July in Search of invertibrates

July is always a strange month as mid summer is a quiet time for birds accept for the odd breeding survey for Nightjar etc. Which this year I decided not to do and have a little break and put a little more effort in on the local patch for inverts.   Ian found two Downland Villa bee-fly Villa cingulate which are a bit of a rarity and the fact they were out of normal habitat here at Lytchett Bay I tried to find them to no avail.  None-the-less you never not see something and with the very hot weather we decided to stay local.

On the 2nd Jackie and I joined friends to visit Winterbourne Downs RSPB reserve in Wiltshire to see if we could see Stone Curlew. It was fortunately a cool morning so there was little heat haze and almost as we arrived at the view point I spotted a Stone Curlew.  I directed the others to where I was looking and they replied "yes got it" then I realised they had a different bird which was to the right of my juvenile. We then managed to pick out another adult which disappeared behind vegetation leaving a single adult and two juveniles in view.

Spot the Stone Curlews © Nick Hull

Walking back to the car park I managed to get a couple of butterflies in the viewfinder one of them being a Ringlet but had no rings. 

Ringless Ringlet - Winterbourne Down © Nick Hull

After we had our fill of Stone Curlews we headed off to Bentley Wood for Purple Emperor Butterflies but we drew a blank. Though we did see a number of other butterfly species including Silver washed Fritillary and Purple Hairstreaks.

Silver-washed Fritillary - Bentley Wood © Nick Hull

On the 3rd we had two of our  teenage grandchildren,  so we decided to go and see if we could find Heath Tiger Beetles. They like to see rare species or local scarce species as they say in their lifetime you never know what will happen and they might not get a chance to see the species in the future.

Obviously when out we try and look for anything that moves and our first find was a Heath Dumble Dor beetle (Trypocopris pyrenaeus) This species is more or less confined to the heathlands of Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey. They are a good size with a shiny blue sheen to their elytra which lacks distinct striae.  

Heath Dumble Dor Trypocopris pyrenaeus © Nick Hull

You may notice a small mite hitching a lift many species of beetle can carry these around and they do them no harm in fact there is some evedence that when the beetle lays her eggs in her chosen dung these mites hop off and help care for the eggs. 

We continued to the area where I have found the Tiger Beetles in the past and with a pretty thorough search we came across three unfortunately the first two took flight and disappeared into the heather.  Then I caught sight of another that pitched in on a sandy patch and were were able to best pretty good views before it to decided to go off into the heather.

Heath Tiger Beetle Cicindela sylvatica © Nick Hull

Heath Tiger beetle are also known as Wood Tiger beetle they are the largest of the British tiger species measuring in up to 18mm.  Their population has declined by around 50% over the last 25years or so.  Like the last species above they are more or less only found in Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex.

As we walked back I found several Mottled Beefly (Thyridanthrax fenestratus) These like other beefly are a parasitoid and Mottled's host is Heath Sand-wasp (Ammophila pubescent) and indeed we saw a number of the Heath Sand-wasps along the track too.  Again this species is mainly confined to the lowland heathland in the UK.

Mottled Beefly Thyridanthrax fenestratus © Nick Hull

I thought I would include the Heath Sand Wasp Ammophila pubescent for completeness.  They are slightly smaller than there relative Ammophila sabulosa the Red-banded Sand Wasp but frequents the same lowland heaths they predate of heather feeding moth caterpillars.

Heath Sand Wasp Ammophila pubescent © Nick Hull

By the time we were back at the van the day was pretty hot and we decided to call it a day and head home for lunch.

We visited Blashford Lake HWT reserve on the 8th, it was fairly quiet only the usual summer regular species like Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Common Tern and of course Sand Martin which there were around fifty out front of the Goosander Hide and they were good entertainment flying around feeding then swooping in to their nest holes below the hide.  

Sand Martin flying in to it's nest hole - Blashford Lakes © Nick Hull

When we left the hide we spotted a moth showing rather scarlet underwing as we watched, it flew into a bush and rested up.  It turned out to be our first Jersey Tiger of the year.

Jersey Tiger - Blashford Lakes © Nick Hull

On the 9th Jackie and I had an excursion up to the northern chalk and the Cranborne Chase and Wyke Down in search of Quail.  Well we blanked and the only consolation was we had good views of Corn Bunting and Hobby though we had  brief views of Grey Partridge though the partridge did put on an evening chorus from in the long grass.

