Cafe Mocha - Jesse Cook

While all the land at Parley Court Farm belongs to the Dampney family just one small snag has arisen since Phase II of the Solar Panel Project begun and that is the matter of access to that acreage. With literally Millions of Pounds worth of equipment, plant and ancillaries involved with their erection it is no wonder that security is tight. Room then for the gentle approach and the start of a Charm Offencive with the German's who are running the whole show. Last Thursday in his Port 'a' Cabin Office I met Site Manager Pedro Sabiote (not at all German sounding?), a real toff, and quickly got down to negotiating the required access to lay Moth Traps at the northern end of the property. Aware of all of the safety issues as well as security he put me though a mini safety course and laid out the conditions associated with the permit.
Saturday, my friend Dave Foot arrived to enjoy another night Mothing here at Parley but with a good number of daylight hours left we busied ourselves trying to solve a couple of conundrums. Without a doubt, the 2 most intriguing species caught here this year have been

 BALSAM CARPET

(only the 'second' confirmed Dorset Record)

and

 BUTTONED SNOUT

 (a species a little more common in the County)

 Both are selective with their diets and will only flourish on a couple of Plant types.

Why then have they both been caught here and are they in fact breeding?

We needed to find the food plants.

Within just 300 yards of the start of our search a first single stem of

 ORANGE BALSAM

was found on the bank of the River Stour

 and as we progressed towards the Manor much more was found

in and around the marshy parts.

It was almost unbelievable that the second

HOP

would be found in exactly the same are, both of which I had seen before

but was unaware of the association until Dave arrived.

By sunset we had sited Dave's 3 traps at the north end and my 5 at their usual locations, and with weather condition being near perfect it was then just a matter of wait and see! During these preliminaries Common Buzzard, Mediterranean Gull, Woodcock and Nightjar were all encountered, and as I wandered toward the traps early the following morning

SUNRISE (05:00) over

Merritown Heath

 TREE PIPIT

 
STONECHAT
(it wasn't noticed until uploading the images that this adult male is 'ringed' right leg)
and

DARTFORD WARBLER
were all vocal and all feeding 'young'.
Cafe Mocha - Jesse Cook 

Of all the beauty, diversity, colour and patterning that is Mothing one of the family groups that stand out for me are the Mocha's. Just 5 Insects that occur in Great Britain bear the name and yesterday morning we managed to catch 3

 (The) MOCHA

BIRCH MOCHA

along with my own and the property's first

DINGY MOCHA

Just to round off the quartet this

BLAIR'S MOCHA

was caught here last season so that leaves only the 'scarce' False Mocha to be attracted.

A small cross-section of the remainder includes

 MAPLE PUG

 PLAIN WAVE 

alongside the almost identical and far more common
RIBAND WAVE (right)

 LARGE EMERALD

 a rather good example of

SMALL RUFOUS

SOUTHERN WAINSCOT* with SMOKY WAINSCOT (right) 

 KIDNEY-SPOT LADYBIRD

another creature on my Ladder of Learning

never seen before.

 LESSER TREBLE-BAR*

 TURNIP MOTH

new for here while the exciting little

 Mustoma nitidalis

shouldn't be here at all! Discovered on UK soil for the first time only a short while ago in this locale, it hails from about as far away from Parley as you can get. A native of the Antipodes, it is said to have been conveyed to England via garden plants and/or other vegetation but just as likely to have 'hitched' a ride on the wing of a

 

 DRINKER (Moth)

 TWO-SPOT LADYBIRD

 Another 'scarcity' but this time a true migrant

Cydia amplana

 With nothing for size comparison it should be said that were not 

my Mentor on hand I would doubtless have discarded this as a

Micro.

PINION-STREAKED SNOUT

and finally a

CLICK BEETLE

which can do what no human has yet achieved.

With a single 'click' from a spine on the back end which can be snapped into a corresponding notch, the beetle can propel itself into the air at a 'take-off' speed of 400G and reach a height of 20 x body length. Now let's see you do that Signor Sotomayor! (Info from Wiki).

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