Tuesday 29 April 2014

Random Moths

A couple of completely random sightings of nice fresh moths this morning, so no pics, and unrelated to any trapping effort; a Coxcomb Prominent amongst the leaves in a local wood, and a Small Phoenix on the wall of a friend's house.

Friday 25 April 2014

Another Quiet Week

Continuing poor weather has reduced the amount of moths around to virtually none.

On Tuesday, I was treated to two indoor Bee Moths, and an early Orange Footman on a wall.

Last night, expecting a mild night, the garden trap went out but in the end it seems it rained pretty much all night and the only occupant was a Twenty-plume Moth.

The woodland trap fared slightly better, with Engrailed, 3 Nut-tree Tussocks, a fresh Pebble Prominent, and this Esperia sulphurella (below). There were also three very worn tinea-type moths.


Friday 18 April 2014

Out and About

It's still very quiet in the garden; just an Emmelina monodactyla and Brindled Pug to show for my efforts last night, but the moon has been full, the skies clear, and the wind cold. I've evn scraped ice off the car windscreen on a couple of mornings.

Slightly better, though, in the woods where we ran a 40W Actinic trap, and caught Hebrew Character, Least Black Arches, Nut-tree Tussock, Grey Pine Carpet, Early Tooth-striped and this Lunar Marbled Brown.



Saturday 5 April 2014

All Gone A Bit Quiet

With the weather reverting to more normal conditions for the time of year, the moths in my garden have reduced in their numbers this week, although I have had a handful of new species for the year in the shape of Streamer, Double-striped Pug, Early Grey and Acleris cristana (the latter I found upside-down in a box of water, but luckily it was still alive and able to eventually fly away. It was a new specied for my all-time garden list, though!)


Early Grey


Streamer

Our little woodland trap has given up the ghost, or rather the battery charger has, although we have manged to run a 15W UV light - which needs to run off the mains, so is in a slightly less favourable location on the edge of the woods.
Nevertheless, we managed to add a few new species to the year list with Clouded Drab, Water Carpet and Early Tooth-striped plus an early Scorched Carpet on the security lights.

Scorched Carpet