Corn Bunting sing from top of an electricity pole © Nick Hull

This is the recording of the Grey Partridge you can hear one calling some distance away then one starts calling much closer.

Two Owls · Grey Partridge

We stayed until the moon started to rise over the wood in the hope we might see an owl but none showed themselves so we called it a day and went home.

Moon rise Wyke Down © Nick Hull

From the 10th to the 16th we stayed local either around the garden at home or around Lytchett Bay mainly due to bruising my ribs when the scope fell from the tripod and I trapped it between my ribs and the van to prevent it dropping on to the hard road.  All I can say is it was very painful for a few days.  So it was just a case of recording inverts around the bay and visiting the garden.  There wasn't anything that really stood out from the usual that we would expect to find.  Though I did find a number of Pantaloon Bees feeding on the Fleabane across the road.

Pantaloon Bee Dasypoda hirtipes © Nick Hull

Also we had a first for the garden though not rare but way overdue to visit the wildlife garden a female Emperor Dragonfly came and rested in the elder for a while giving me time to take a few shots.

female Emperor Dragonfly - Home Garden © Nick Hull

 I ran the moth traps on the night of the 11th and had good numbers of 197 moths of 82 species with 19 species new for the year and two species new for the garden Long-winged Pearl Anania lancealis and Hemp-agrimoney Plume Adaina microdactyla.

Long-winged Pearl Anania lancealis © Nick Hull

Hemp-agrimoney Plume Adaina microdactyla © Nick Hull

On the 17th Jackie's garden group were visiting Bennet's Water Garden in Weymouth and as I had been told it was a good place for Odonata I decided to go as well.  It was an enjoyable morning though we had the odd shower and the sun didn't really come out until after we had left.  

I did see a few Odonata Emperor Dragonfly, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common Darter and Common Blue, Blue-tailed Damselflies and Small Red-eyed Damselfly. Though the Green-eyed Hawker or Norfolk Hawker as it was previously known as couldn't be found.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly - Bennets Water Gardens © Nick Hull

On the 23rd Jackie suggested that we popped to Silverlake again this would be our fourth visit to see if we could connect with Broad Scarlet, Red-veined Darter and Lesser Emperor.  The last of these I did see on our first visit but I wanted to see if I could get a photograph of one.

When we arrived there was very few people around which was good as the dragonflies would not have been disturbed to much. So Jackie and I walked around the lake which originally was a gravel pit. There were lots of Black-tailed Skimmer and Small Red-eyed Damselflies a few Common Blue Damselflies.  Then I picked up a red darter but it flew past but it looked a little like a Common Darter but it didn't land.  As we approached the top end of the lake I picked up a another or same red coloured darter sat on the ground and as I was about to take a shot a voice from further round shouts out there is a Red-veined Darter near where you are.  

Red-veined Darter - Silverlake © Nick Hull

I took a closer look and indeed that was what I was looking at so shot off a few shots, then Jackie and I moved on and it was then we realised that the person that called out to us was Brett, a birding friend from Weymouth.  So we had a catch-up whilst looking for the other species, it didn't take long before we saw a Lesser Emperor and Common Emerald Damselflies and it was about this point when Jackie felt she had done enough and went back to the van for a snack.  

Common Emerald Danselfly Silverlake © Nick Hull

Lesser Emperor - Silverlake © Nick Hull

I continued on with Brett and eventually we saw a bright red darter speed by us and watching it come to rest on bare ground.   We slowly approached and we both were able to get a few shot off of this recently new British breeding species.

Broad Scarlet (Darter) - Silverlake © Nick Hull

On the 28th July we had the grandchildren and it is alway hard to know what to do to keep them occupied.  Well, a few days before I was our on a refresher wasp and bee identification walk on Hartland Moor with the Purbeck Natural History Forum.  During are walk we came across a Nomada Bee which we couldn't identify in the field and it got us chatting and during the conversion Purbeck Nomad Bee came up.  This is a species last recorded at Durlston CP in 1982 and thought to be extinct and it happens that the youngster like Durlston, so that solved a problem.  Well I showed them what we were looking for and off we went searching Wild Carrot and Ragwort it main food plant.  We also searched for the Andrena bee that it parasitise on.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't great it was cool and a bit windy and inverts were hard to find.  

 Eriothrix rufomaculatus - Durlston CP © Nick Hull

Though we did find things, like this Red-sided Eriothrix (Eriothrix rufomaculatus) they are a common fly which parasitise on moths.  We also came across this small picturewing or wingwaver This one was

Four-spot-Wingwaver (Herina lugubris) © Nick Hull

on Wild Carrot where it was living up to its name by waving it's wings. 

We also found a Ichneumon Wasp Ichneumon bucculentus these are another parasitic species which appears to be under recorded though this may be due to Dorset doesn't have a recorder for this group of species.

 Ichneumon bucculentus - Durlston CP © Nick Hull

The only other highlights of the month have been what I call by-catch in the moth trap this can be anything from wasps and Hornets to flies, Shieldbug and various sized beetles which find there way in attracted by the MV/UV lights.  When I find them I like to try and get an identification so I can add them to the garden checklist which grows slowly each year.

Recently I've had a few good finds in that none have been particularly rare or scarce but interesting in that I haven't recorded them before, such as this diving beetle.  It's strange I don't think we think of diving beetles being able to fly but they do very well.  This is Colybetes fuscus and is fairly large species at 15mm -19mm and likes well vegetated lakes and pond. They are a widespread and common species.

Colybetes fuscus - © Nick Hull

Another beetle which I've not come across before though have seen others in the genus was this Rove beetle species at around 25mm it's a good size and similar to the Devil Coachhorse (Ocypus olens) which initially I thought it was going to be. When I had it in the pot and had a close look at it I realised that its jaws were smaller and checking the references narrowed it down to Quedius dilatatus who's common name is Hornet Rove Beetle as they spens much of there early life in Hornet nests and as adult feed on diptera but they also will visit sap-runs on oak and beech trees. Their larvae grow within the nest detritus, eating other insects and, maybe, the dead and dying hornets too. As many as ten adult beetles and larvae may be found in a nest, and while they do not appear to prey on the hornets or their larvae, the nest must be occupied by hornets for the beetles to persist.

Quedius dilatatus Hornet-Rove-Beetle © Nick Hull

The third beetle was a longhorn beetle which I ended up talking to Tony, my beetle expert, and as it would need genital determination to decide which species it was I decided just to aggregate the record so it's either Leiopus nebulosus or Leiopus linnei.  None-the-less it is a truly stunning beetle with amazing long antenna.

Leiopus nebulosus agg. © Nick Hull

Well that sums up July with little in the way of birds but autumn migration has started with waders moving back through and into the harbour it will be interesting what wildlife August brings and how much Jackie and I get to see.

New for the Garden Scarce and Rare Moths

 I was going to end the previous blog with a summary of the month's moths which have been rather good if I say it myself so I changed my mind and thought it was best to just have a moth blog for the month.

On my birthday in May I asked the son and daughter for a few mothing items a 20w UV bulb and some more pots and both have come into their own as trap numbers have been the best I have had since living here in Upton.  Whether that is due to running two different types of bulb or the fact that the weather has been suiting the moths I can't say.

The first moth of note actually was in the last trap on the night of the 30th/31st May when checking the trap that I first use of the 20w UV bulb and there sitting on the top of one of the eggs cartons was a female Ghost Moth (Hepialus humuli humuli) in perfect condition I say this as two previously had been eaten in the trap one by a Great Diving Beetle and the other by a Hornet so I was very pleased to see it fully intact.

Ghost-Moth_female © Nick Hull

The next moth was new for the garden caught on the 6th June When I tested out some of the pheromone I purchased last year to see if I could get lucky. So I hung out the pheromone trap with Current Clearwing lure. I'm not sure quite how long it took to attract the moth as I didn't see it go in.  I found it in the trap when I decided to try another lure.  As I was about to open the trap I saw something fly around inside so I quick went into my office and carefully opened it up and there was a Current Clearwing another nice moth to have on the garden list.

Current Clearwing © Nick Hull

On the of the 18th I ran both the new UV and the old MV traps to see how the 20W UV would perform. It did ok catching 57 moth of 31 species but the MV had 139 moth of  66 species between the two trap it worked out to be 76 species in total as some obviously were the same.  There were three moths that stood out from the rest the first was a relatively common species but I had only caught it once before back in 2014 and that was a the very attractive Meal Moth Pyralis farinalis.  

