The Rarity Buzz

There are many ways that time spent birding can be elevated from 'a nice walk with bins' to another level entirely. Brilliant views of a favourite species can do it; some engaging and unusual behaviour perhaps, or a lively bit of passage. And for me, chancing upon a scarce or rare bird is always a winner. Mmmm...the rarity buzz. Heady stuff.

I've discovered that mothing is similar. And when it comes to the rarity buzz, the sheer number of moth species inevitably increases the potential opportunities to experience it. What is more, you are not limited only to migrant species. For example, let me introduce you to the rarest moth I've caught in a while...

This unspectacular little micro is less than 6mm long. Caught on Saturday evening.

The Dorset Moth Group uses a facility called Living Record to collate the county's moth records. By accessing the distribution map for any given species you instantly get an idea of its status within the county. Here is the Living Record map for Lampronia morosa in Dorset...

That colourful dot near West Lulworth represents a single record!

As far as I am aware, Living Record only goes back around 20 years or so (and I doubt it's an exhaustive representation even then) but it certainly provides an excellent overview. So, Lampronia morosa is definitely a rare moth in Dorset. Even better, a quick trawl through several other county moth group websites suggests that it is pretty rare everywhere. In fact the species is officially designated 'Nationally Scarce'. On top of this, the larvae feed on roses (wild and cultivated) and I caught it with a net (that's another story for another post!) next to the garden's new wildlife hedge, which contains Dog Rose. So it is quite feasible that this rare moth is breeding in our garden!

Later that same evening I spotted a small geometrid moth dive into the trap shortly after dark, and in the morning extracted this...

Grass Rivulet

I didn't recognise it, but soon worked out the ID. Imagine my surprise when I checked the Living Record map and saw a big blank space around Bridport...

No Bridport area records at all, and those blue dots at nearby Charmouth and Beaminster represent a single record each; the Portland dot represents three.

There are some extremely keen, active moth folk in the Bridport area, so I know this is a very decent record indeed. The larvae feed on Yellow Rattle seeds, a plant which is apparently having a good year locally, so perhaps Grass Rivulet will benefit too. In the meantime I shall luxuriate in the rarity buzz.

Finally, the last four days' mothing in pictures...

First Brussels Lace of the year. A beautiful moth.

Left to right: slightly abberrant Heart & Dart, Heart & Club, standard Heart & Dart.

The delicate Cream Wave - new for the garden.

Common Swift. Perhaps surprisingly, new for the garden.

Freyer's Pug. Caught just one of these last year, also in June.

Mottled Pug. New for the garden. Pugs are notoriously tricky, and I'm pretty sure I recently misidentified a couple of these as very worn Oak-tree Pugs. I know better now!

A nice, easy micro.

Not so easy. Another garden first, and very similar to Notocelia rosaecolana, which featured a couple of posts back. Hopefully I've got it right.

There is a look-alike, but the coppery fringes clinch this one.

New for the garden. Caught last night. What a cracker!

Common, but striking.

Blair's Mocha #3 for 2023.

Shoulder-striped Wainscot. Caught just one last year. A beautifully-marked moth.

Another one netted from our hedge. A couple of days ago I caught two, but they just would not keep still for a photo. Amazingly this one cooperated brilliantly, though I dared not tap it out of the pot! This is about the best my camera can do with 3.5mm of moth!

Needless to say, the trap will be out again tonight, and so will the net! I am up to at least 139 species for the year so far (including 5 aggregates) and am confident of one or two more by morning. It is fair to say that birds have taken a back seat for the moment...

In the Absence of Data

It is hard to argue with good data. Exactly what that data means might be up for discussion, but numbers alone can usually tell you something at least. For example, Barn Owl has been a regular feature of my nocmig activities here in sunny Bridport. I didn't keep accurate records in 2020 (my first year) but Barn Owl featured 'often', let's say. However, I do know that the species occured 125 times in 2021 and 81 times in 2022. This year I have been recording at a similar effort level, and have thus far tallied ZERO Barn Owls.

I don't know what that data means exactly, but I do not sense a success story.

Two weeks on Jersey in the latter half of May would not have been my choice of holiday, but it was a family affair, not a birding trip. We were based in the north east of the island, and I did manage to squeeze in a fair bit of local birding by just walking from our cottage. But honestly, I have never been more disappointed. It was dire. There were strikingly few birds, especially away from the coast. Worse still, it was a struggle to find insects, and looking for them became a bit of a thing. Scanning hedgerows, clumps of umbellifers; bashing bushes to see what might be dislodged; anything to try and stir up some life. The farmland was decorated with loads of nice-looking hedges, mature trees, lush verges...but depressingly few creepy-crawlies. Was the cold, late spring responsible? Or something more sinister?

A visit to the west side of the island, including the wetland reserve at St Ouen's Pond, was better...

Marsh Harriers were a constant presence. Always nice.

Loose-flowered Orchid was an unexpected plant tick

A couple of pink ones

Main highlight of the jaunt out west was a splendid reptile tick...

Western Green Lizard, a surprisingly hefty beast.

Prior to the trip I had done no research re the Channel Islands Nat Hist, and to my shame had been unaware even that Short-toed Treecreepers live there (didn't see any!) so the orchid and lizard ticks were a nice bonus. Neither made up for the lack of life elsewhere though...

Very lush, but pathetically few insects...

