Charlestown Road

Painted Lady 1

 

Lee Mount - 7th August

 Best this morning an was an Orange Swift. Still getting lots of Large Yellow Underwings with 44 today along with fading Dun-bars, Bird-cherry Ermines and a few other recent 'regulars'.

Orange Swift

Still plenty of activity on the Buddleia with 3 Red Admirals, 1 Peacock, 1 Small Tortoiseshell and 5+ Large Whites

Painted Lady yesterday from SC's garden Buddleia.

Beacon Hill

Gatekeeper 1

Speckled Wood 1

Beacon Hill

Gatekeeper 7 (!), Speckled Wood 1, Red Admiral 1

lee Mount - 27th July

One special moth this morning, it flew out of the trap as I opened it. Luckily, followed it as it landed on the wall underneath a fuschia.

Blood-vein (4th record for here)

Also last night, out with the torch, found 7 Varied Coronet pupa on the Sweet William seed heads. Growing fast now, just short of 30mm.

Lee Mount - 26th July

 First of this season Copper Underwing agg this morning..x 2 of.

Also a nice Purple Bar (losing it's purple) and couldn't get it in a nice spot for a photo so it had to go with the egg box writing !

Ringstone Edge

Speckled Wood 2

Varied Coronet update.

I've been watching the Sweet Willaims as they have now almost finished flowering and are setting seed. They were visited recently by an adult moth around 1st July though I only saw one at a time over several evenings. 

A search through the seed heads this morning resulted in 2 caterpillars, quite small at no more than 15mm. Find them and then lose sight of them, they are so well camouflaged.......I did manage a few record shots - this is the best one and seems to confirm their identity.

Another look tonight - found one with what looks like its head into the seed pod. Will check again in the next few days and try get some better shots. That's if the Robin doesn't find them first !

Cold Edge....25th July

Hummingbird Hawkmoth on buddleia at Cold Edge this morning just before I started on the butterfly survey of a tetrad covering the top end of Cold Edge and Ovenden Moor. A decent count with Peacock being the most common butterfly today with Green-veined Whites - still to go through the count so will try update later.

Shibden Valley

Gatekeeper 1

Lee Mount - July (micros mainly)

 Quite a challenge getting decent photos of some of these. The 'Thorn' proved the most tricky but the micros are not easy either - must keep trying.!

Angle-striped Sallow (20th July)

Canary-shouldered Thorn (23rd)

Coleophora sp. ?(2nd)

Eudemis profundana (2nd)

Gypsonoma dealbana (22nd)

Caloptilia rufipennella (23rd)

Epiblema foenella (18th)

Shroggs - reclaimed landfill site

Spent just over an hour there this morning. Not a great deal of sunshine, just enough for the butterflies. 

12 species mostly on the thistles and brambles. 2 Comma, 2 Gatekeeper, 8 Green-veined White, 

1 Holly Blue, 4 Large White, 5 Meadow Brown, 2 Red Admiral, 1 Small Copper, 2 Small Skipper, 1 Small Tortoiseshell,, 1 Small White and 3 Speckled Wood.

Comma

Gatekeeper

Holly Blue

Ringstone Edge

Gatekeeper 1

Cold Edge

Comma 1

Also: Small Copper 1

New Bank

Painted Lady 1

Lee Mount - 18th July

An Oak Hook-tip this morning - 4th record for here. Yesterdays, I presume,  Pebble Hook-tip was next to it on the top of the trap.

Oak Hook-tip

Pebble Hook-tip

Lee Mount

 This morning a very nice moth - only the second for here

Pebble Hook-tip

Quite a hectic week for moths (and butterflies). The moth trap has been busy - mostly with the species that I would normally expect here. One morning the trap was alive with 140+ Large Yellow Underwings.

Impossible to post all the recent sightings - just one or two here

Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet (2nd record on 9th July)

Gold Triangle (17th July)

Map-winged Swift (2nd July)

Riband Wave (banded) (14th July)

Stainland.

 Bit of a boring post really. I'm posting it as it's the first of the brown Marbled Beauties I've seen this year. It's also one of the bigger ones. This one very kindly sheltered by the door handle. I got a nice shot with my macro camera for a change. I call it that, as it has a lovely Leica Macro lens, it's all I use this camera for.

