Let it rain!

On Monday we came back from a long weekend in Aderdovey where it had either been lovely sunshine or absolutely chucking it down. And it was chucking it down here too, so clearly not the night to put the trap on.
Well, actually, NO, it promised to be a very good night for mothing for 2 reasons. Firstly that moths are fairly waterproof (unless they get stuck in a puddle) and the weathermen promised an overnight low of around 14°C.

So, the trap was switched on in the pouring rain! And on Tuesday morning, still with the high temperature there were more than 50 moths in the trap.

The trap had been on on the 12th and 15th of October, these nights having catches of 40+ and nearly 60 moths.

All the usual suspects for this time of year are appearing but it was nice to get my first Streak here, and this moth has apparently not been recorded in Shropshire for 5 years or more.

Streak

Hopefully a few more warmer nights to come will bring something interesting.

Poor excuses!

Holidays, busy social life, laziness, all just excuses for not posting on here for far too long.
Worse is the fact that there have been lots of moths about, several new to me here.

First of all I should thank Chris for our super evening in Lydbury North (6th September) where we went, with our traps, to join members of their Community Wildlife Group and passed a super evening, in spite of the fact there were not a lot of moths, there was a Brown-spot Pinion, a first for the year.

Brown-spot Pinion

I have run my trap 10 times since then and on 4 of the first 5 nights there were very small catches, however, on the 19th, with only 7 species present, one was a Dark Sword-grass. This is an immigrant moth, with an unconfirmed possibility that spring arrivals breed in the UK.

Dark Sword-grass

Lots of caterpillars around and several micro-moths flying in the garden, 2 of which have been new to me here, and the A alstromeriana not having been recorded in Shropshire since 2006, the other being Acleris Rhombana.

Agonopterix alstromeriana

 

Acleris rhombana

The usual autumn moths, like Green-brindled Crescent and Beaded Chestnut  have started to appear, but catches will gradually decline as winter approaches.

Beaded Chestnut