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.

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

The Moth Gods....

...have stopped scratching their nethers, got up and started releasing moths. For last night's GMS, I had more moths of more species than I've had so far in the whole year in the trap.

1 Common Quaker
1 Small Quaker (NFY)
2 Hebrew Character
1 March Moth (NFY)
1 Emmelina monodactyla (NFY)
1 Brindled Pug (NFY)
1 Shoulder Stripe (NFY):

The weather is looking pretty good for the next couple of nights as well, so let's see what happens.

(There was nothing at all in our little woodland trap yesterday, but this is probably down to the battery failing at some point in the night).

This Week's Catch...

...another quiet week on the mothing front, with my garden catch comprising 2 Hebrew Characters and the woodland holding another 2 Hebrew Characters, 1 Engrailed and 1 Diurnea fagella.

GMS Fail

In spite of the warm sunny weather yesterday and a realtively mild night, I caught nothing in my GMS trap last night. There was a pretty much clear sky and a full moon, though, so I guess that may have had an influence.

Meanwhile, in the local woods, 1 Dotted Border, and three new species for my year list in the shape of 3 Engrailed, 2 Diurnea fagella and 1 Agonopterix ocellana.

Looks like things are remaining mild for at least a bit, so hopefully some of the moths will move out of the woods and into the gardens...

Ah! Moths!

As last night was looking slightly milder, I thought I'd run the trap. In the end, it was pretty windy, but I was pleased to see my first Satellite of the year hiding in the boxes.

Also, at my local woodland site, 2 Chestnuts, 2 Hebrew Characters and 1 Small Brindled Beauty.

Nothing special

As a round-up of my winter GMS season I had a grand total of 4 Chestnuts. That is all. Last year, I had 9 moths all winter, which I thought was poor. Oh very dear.

Last night, I put the trap out in the garden on the promise of a mild night, even running the MV for a bit, but all I caught was 2 Tortricodes alternella and a Brown House Moth. I think the wind didn't help...

I've also been looking at security lights at my favourite local woodland park, which have been managing to attract a few Dotted Borders, with last Tuesday peaking at 4, plus a brace of Spring Ushers.