A Prominent Day!

I've been away again in Dorset, partly for drinking and partly for mothing. The latter activity took place on probably the best night of the year for moths down there, and the Portland Obs blog covers what happened pretty accurately.

However, I am only writing about South Bucks moths here, and I have been trapping in my garden with mixed results.

Last night, though, was pretty good and the title of this post covers the fact that amongst the 38 species in my trap were four beautifully fresh Prominent moths, namely Iron, Coxcomb, Pale and Pebble.

A couple of new species since the last post for my all-time garden list include Satin Beauty and Bright-line Brown-eye, but mostly it's been standard fare.

 Pebble Prominent

Pale Prominent

Back from Hols

I've been away for the last week in South Wales, where the mothing has been nothing short of excellent. I can catch as many individuals and species in the garden there with one light as two or three in woodland will catch round here. And out in the dunes... well there's a whole new level. Some brief reports are on the Glamorgan Moths blog.

Anyway, back to South Bucks, I've run the trap in the garden at home and although few species compared to the above, last night I pulled in 29 species which is by far the best night this year.

New species for the year have been Barred Red, Buff Footman and Least Carpet, and if I exclude what I saw in Wales, Heart & Club, July Highflier and Short-cloaked Moth were also new.

Barred Red