Martin Clay Photography: Moths

Showing posts with label Moths. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 September 2012

Moth Trapping - August 2012

With a few days of fair weather set in the middle of August, It was another good opportunity to get out the Moth trap and setup on the lawn, again I failed to write down all the species we caught but I did manage to utilise the new Macro lens on some fairly interesting moths. Brimstone, Sharp Angled Peacock, Swallow Prominent, Ruby Tiger, Sallow Kitten, Grey Dagger & my favourite yet The Drinker. Which just looks like its something from a different planet. There was one however that my sister or I couldn't ID, the 2 pics from the end if anyone has any idea, for the time being I've nicknamed it the Buffalo Moth.

The Drinker

Brimstone

Sharp Angled Peacock

Swallow Prominent

Ruby Tiger

Sallow Kitten

Grey Dagger

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Tuesday, 14 August 2012

A New Found Passion For Flutter-byes!

So with a new found passion for Moths I thought I'd start to take a little more interest in the different Butterflies that adorn the Garden and the surrounding River and Water meadows. Restricted to late evening walks the amount of Butterflies present seemed to have been restricted to just a couple of species with Large White's (Pieris Brassicae) everywhere, joined in certain areas by large amounts of Gatekeeper's (Pyronia Tithonus). I did manage to find a couple of different ones however. A Ringlet (Aphantopus Hyperantus) posed long enough in the late evening sun, the most random spot however was on the walk back home through the middle of the hamlet, a certain large dark butterfly fluttered down to land on the road 20ft in front of me. A Purple Emperor (Apatura Iris) the mythological insect before my eyes, a butterfly I had never imagined to see in these parts let alone in the middle of the road. The light was terrible and I only had the 500mm lens, 2 shots later it was off disappearing into the nearby field. An unexpected surprise!

Ringlet Butterfly

His Majesty "Purple Emperor"

Gatekeeper

With the success of the first Moth trap outing we decided to give it another go, this time placing it a little closer to the river and underneath some trees. Mainly to stop the light illuminating the whole house for the evening. Another fairly successful session, My sister having been home during the day had the luxury of looking through what we had caught, by the time I had got home from work at 5, all that was left in the trap was a couple of highlights in the form of a rather photogenic Garden Tiger (Arctia Caja) and a Buff Ermine (Spilosoma Luteum). I really must start getting the full list off of her for the purposes of the Blog.

Garden Tiger

Buff Ermine

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Friday, 10 August 2012

Garden Beasts - Moth Trapping

As I mentioned in earlier posts, finding wildlife to photograph at the moment seems to be a real struggle. It is far easier when it comes to you! My sisters boyfriend just so happens to be a National Park Ranger on the South Downs. And just so happened to have a brand spanking new moth trap in the cupboard ready to be loaned to someone that will use it!

So set up on the lawn on a saturday night, with enough light given off to attract some extra terrestrial life forms, we went to bed happy in the knowledge that there were already several moths inside. Having said that, that particular saturday night happened to involve a fair few drinks and rising from our beds on sunday morning wasn't quite so easy.

Once up and awake, as complete amateurs in hind sight moving the trap to the shade might have been a good idea, hence when removing the lid in bright warm sunshine we lost a lot of the smaller moths. However a fair few of the bigger species did remain, and happily arranged themselves for my camera on a log. I didn't note all the species as I soon got carried away with Photographing them, but I do remember a fair few. From what I can remember we had 2 Elephant Hawk-Moth (Deilephila Elpenor), 3 Poplar Hawk-Moth (Laothoe Populi), 1 Privet Hawk Moth (Sphinx Ligustri), 2 Dot Moth (Melanchra Persicariae), 4 Buff Ermine (Spilosoma Luteum), 1 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua Pronuba) & 1 Herald (Scoliopteryx Libatrix).

All in all something I had never done before, and to be perfectly honest never knew most of the species existed and could be that big and were some really amazing colours and camouflages.