Two more species #6

It felt like Spring today, mowing the lawn with a Small Tortoiseshell flying through and the first bumble bee on flowers.
Decided to run the trap for the first time ever in Feb for me and even though it was only for a few hours it did attract a March Moth.
Will wait a bit longer before leaving it out all night.

Moth Number 3:)

                                                             Pale Brindled Beauty(dark form)

Slow in Bucks

Having now finished my winter GMS with a grand total of 4 Chestnuts all winter, I put the trap out again last night following the promise of a mild overcast night. However, I rather think the wind put paid to any nocturnal flight, and all I managed was a Brown House Moth and for my Garden Challenge list

5. Torticodes alternella

Dotted Border

In an almost exact copy of the last post... A faded Dotted Border landed on my bathroom window last night. They must be fairly common here but I never get the trap out until March so only see 1-2 a year.
4 sps

Two

This slightly faded and washed out Dotted Border manage to brave the winds and rain to settle on the outside of my kitchen window on Thursday evening. No trapping recently, temps have been okay on many nights but the strong winds and/or heavy rains are just not viable for garden mothing (at least not in my garden).

Dotted Border

And so it begins...

We've yet to put the trap out this year (to avoid inundating the poor beasts), but quite a few moths have been turning up on the walls around the outdoor lights. The rest of the staff here are probably used to us peering intently at seemingly bare walls by now! We are on 5 species so far: Dark Chestnut, Mottled Umber, Spring Usher, Winter Moth and Pale Brindled Beauty. Hopefully the storms will be over soon so we can dust off the trap.

Here's to a good year of moth'ing!

First trapping of the year

On a whim, I decided to put out the trap last night (it wasn't raining, and didn't look as though it was going to freeze, so I thought 'what the hell'), and was rewarded with this lone individual - sorry for the poor quality of photo - which is presumably a Chestnut. I suspect we'll have to make the most of it while we can: can't see the trap being used much more this month.

Presumed Chestnut, 3.2.14

Trap still packed away..

Agonopterix heracliana flying around the sitting room
Species number three after Early Moth and Winter Moth

Can't wait for warmer weather .. Might tempt me to dust off the trap