Spent a few minutes scanning this pretty meadow. A couple of bees and a hoverfly sp was about it...

St Catherine's Wood was a short walk away, and four visits in search of Short-toed Treecreeper and Red Squirrel produced neither, but I did see a Firecrest...

Firecrest in St Catherine's Wood, Jersey.

All the above opinions about dearth and direness are based on no data at all, just a gut feeling. I have no numbers, and therefore no real evidence. All I can say is that I will never choose Jersey for a birding holiday!

A Black-headed Wagtail was discovered at St Ouen's Pond shortly after our visit to it, and it struck me that this little oasis of life, with its plentiful insects, breeding Lapwings and flashy flava, would give a very misleading impression of Jersey birding if it was the only place you visited. It made me wonder if a similarly distorted view of the state of our countryside might be possible if you only go to the 'good' bits?

There are a lot of 'good' bits where I live, and I continue to stumble across unexpected surprises from time to time. A couple of days ago I wandered up the river valley from home, as I have many times before. A recently-cut field (silage?) had been deliberately left unshorn on one side. The reason? These, I guess...

Hundreds and hundreds of orchids - Southern Marsh I think...

...including some whoppers.

I had no idea this beautiful display of orchids was on my doorstep. Of course, such delights do make you wonder just what the countryside would be like if less of it was in such a dreadful state...

My Twitter feed is a depressing litany of ecological vandalism, declining populations of this and that, and so on. Lovely - albeit insignificant - discoveries like the one above do cheer me up a bit, but there is no doubt in my mind where it's all headed, data or not...

A First Anniversary

Last Friday: back home after fortnight on Jersey.

Saturday evening: first paragraphs of thoughtful, witty, erudite blog post...will undoubtedly be best thing I've ever written.

Sunday: change mind about quality of last night's words. Ditch them.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, much of today: way too much work for a bloke my age.

Every single morning: bleary-eyed inspection of moth trap at stupid o'clock.

I now have a splendid farmer's tan, massive sleep debt and a rake of unpublished moth photos. So I've decided to treat this current dose of writer's block by celebrating my first year of moth trapping. Exactly 12 months ago today, my little bucket trap was deployed in the garden for the first time. It is out there now, ready for action once more...

We have had some good times together, that moth trap and me. It has opened my eyes to another world, a world where the mildly obsessive, addictive tendancies that make me very bad at completing DIY jobs can run wild and free. And I love it!

So here is a generous selection of the gifts it has given me lately...

Pebble Prominent. This one caught prior to our trip to Jersey, and there have been a few others since.

Buff-tip, the 'broken twig' moth.

First Mocha of the year. Lovely scribbled markings.

Treble Lines. Not sure how this moth got its name.

Pebble Hook-tip.

A really well-marked Common Pug.

Common Marbled Carpet. A variable moth, and we've already had a few different versions.

May Highflyer. Caught in May. Appropriate.

Pale Mottled Willow. A nice example of how a 'boring' brown moth is actually not, when you look closely.

Mottled Rustic ditto, with those caramel streaks.

Two Mochas with my morning coffee on 29th May. Heady stuff!

With 2000+ micros on offer, new moths for the garden are frequently from that category, with all the ID challenges that go with it.

Orange Footman. One of three caught on 28th/29th. No others yet.

Another new micro. Pretty common apparently.

Introduced from North America with its foodplant, this moth has been in the UK for 25+ years now. This is our second, after one last year. Just a handful of Bridport area records so far.

We caught one of these beasties last year too.

Buff Long-horn living up to its English name, with those crazy antennae.

'Checking the moth trap' isn't just checking the moth trap. Many a fine moth has been discovered stuck to various items of garden furniture etc, like this Pale Tussock.

Before my time as a moth botherer, Blair's Mocha was a scarce migrant only, but there is evidently now a well-established population in the Bridport area - we get loads more records of this subtle beauty than any other part of Dorset.

The larvae of Aphomia sociella (Bee Moth) feed on the comb inside bee and wasp nests. Cool. Caught a few of these now.

Possibly the 'rarest' recent moth, though an adventive species, imported with its foodplants. Appears to be a first for Bridport, with just a few other records in West Dorset. I love this characterful little family of 'tripod moths'.

Caught a few of these last year, but this is the first of 2023.

Ditto above.

Not all Mint Moths are purple and gold!

Caught two of these last year. Not many local records. Tiny, but quite easy to ID.

Another Blair's Mocha. Just because...

Vine's Rustic. Common right now.

Small Square-spot. Common, but this is the first of 2023. Last year I didn't catch any until autumn I think - the second generation.

Treble Brown Spot - a garden first.

Small Dusty Wave. Only caught two last year, but that figure already matched in 2023.

Brown Silver-line. Not uncommon, but only a single to our garden last year. Nice to see it again.

A tricky one to ID, with at least one very similar congener. Hopefully I've got it right.

Not as common as you'd think a so-called 'clothes moth' ought to be! Caught two last year, but there appear to be <10 records in the Bridport area.

Puss Moth. What a magnificent creature! A garden first, and highlight of last night's catch.

So, that's it. The first blog post in a while, and uncompromisingly mothy. I'm not sure quite how many species our garden has produced in this first year of trapping, but hopefully I'll get around to working that out. The 2023 tally stands at 111 (plus 5 aggregates) - I expect two weeks out in the latter half of May has cost me a few species!