1 x Marbled Beauty

Marbled Beauty

Peacock Moth Luddenden 13th July 2025

I caught this beauty in the garden last night, again in the 22W Actinic. A rare moth in Yorkshire, this is the second Calderdale record.

also another Drinker (three this week) and another Box-tree Moth (3 this year)

Drinker

Box-tree Moth

 

Four - spotted Footman

 One in a light trap in Warley , a first locally so many thanks to Mark Hollroyd for sending  in the record and information. CF says its the first one in VC 63 since 1886...!!! but there have been a few Yorkshire records this year and on the increase..

20 years ago we were lucky to a Common Footman in the trap , in recent years we can expect to catch , Red -necked , Muslin , Dingy , Orange , Scarce and Buff..!!!! Rosy or Hoary could be next...!!!!!

 Another night of moth trapping at Clockface Quarry, Krumlin, resulted in 70 species including a Bilberry Pug, two Agonoterix angelicella, and a Scarce Silver Y amongst others.

Butterflies galore....

Some amazing numbers of butterflies this last week or so being reported from all over Calderdale.

I spent a fair amount of time in the garden today. Rewarded with 12 species including a Purple Hairstreak. It came to the lawn a couple of times when there was still some dew on the grass but it was always moving around and I failed to get a photo.

I was a little more fortunate with the camera this afternoon. I checked an area in Shroggs Park where there are a couple of big elms, the larval food plant of the White-letter Hairstreak . One of the elms has a rough grass/weedy area nearby and I managed to find a very mobile individual on creeping thistle. Photo not brilliant but just enough for firm identification even if it is at an odd angle.

Stainland.

 It seems that I must adjust to my health going up and down. Oh well, it beats any other options.

This post covers 2 dates: 13th June and 11 July.

13th June

2 x Brimstone

1 x Small Magpie - very worn 

1 x Small Phoenix

1 x Silver Ground Carpet

11th July

2 x Common Footman

1 x Muslin Footman

1 x swallow-tailed 

1 x Light Emerald

Lee Mount - 11th July

A new moth for here. A nice surprise as I disturbed it whilst watering the plant pots...but getting down to photograph it was a bit of a challenge !!

Large Emerald

Cold Edge

1 of 2 Red Admiral

Also: Small tortoiseshell 35, Small heath 3, Comma 1, Small skipper 1, Large skipper 5, Whites +, Meadow brown +, Ringlet ++

Lee Mount etc........

 This little beauty turned up by the trap on 6th July

Sycamore Leaf -miner Phyllononrycter geniculella (CF checked)

Fantastic day today for butterfly's. The now wild garden near The Withens was alive with flowering ragwort, bramble, white clover and perennial geraniums all in a sheltered  location with the sunshine blazing down. Never seen so many butterfly's in such a small area. It was 'buzzing'.

1 Peacock, 4 Small Heath, 3 Comma, 1 Red Admiral, 5+ Large White, 25+ Small Skipper, 6 Large Skipper, 27+ Ringlets, 2 Small Copper, 7 Green veined White, 16+ Small Tortoiseshell, 26+ Meadow Brown.

Comma

Large Skipper

Small Copper

Small Skippers

Interesting that last week or two I have seen a good number of Large Whites. All the smaller 'whites' I have managed to identify (they are always on the move) have been Green-veined. Surprised that I have not found  a Small White !! Perhaps they'll emerge shortly ?

White Letter Hairstreaks & Commas

Good Video Captures today of Commas Staging on Bramble 50 or so per bramble thicket at location . Record numbers in terms of density with eye estimates of 20 or so discrete numbers from thicket to thicket .Also a good space to work on the afternoon light gradient for both species  

Whiteletter Hairstreaks also coming to Bramble to stage ,display and Nectar and also to Ragwort to Nectar , 2 Pairs recorded on capture close to the main larva source Wych Elm. The WLH does ground but more often than not gets its grub from aphid dew but will do so in exceptionally hot  or dry weather inc that of wind drying

Other Species

Include the usual culprits Speckled Wood , Small White , GV White Meadow Brown , Ringlet, Large and Small Skipper and occ Red Admiral

Conundrum

It Flew in Bradford and staged in Calderdale  and eventually  landed  on the precise  boundary line between. The Wych Elm grow on the Bradford beckside and the leaves overarch the beck into Calderdale Airspace . Where Do I live LOL

Conservation Status

Butterfly Conservation priority: High

Section 41 species of principal importance under the 2006 NERC Act in England

Listed on Section 7 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016

GB Red List (2022): Vulnerable

Protected under Schedule 5 of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act (for sale only)

European threat status: Not threatened