Autumn Browns

 Friday August 30

My original bird alert pager was set to make a very loud siren sound when a rare bird was found. Friend Giles, who wasn't much of a techy didn't know how to re-set it. His wife Judy, so startled one day whilst driving the car, threatened to put it in a bucket of water the next time it made that noise. I could do with a similar noise for our Silvery Gem WhatsApp group. Fortunately, I looked at the most recent messages in good time. Marcus Nash had trapped a Porter's Rustic which he would take to Cley VC at 2.00 this afternoon.
Rare immigrant.
A rather drab and easily overlooked species.
The first British record was in 1978 in Cornwall. Larva has not been recorded in Britain, on the continent it has been recorded feeding on various herbaceous plants.

First Norfolk record 24th August 2008 at Salthouse. (Michael Williams, Derbyshire), Colney Pits, Norwich in 2021 (D. Holman, C. Stean) and Eccles in 2023 (N. Bowman)

Norfolk Moths

 


It really did live up (or down) to its drab reputation. Just brown.

The squirrels alerted us to the Hazel nuts being ripe to eat. I love the big clumps nestled amongst the leaves. As kids, we would have a competition as to who would find the biggest knot as we called them (clwmp in welsh). Eight was my record, four or five is more usual.

Other Autumn moths are also shades of brown but much more attractive.

 
Frosted Orange


Latticed Heath. A moth I find very difficult to photograph well. Very active and often out of focus.

Yellow Shell


Lunar Yellow Underwing


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