Shiny blue death fly

Just a quick post on a productive spot of moth trapping this week. The week went out on Wednesday night, more out of a sense that I hadn't done much mothing this year than expecting much to turn up. The forecast was for a clear night with temperatures dropping to around 5 degrees, but in the end I think it stayed a bit warmer, which resulted in a pretty good haul. By far the best moths were a brace of Dotted Chestnuts, a formerly very rare moth in the county which seems to be increasing in numbers a bit, but I'd still only seen twice before.

Dotted Chestnut

Almost as good was my first Frosted Green for the garden, and with a supporting case of Powdered Quaker, Streamer, Clouded Drab (5), Common and Small Quakers and another brindled beauty, I was very glad I decided to put the trap out.

Frosted Green

The only other notable bit of wildlife I came across this week came the morning before, when I stopped off on the cycle to work to check a patch of Alexanders that I'd been keeping an eye on for a while. In the warm morning sun it was buzzing with flies, mainly Calliphora species, but with a hoverfly or two, and one slightly different looking "bluebottle" which had a really rich blue sheen to the abdomen and a yellowish face. I vaguely recognised it as C-something mort-something, which with the aid of the internet and my photos was later clarified to Cynomya mortuorum, a reasonably common and widespread species with the slightly gruesome habit of laying its eggs in carrion. Apparently it sometimes has the common name of "fly of the dead" which sounds pretty sinister, I prefer my version :).

Cynomya mortuorum - the shiny blue death fly

More Mid-Winter Moths

After a few nights away from home for Christmas I decided to stick the moth trap out again last night, as the weather is still ridiculously mild for the time of year. Sure enough a total of five moths were attracted to the trap, with a mixture of winter and spring species.

Representing winter was a single winter moth, the first I've caught in this garden, and also a Chestnut and a Mottled Umber. From the spring range of moths there was a single Pale Brindled Beauty, which I'd normally expect to start catching in February, and a Spring Usher, which as the name suggests doesn't usually fly in mid-winter!

Pale Brindled Beauty

Spring Usher

I also refilled the bird feeders which had been thoroughly emptied in my absence, and a little while later did a double take at what at first glance looked like a beige Great Tit - the first Marsh Tit for the garden! I quickly set up the camera to take some bad photos, and got an unexpected bonus when the first Nuthatch for the garden also dropped in. Hopefully they'll stick around until big garden birdwatch weekend!

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch