Start of the autumn at IGC – or is it still summer!?

What a strange year we are having. Winter in Spring, wet cool start to summer followed by drought then hot and dry start to autumn!  Now we have a break in the weather with rain a chance for me to see how this has affected the moths for me.
Average counts of species for the month have been over 50, so not bad really considering it is September. Best night was the 6th when I had 86sp in 2 traps. Numbers of the commoner species have increased, some due to the warm weather and also some probably due to migration from Europe. Certainly the case for Large yellow underwing and Setaceous hebrew character. Other winners Maiden’s blush (a strong second brood here), Light emerald, Square-spot rustic, Feathered gothic, Lunar yellow underwing and Dusky thorn. I’ve also seen some small size moths – Willow beauty (like Raymond has already noted) and Flounced rustic. Had a tiny one of those about half the size of a normal one.
Other notable resident species: Heath rustic (2 records), Centre-barred sallow (2 records, rare here hence why I’m reporting it), Crambus hamella (best ever year with over 10 noted including 7 on one night on the 6th, normally only seen in ones and twos), Anania crocealis (2nd site record on 6th), Agriphila latistria (6th), Caloptilia hemidactylella (12th) and Bordered beauty (13th).
Autumnal species have also started to emerge, but not yet in great numbers with Orange sallow (1 only, just wings as a Hornet ate it!), L-Album wainscot, Autumnal rustic, Red-green carpet (13th), Brindled green and Feathered ranunculus recorded. No Black rustic nor Lunar underwing here yet that others have seen already.
There have been some what I would call unseasonal moths, maybe late records due to the season this year or perhaps moths tricked to emerge by the warm weather. I’ve had the following: Campion, Sharp-angled carpet, Chinese character, Small phoenix, Purple bar, Marbled white spot, Small rivulet and Riband and Plain waves. Would be interested to hear what other recorders have noted out of season.
With warm weather blowing up from France there of course had to be some migrant interest during the period. Have already covered my sighting of Convolvulus hawk in an earlier blog, but did get a few other species as well as the usual commoner migrants in low numbers. Vestal (3 trapped plus another seen in the daytime), Four-spotted footman (male on the 12th, or is it now resident in low numbers now as seen annually), Cydia amplana (2 records, again, maybe resident locally) and Nephopterix angustella (2 records, not classed as resident here with me, no foodplant). My overall impression of this last record-breaking warm spell was that it wasn’t as good as it should have been, a trend that I’ve felt all year sadly. The bright moon didn’t help much but even so there should have been more migrants nationally as well as locally. Convolvulus hawk is the only species seemingly around in good numbers. If only we had those warm nights in June/July they would have been of more use rather than being wasted at the tail end of a poor year. Just my own view there others may disagree.
So now autumn seems to have arrived properly now, what will the second half of the month bring? More sallows hopefully please, the traps have been dominated by brown moths for a while now!

Neil

Vestal

Vestal

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