Update from the Shropshire Hills

My Garden Moth Challenge campaign ground to a halt in May. I spent the first three weeks of the month in Canada, and on checking the blog on my return I noticed two things. Many more people had signed up (which is great), and allied to this I had tumbled down the leaderboard (not so good).

To make things worse I only saw three moths in the last ten days of May, two Brown Silver-lines and a dead Scalloped Hazel. Things have picked up in the last couple of days, though the going is still slow.

White Ermine

As a newcomer to moth trapping, I am still seeing plenty of new species. A White Ermine (above) this morning was a nice surprise, and in the last day or so I have found a few more good-looking moths, like this Poplar Hawk-moth clinging onto the trap (a regular crowd-pleaser) and this Pale Tussock.

Poplar Hawk-moth

Pale Tussock

I have also added a few butterflies in the last week. Orange Tips have finally arrived in the garden, and a Small Copper and Small Heath were nice to see yesterday as well.

The total is up to 42 species now. Don't think I will be troubling the top of the leaderboard, but looking forward to getting into three figures.