Meal Moth Pyralis farinalis © Nick Hull

The second was much rarer also the second time I had caught the species, the first was in 2025 and it is also a very smart little moth called ac Small Marbled Eublemma parva.

Small Marbled Eublemma parva © Nick Hull

Small Marbled is considered a rare migrant the highlight of my trap has to go to another micro this time Diasemiopsis ramburialis the Migrant Sable.  A first for me and the garden.

Diasemiopsis ramburialis © Nick Hull

There was a fourth species Anarsia innoxiella that was first recognised as new to science in 2017, though it's status in Dorset is unknown however I did see a photo post from Tolpuddle of the same species a few day later. Unfortunately it escaped before I could pot it but I managed a quick photo.

Anarsia innoxiella - Maple Snout © Nick Hull

I managed to get the traps out again on the night of the 21st had good number of moths in both traps. New for the garden was a Small Yellow Wave a rather diminutive but attractive moth, but there wasn't anything outstanding only migrants were Diamond-back Moth.

Small Yellow Wave Hydrelia flammeolaria © Nick Hull

Diamond-backed Plutella xylostella Moth © Nick Hull

Rusty-dot Pearl is mainly a migrant species and numbers vary from year to year since moving to Upton in 2012 I've recorded them in all but two years 2018 & 2021.  

Udea ferrugalis Rusty-dot Pearl © Nick Hull

The 26th was the next trap night and the numbers were even bigger with a total 272 moth of 103 species and again I recorded migrants in the traps.  Vestal, Diamond-back, Rusty-dot Pearl, Dark Sword-grass and  (2) Palpate vitrealis Olive-tree Pearl,  and (2) Eublemma ostrina  Purple Marbled.

Rhodometra sacraria  The Vestal © Nick Hull

The Vestal I record more or less every other year why that is I don't know it maybe due to their breeding cycle and the Dark Sword-grass are fairly regular migrant species I catch them here most years like the Rusty-dot Pearl the Diamond-back Moth.

Argots ipsilon Dark Sword-grass © Nick Hull

Palpita vitrealis I first recorded in 2023 and last year I caught four they are a fairly common migrant but have been pretty rare for me until now they are a beautifully delicate looking moth with the golden costa and the translucent silky wings.

Palpita vitrealis Olive-tree Pearl © Nick Hull

The Purple Marbled is a rare immigrant and is a first for my trap and me, so another new addition to the garden moth list.  This moth is resident in the Mediterranean and North Africa region and is a transitory resident in Central Europe and occasional reaches southern Britain.  They were first recorded in Dorest in 1976.

Eublemma ostrina  Purple Marbled © Nick Hull

What an excellent month on mothing I would go as far as to say it's been my best month since moving in here.  I don't think I will surpass this for a while but who knows?

The question is what will July bring?  

June's Wildlife Mix

June is I think an odd month in that spring migration has finished and all the birds have settled on territories with some young fledged and the adults going for their second brood. By the end of the month there is the likelihood of seeing a few returning non-breeding birds from there northern territories such as Common and Green Sandpiper also female Spotted Redshank as once they have laid they leave the male to brood and bring up the young.  It is also the time to catchup on butterflies, dragonflies and all the other invertebrates, orchids and plants much of this for me is usually during surveys but due to my calf injury I've been taking it a little easier than usual and it has paid-off and I've tested it with a couple of surveys and it seems to be holding up ok. The other wildlife that is good at this time of year is the moths as it's when the numbers increase and with the airstream coming  up from the south there is always the chance of a scarce migrant popping into the trap.

Our first visit out was to Morden Bog it was quiet, for birds of note we saw Hobby, Tree Pipit, Dartford Warbler and Stonechat.  We did manage to see a few Odonata and caught up with Silver-studded Blue butterflies. we also came across a large dung beetle and Tony identified for us as Trypocopris vernalis which has the common name of Spring Dumbledor.  

Trypocopris vernalis - Spring Dumbledor - Morden Bog

Silver-studded Blue - Morden Bog © Nick Hull

Broad-bodied Chaser - Morden Bog © Nick Hull

Our next visit was to Holton Heath or rather the newly opened Cordite Way, a footpath that takes you through woodland along the edge of the Wareham Channel at the end of which there is a view point giving views across to Arne and up the channel towards Wareham itself.  

