RXwildlife Sightings

With the promise of warmer weather this week (at last!) I decided to give the Lime Kiln moth trap its first run out of the year. The trap attracted only a couple of guests, a Yellow Dung Fly and, first moth of the year, a lovely male Oak Beauty, only the second one I have had in my time at Rye Harbour. This species is active from around February to April, with the larvae feeding on a range of deciduous trees.

Oak Beauty at Lime Kiln Cottage this morning

Last night I ran my moth trap in Rye for the first time this year. Well, you never know!  This morning the trap was empty but this very smart Mottled Umber – wingspan 33 mm – was on the wall nearby. This is a male – it’s one of those few unusual species whose female is wingless. It’s a common and widespread moth that flies from October through to January or February. Yesterday’s regular Sunday morning walk with Bob and Mike was enlivened by a Marsh Harrier and a Buzzard in the Tillingham valley, plus a falconer with his Harris Hawk along the Cadborough Cliff slopes. Bizarrely, we watched this exotic-looking raptor sunning itself high in a tree for several minutes before we noticed its owner sitting on the bank underneath!

The Sprawler is an uncommon late autumn moth of broadleaved woodland – this was my first, trapped in Rye on 12th, and a different one turned up this morning. Also by the trap today was a Pine Weevil (Hylobius abietis). This afternoon at Playden Church, a Red Admiral and a male Common Darter were still on the wing despite the blustery conditions.

Yesterday here in Rye, a Dark Bush-cricket (Pholidoptera griseoaptera) was settled on my moth trap in the morning, and later a Western Conifer Seed Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis) was found on my car window (see Andy Phillips’s article and photo on RxWildlife on 1st September). Today the best moths were Dark Sword-grass (a migrant), Dark Chestnut and Green-brindled Crescent.

An exotic-looking moth with an exotic name, this was only the second Merveille-du-Jour I’ve trapped here in Rye. It’s an autumn flier that feeds on ivy flowers and ripe berries, widespread and not scarce in woodland, parkland and gardens; the larvae live on oak. Not all moths are brown and boring!

A new moth for my garden here in Rye today, the Delicate – resident in the Channel Islands and an irregular breeder in southern England, otherwise a migrant, mainly coastal and in the south-west. An excellent catch included also Brindled Green, Red-line Quaker, Brick, Chestnut, Mallow, Satellite and L-album Wainscot.

On a walk around Dungeness yesterday there were some lovely blue fruits of Blackthorn (=sloes) and on one bush there was this group of eggs, laid in a spiral around the twig. They might be eggs of the Lackey Moth, Malacosoma neustria, or a closely related species. Click here for more info.

As might be expected this late in the season, relatively few species in the Lime Kiln moth trap this morning, with ten in total. The majority were the ubiquitous Large Yellow Underwing (though still only six of these), while new species for the year (and typically ‘autumnal’ species) were Red-line Quaker, Brick and Feathered Ranunculus. Highlights were Large Wainscot, Feathered Brindle and a Great Silver Water Beetle, one of the latest records ever for this species on the reserve.

Large Wainscot

Whilst wandering around the RSPB at Dungeness yesterday I came across a huge caterpillar. After asking around the view is that it could be a convolvulus hawk moth caterpillar. I took some photos and in one I have placed my keys so its size can be estimated.
Steve Ray by e-mail

Despite the damp misty start to the day there were around 25 species of moth in the Lime Kiln trap this morning, not bad for this time of year on the reserve. The most abundant species today were Square-spot Rustic (93) and Large Yellow Underwing (35), while the highlights were Autumnal Rustic, a less than annual catchee (the last ones were in 2006), L-album Wainscot , Feathered Brindle and a couple of Great Silver Water Beetle. Migrants were represented by a few Rush Veneer and Diamond-back Moth and a single Dark Sword Grass.

Autumnal Rustic