult to separate visually so are usually recorded as aggregates (agg.) unless confirmed by close examination of the genitalia. There is a fourth species, the Small Autumnal but this does not occur in Warwickshire.
- November Moth agg. - Coverdale 10.10.2018
Two more NFY's on Tuesday were Feathered Thorn and Red-line Quaker, both species which I get in small numbers at this time of year.
- Feathered Thorn - Coverdale 10.10.2018
- Red-line Quaker - Coverdale 10.10.2018
This brings this years garden moth tally up to a total of 221 species made up of 138 macros and 83 micros. There are still a number of autumn and winter flyers that I may see this year depending on the conditions and how often I put the trap out before the end of December.
Bye for now,
Neil
The last three could almost be the finished images from colouring books - just that the people had different crayons to hand 
Still at least you have the Specklies in the garden still 