Our first find was two very nice Marsh Orchid and on the information sign there was a Harlequin Ladybird larvae this ladybird first arrive in Europe in the 1980's to control pest species and arrived in UK in 2004 and has quickly become the most common invasive ladybird species in the UK and some authorities believe it to be the commonest species in the world.

Marsh Orchid - Holton Heath © Nick Hull

Harlequin Ladybird larvae -Holton Heath © Nick Hull

During our walk here I came across a small wasp species which I didn't recognise and checking later it turned out to be Gymnomerus laevipes. They are a fairly common species in the southern half of Britain though it's thought they are in decline certainly in the northern part of its range.  They are a tube nesting species usually in the hollow stems of bramble, burdock, elder and thistles. Where they form a series of linearly cells where they lay their eggs and stock the stem with weevil larvae separating each cell with a clay plug.

Field Grasshopper on the left Wasp on right - Holton Heath  Nick Hull

I took the shot and it wasn't until later that I realised that there was a Field Grasshopper also in shot.  

We also saw our first Marbled White butterfly of the year but it escaped being photographed.

We ended our exploration of the Cordite Way back at the trading estate and found a female Keeled Skipper illegally parked on double yellow lines.

Keeled Skimmer - Holton Heath © Nick Hull

On the 11th Jackie and I went out onto the Purbeck NNR doing a heathland bird survey.  Though the weather was good and not too hot at least to start with it was very quiet bird wise unlike our last visit.  Thats not saying we didn't record anything because we did.  We managed to confirm that the Redstart, though keeping out of photography range, was still present a good sign it was on territory.  We saw lots of Stonechat also one or two juvenile birds which was good. The highlight of the morning was finding a pair of Spotted Flycatcher on a cut pine tree stack. 

One of many Stonechat PNNR seen © Nick Hull

one of a pair of Spotted Flycatcher PNNR © Nick Hull

On the 16th along with friends we visited Badbury Rings, this old hill fort is or can be an excellent place for orchids and butterflies. Our main target was to see Frog Orchid as it had been a while since had seen any and Liz had been told where to find them, well, approximately anyway.  So following instructions we walked the rings and found the area we were told to go but we couldn't find them.  Re-reading the instruction liz and I decided we weren't quite in the correct place which was obvious really as we couldn't find the orchids.

Eventually I was travelling one of the rings and I spotted one then two and found five in the end, though not all were in there prime they still had a few day to go to be fully open.

Frog Orchid - Badbury Rings  © Nick Hull

We also saw Greater Butterfly, Common Spotted, Fragrant and Pyramidal Orchids on our walk.  We also added a few butterflies to our year list with seeing Dark-green Fritillary, Marbled Whites, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small and Large Skipper butterflies.

Marbled White - Badbury Rings © Nick Hull

I took the shot below to check if this was a Small or Essex Skipper and the top of the antenna were black and one of the good feathers to tell the difference is the underside of the antenna of Small Skipper in orange not black as in Essex.  As you can see it's orange so Small Skipper and in fact we didn't find Essex on this walk, perhaps next time.

Small Skipper - Badbury Rings © Nick Hull

Arriving home after our walk along the path to the front door I heard a high pitched buzz of a bee and checking around me I saw Anthophora bimaculata or  Green-eyed Flower Bee they are burrow nesting and can be found in large aggregations usually on Lowland heaths commons and coastal dunes. 

female Green-eyed Flower Bee Anthophora bimaculata © Nick Hull

Whilst trying to get shots of the bee I saw movement on one of the heathers and notice a Labyrinth Spider out on top of the web looking like she was in the process of making repairs. I have to say I've tried many times to get a shot of one of these spiders but they are quick and they very rarely are seen outside of their funnel like webs.  So I took a few quick shots before she disappeared.

Labyrinth Spider - © Nick Hull

Staying with the gardens wildlife, next day I noticed a damselfly species but couldn't get to grips with it to get a good identification.  In fact I had seen it or another a number of times in the back garden and now there were two in the front I grabbed my camera and returned and couldn't find either.  Anyway I kept popping out and checking and eventually managed to get a half dozen shots of one of them.  Then back into the man cave, my office/laboratory, to identify it.

Female Small Red Damselfly of form f. typica

It turn out to be a female Small Red Damselfly of the form f.typica instead of having a complete red abdomen the first two and the last segment are red all the others are a metallic green as you can see in the photograph above. 

