Wednesday 31 July 2013

A touch of the exotic

I hadn't done any trapping since Friday as we have building works going on and everything is covered in dust, but I thought I'd give it a go last night and very glad I did - this Palpita vitrealis was nestling among the egg boxes.

Palpita vitrealis
Palpita vitrealis
This appears to be the first VC41 record of this species since the major migrant influx of 2006, and the first record for the Cardiff area. There is only one other recent record on Atropos 'Flight Arrivals' - in Weymouth, Dorset on 22nd July.

George (Llandaff North)

4 comments:

  1. Forgot to mention...also Diamond-back x2 and Silver Y x3.

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  2. Nice catch George & excellent Cardiff record. The wind direction is coming from Spain and will hold till Friday, so tonight and Thursday may bring a few good migrants - at last. Coastal traps watch out!!

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  3. Nice one George!

    I was outside late on Monday evening watching about a dozen Silver Y feeding on a Lavender hedge sheltered in the lee of a bigger Hawthorn hedge. Clearly there were a few migrants around here, but it was too windy to make it worth turning the trap on. I'll see how it shapes up later this evening!

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  4. I was at Portland during the course of last week, and didn't do that well for migrants at the Bird Observatory. Hummingbird Hawk in the trap on one night, and a single Langmaid's Yellow Underwing the most noteworthy. Otherwise, a handfull of Silver Y's, Diamond-backs, Dark sword-grass and the odd one or two N. noctuella & Udea ferrugalis. Pine Hawk was nice too though.

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