From the allotment

After a rather gruelling session at our Winchelsea allotment yesterday, I noticed a couple of insects on the leaves of one of our Blackcurrant plants. I was amazed to see that these were a mating pair of Currant Clearwing moths, having never seen any sort of Clearwing before. [These moths are active during the day and don't come to light traps, but can be lured with pheromones]. While showing these to a neighbouring plotholder I spotted a second pair. County recorder Colin Pratt confirms that this is a very good record nowadays and I will be keeping a close eye on our Currant bushes, and others at the allotments. My moth of the year so far !

Moth Event Saturday Eve 8 June

The Sussex Moth Group Hastings Branch will be doing a moth night at Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve on Saturday 8 June at the Helipad Car Park Area [TQ848117]. We will be meeting at about 20:45. Feel free to stop by and see what it's all about, no trap needed! Just come round and see us.

From the Clifftop

Anyone reading through my entries on this website [and there haven't been any from anybody else since May 8] would think that this was a pretty poor year for moths, with so much cold weather. I would have said the same, however the record shows otherwise, with 113 species in my Fairlight garden trap by the end of May compared to 94 last year- it doesn't do to go by impressions !

Nothing particularly special so far, though six of these were new for the garden, of which my favourite was this White-pinion spotted on May 9-I've not caught many over the years.

From the Clifftop

A couple of overcast and warmer nights have boosted my Fairlight moth list to 101, with 35 species yesterday morning being a good score for May. All fairly common species, though Silver-ground Carpet was new for the house list, and it's always nice to see Cream-spot Tiger.

Hastings Country Park

An early morning walk through the Country Park yesterday produced a surprise singing Dartford Warbler, my first here for a year. Also surprising was the number of Stonechats, with no less than four males. and two and one fledged juveniles in widely seperated sites on the Firehills-they seem to be doing really well here. There were plenty of Yellowhammers on the Firehills, where a Meadow Pipit carrying food indicated breeding. A Peregrine was calling from the cliffs , while an unusual concentration of 600 Herring Gulls presumably attracted to fish was conspicuously noisy.