Moths in trap 25 June 2010

Here's the list of moths etc in our 80W MV Skinner trap on overnight on 25 June 2010. Any suggestions for the photos below very welcome.
* means first sighting here.

Previously on 19 June, I trapped an Elephant Hawkmoth for the first time.

Common Swift x 1
Silver-ground Carpet x 10
Spectacle x 7
Map-winged Swift x 2
The Flame x 1
Peach Blossom x 1
Beautiful Golden Y x 7
Small Magpie x 1
Flame Shoulder x 2
Gray Dagger sp x 1
Coronet x 1
Double-square Spot x 1
* Garden Tiger x 1
Poplar Hawkmoth x 1
* Buff Ermine x 1
Green Carpet x 1
Heart and Dart x 1
* Marbled Minor x 4
* ? Tawny Marbled Minor x 2
Dark Arches x 2
Pale-shouldered Brocade x 2
* Lychnis x 1
Brimstone x 1

Green Carpet

Grey Dagger sp

Marbled Minor

Lychnis moth

Double Square Spot

Buff Ermine

Map-winged Swift

Garden Tiger

?Tawny Marbled Minor

Elephant Hawkmoth

Moths in trap 3 June 2010

Here's the list of moths etc in our 80W MV Skinner trap on overnight last night. Any suggestions for the photos below very welcome. Thx again to Liz at CumbriaMoths for her help.
* means first sighting here.

I got a Swallow Prominent moth for the first time. I left it in a specimen tube overnight - by morning it had laid some eggs. We decided to try to rescue them. Willow is one of the larvae host plants, so we used PVA glue to stick the eggs to the underside of some leaves on two different willow trees. We've marked some of the leaves with wool.

Cockchafer x 1
Brimstone x 1
Silver Y x 1
Flame Shoulder x 1
Spectacle x 4
Lunar Thorn x 1
Flame Carpet x 1
Common Carpet x 3
White Ermine x 1
* Swallow Prominent x 1
Knot Grass x 3
Common White Wave x 1
Grey Dagger sp x 1
Coronet x 1
Brown silver-line x 1
Pale-shouldered Brocade x 6
Scalloped Hazel x 1
Spruce Carpet x 1
* Alder Moth x 2
* Clouded-bordered Brindle x 1
Foxglove pug x 1

Clouded-bordered Brindle

Common White Wave

Grey Dagger sp

Spruce Carpet

Alder Moth

Pug2

Foxglove Pug

Pale-shouldered Brocade

Swallow Prominent

Pug3

Lake View bird report for May 2010

I'd just moved one of the bird boxes onto a tree in the open visible from the kitchen window. On the 1st, we had a pair of Redstarts investigating the box, but they didn't stay; they have nested a few years ago in our garage but not this year. We were pleased when a pair of Spotted flycatchers found the box later in the month and seem to be setting up camp there. Again, we've had them before in a different location under the spruce trees.

Caz' ear is definitely getting 'in' as she identified a Garden warbler here, a first for us. She also spotted a Goldcrest family with newly fledged young out and about at the end of the month. Nice to see after the cold winter.

We don't seem to have had Kestrels nesting at the nearby barn this year which is a shame. We had one Tawny Owl roosting in our spruces until the middle of the month, and one sighting at the end.

We had a trip to Dodd Wood to see the Ospreys for the first time. The eggs hadn't hatched but we caught a brief changeover at the nest. We also saw a cuckoo for the first time as we peered down from the top of the Dodd. A nice pair of Jays around. I wore shorts and had to pick off 4 ticks in the next day or two.

I managed a brief walk on the Pennine Way near Alston with Freegle Ed on his way to John O'Groats. There were nice views of Lapwings, probably a Common sandpiper, and nice river-side plants.

The Tawny Owl pellet analysis for April 2010 showed Brown rat appearing in the species list, amongst 31 prey items in 19 pellets. The list in order is: Field vole, Bank vole, Wood mouse, Brown rat, Common shrew, Large bird and Amphibian.

The linked table below shows the maximum count of each bird species seen primarily in our back garden near Bampton Cumbria in NY51 VC69 (and in our surrounding 1km square) in the period from November 2007 until May 2010, with a total count of 48 species.

Full Lake View Monthly Max Bird Count Seen table

Species	May-10
Blackbird	2
Blue tit	2
Brambling
Bullfinch
Buzzard	1
Carrion crow	1
Chaffinch	3
Coal tit	2
Collared dove
Curlew
Dunnock	2
Fieldfare
Garden Warbler	1
Goldcrest	6
Goldfinch	5
Great spotted woodpecker	2
Great tit	2
Greenfinch	2
Grey heron
Jackdaw	4
Jay
Kestrel
Lapwing
Linnet	2
Long-tailed tit
Magpie	2
Mistle thrush	1
Nuthatch
Pheasant	9
Pied wagtail
Redstart	2
Redwing
Reed bunting
Robin	1
Siskin	2
Skylark
Song thrush	1
Sparrowhawk
Spotted flycatcher	2
Starling
Stock dove	4
Swallow	6
Swift
Tawny owl	1
Willow warbler	1
Woodpigeon	1
Wren	1
Yellowhammer
Total: 48	29