Open the floodgates!

Seems an appropriate post header, as looking at the forecast, I think we're in for a fairly grim week's weather. However, the last couple of weeks have combined considerable busy-ness elsewhere with quite a spike in moth numbers - over 80 a couple of times, and a maximum species count of 33 - which will no doubt be overtaken later in the summer but has felt fairly spectacular anyway. As before, quite a few species seem to be turning up early in or slightly before their expected flight season; and new species for the year (one or two lifers, too) turning up more or less every night: even last night, which was not great weatherwise, we had our first Silver Y and Setaceous Hebrew Character of the year. Perhaps the most striking record was a Telechrysis tripuncta on 23rd May, which is not a very common species.

There isn't space for more than a sample of what we've seen over the last fortnight, but I've posted a few below. All told we're now up to 124 species on the challenge: 116 moths and eight butterflies.

Elachista argentella, 16/5/14 (a lifer)

Figure of Eighty, 18/5/14 (another lifer!)

Iron Prominent, 23/5/14

Peach Blossom, 17/5/14

Puss Moth, 18/5/14

Scorched Wing, 21/5/14