First Garden Moths!

For the first time since 1st Nov I had two whole moths in the trap, in the shape of these two Chestnuts. It's a start I guess!

Another indoor moth

My indoor mothing continues, with a White-shouldered House Moth in the bathroom this morning. Also had an Early Moth at my regular woodland.

Now that I'm in my third full season of mothing, and having checked my records, I'm not really expecting to see too much for another couple of weeks or so, but I would like to see some moths...!

Woodland Moths

After running a 6w actinic trap in a local woodland for the winter GMS scheme, my first outdoor moth of the year was a Winter Moth. Not at the trap, but nearby, were two Early Moths.

First Moth of the Year!

It's not very exciting, but I was pleased to find my first moth of the year, resting on the window blind on my landing. Not surprised to find nothing outside, given the amount of wind and rain we are having in these parts. In fact, I haven't trapped a singe moth at home for two full months. Let's hope things get underway soon...

Oh, the moth, it's a Twenty-plume Moth (Alucita hexadactyla).

It's Been A While...

...since I last saw any moths, but after a slightly milder night, a regular actinic light placed in a local managed woodland produced a couple of December Moths and an Acleris sparsana.

Also on the site were a brace of Mottled Umber, a Scarce Umber and a pair of Winter Moths.

I am trapping for the Winter Garden Moth Scheme, both at home and at the above site, and these were the first moths I can report during the season. Last year (garden only) I had a total of 9 moths during the whole 16 weeks; currently I'm not holding my breath for anything better but let's see shall we!

December Moth

Quiet October

October has been very quiet on the moth front. This is partly because I was out of the country for two weeks (I did see a few moths, but nothing too spectacular) and because of the deteriorating weather, I have only run the trap 4 times during the rest of the month.

The only new moths for the year during these sessions has been the aggregate November Moth and a brace of Yellow-line Quakers.

My regular woodland site hasn't been much better, although there have been some new species for my year list and one new for the site:

Blair's Shoulder-knot
Feathered Thorn
Sprawler
Chestnut
Agonopterix arenella

Feathered Thorn

Better Autumnal moths

The MV light and reasonably mild nights have continued to pay dividends with some more nice autumn moths in my garden.

Continuing large numbers of Large Yellow Underwing (up to 29) and Lunar Underwing (up to 16) have made the overall numbers quite high (up to 103) , although the maximum number of species has been 19.

New for the year list in my garden have been:

Rush Veneer
Figure of Eight (I did have a caterpillar in the spring)
Large Ranunculus
Brown-spot Pinion (all-time garden first)
Beaded Chestnut

Brown-spot Pinion

Also trapping in my favourite woodland spot only produced three moths this week (it was the coldest night), but at least this list included

Sallow (new for year)
Pink-barred Sallow (only my 2nd ever)

Pink-barred Sallow