Weekend round up, The Old Vic and Rectory Farm Night trip

The weather has turned wetter and cooler and the moth trap species tally at the Old Vic has dropped from 120 during the heat wave to only 39 on Friday night. However still got a lifer in the form of a Crescent and a few new for years.

Yesterday evening was spent attending a Bucks Invertebrate Group (BIG) , (website HERE) ,  moth trapping event at Rectory Farm (more HERE ) in the north of the county. It was great to meet Dave Wilton, the county moth recorder who runs the excellent Upper Thames Moth Blog Community HERE and has been an endless help in identification and validating the Old Vic records. Also great to meet BIG members Bill and Jeremy. 

I got to use my new generator for the first time and was also great to learn some in the field moth recording techniques (they look different at night under the MV lights!). Photography is a whole new challenge which I'll have to work on. Luckily the rain stopped but it was a pretty cool temperature and I ended up with 58 species in my trap after 3 hours (we ran 4 traps between us) including a few moth lifers including a couple I was unable to photograph (Eucosma conterminana and Elachista albidella). 

Thanks Bill, Dave and Jeremy for a great evening. 

Had Little and Barn Owl at Rectory Farm and back at the Old Vic on Friday had a good view of our garden Tawny Owl as it flew past the balcony. 

 The Old Vicarage 

Crescent at the Old Vic- a new one for me 

Lychnis at the Old Vic- a new for year 

Aspilapteryx tringipennella

Perhaps Nut Bud Moth  Epinotia tenerana .Nope this is a Holly Tortix (thanks Dave)- also recorded today below. 

Elachista (maybe canapennella) ? Thanks Dave for suggestions 

Common Frog in the garden yesterday

We could be self sufficient from the mini-farm now with plenty of potatoes, runner, baby beets, cucumbers and courgettes

Rectory Farm 

Great to finally use the generator 

Rectory Farm. Farmer George Eaton manages a productive commercial farm with a good range of biodiversity features  

Holly Tortrix- note the fold in the wing which is a good id pointer 

Pale Bordered Piercer, Grapholita janthinana

Willow Ermine, Yponomeuta rorrella- The distinctive white wedge at the distal end of the  costa, dark crescent at the apex and dusky wedge in mid wing are distinctive. 

Brown Plume , Stenoptilia pterodactyla (As I say, need to work on my night moth photography!)