My name is Mark Lawlor, I live in Guernsey and I have been running a moth trap in my various gardens since 1999, so I guess I am quite experienced with the beasties, or at least the ones that visit my garden. Although we probably have less resident species here on the island compared to the mainland, a few of these residents are interesting non-British species (although most of these are now expanding their range north into the UK). This is an excellent spot for migrant moths, and we can also get some exciting rare visitors from France, although people don't tend to realise that Kent is closer to France than Guernsey is.
Recently, my trapping has become a lot more irregular and I only put the trap out 20 or so times in the whole of 2012. However, with my attempt at Mr. Muzza's "1000 for 1KSQ" challenge in 2013, this has encouraged me to get my arse into gear and I have had 2 new species for the garden already - Oak Beauty and Acleris ferrugana. I generally don't have time to get the trap out on a school night so I am mostly a weekend moth-er, but during the long summer holiday I can hit it big time!
Had the trap out last night despite it being frickin' freezing and had just 5 species. Two of these were new for the year however - Mullein, and my first migrant in the trap, a Silver Y. These two, along with a Mompha divisella in the shed brings me to 38 species in my garden this year. Cheers!
[nb. My personal website/blog is at http://lalarinho.webs.com/apps/blog/ ]
Mullein
Silver Y
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