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.
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| 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.
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| Poplar Hawk-moth |
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| 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.