If fact the garden pond has done well this year with Large Red and Azure Damselflies in fairly good numbers for the size of pond. Plus the garden has attracted several Keeled Slimmer and the Small Reds, I have also caught sight of a hawker in and around the garden at times which is most likely a Southern Hawker as we have recorded females ovipositing in the pond in the past.

Our next trip was to Portland with the aim to see shearwaters, though there were good numbers over the last few mornings they had tended to be early morning movements and we were not going to be there at the right time.  From past experience we know there are always birds that move through in the later morning, we just needed a little luck so we headed out to the obelisk and began our seawatch.  I suppose we hadn't been there fifteen minutes when I picked up our first shearwaters coming in from the left at middle distance a group of nine Balearic Shearwaters moving east.  There was another birder present and chatting to him he said he had had both species but Manx were definitely less in numbers to Balearic.  He then pointed out a small group of Common Scoter sat on the sea and as we scanned around there were lots of Guillemots and the odd Razorbill dotted about.  It took another ten to fifteen minutes probably before we saw more shearwaters again a group of Balearics again moving east this time twelve in a tight group skimming the waves as they past.   A while later I picked up a single shearwater that moved east and as it closed to pass in front of us turned out to be a Manx I quickly got Jackie on to it and it then turned and went back west only to return and continue east and disappear.  Checking the time, as we only paid for an hour to park, we had been almost an hour and as we had seen our target species headed for the car.

Balearic Shearwater © Nick Hull

Manx Shearwater © Nick Hull

Whilst we were doing our seawatch Jackie looked down and asked what's that beetle thing I took a look and quickly took a few shots but the speed I had set on the camera was a tad to slow and I didn't get a very sharp shot as you can see.  Though it was good enough to be able to identify what it was a Sea Slater or Sea Roach (Ligia oceanica). They are a type of crustacean related to woodlice and they are found on rocky shorelines and feed on decaying seaweed.  The best time apparently to see them in late evening when they come out to feed.

Sea Slater - Portland Bill © Nick Hull

On our way back to Upton we decided to check out Silverlake for Odonata and see if we could see any Broad Scarlets present.  Looking around the pond there were Black-tailed Skimmer everywhere one or two Emperor Dragonflies and I had a brief view of a Lesser Emperor as it zoomed past me.  I also had a dark brownish chaser/darter but it didn't perch and moved off too fast for me to get an identification.  We also saw Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies and Four-spotted Chaser and a single Pyramidal Orchid. 

It wasn't until we arrived home that Bird Guides put out news that 3 Scarlet Darter had been reported.  I telephone Terry and asked if he had heard and he said yes, I saw three teneral Scarlets and sent me a copy of one he managed to get a shot of.  I'm pretty sure it was the same as the one I didn't managed to identify as it past me and disappeared when we were there, I'll have to return and see them properly another day.

Male Emperor Dragonfly Silverlake © Nick Hull

Female Four-spotted Chaser - Silverlake © Nick Hull

The wildlife garden at home has been producing a good selection of invertebrates.  On the the 30th we had a count of eleven species on butterfly using the garden.  Plus we had our second burnet species, as we had Five-spot Burnet in the first week of the month and now Six-spot Burnets have emerged. 

Six-spot Burnet pupa case and the freshly emerged adult © Nick Hull

We have a very tenuous breeding population of Common Blue butterflies and oddly they are always later emerging here than in other areas.  The first brood only produced a female that we noticed and now we have just seen a male around the garden.  I'm not hopeful that they will continue for much longer but time will tell.

Common Blue © Nick Hull

We have just recorded our first Ringlet and Gatekeeper which have joined the Meadow Browns, all three species were about a week earlier than last year to emerge or be seen in the garden as were the Small and Large Skipper.  

Small Skipper - © Nick Hull

The other species of note is the dragonflies this year has been particularly good as mentioned above and usually we have to wait till July to see our first Common Darter but not this year, our first appeared on the 26th June but I wasn't 100% as it went by me and disappeared somewhere in the garden then on the 30th I managed a quick shot of it and was able to confirm it's id.

Common Darter © Nick Hull

I'm going to end this blog now as it's seems to be rather longer than usual and I'll add another with the moths. that have turned up in the trap some of them have been pretty scarce or rare migrants.....