Land of the Tiger

We returned to the Land of the Tiger last weekend, or more accurately the site of the Scarlet Tiger, for another 'moths in your garden' survey. A few weeks ago Graham was contacted by Alison and Brian in Church Stretton, about an unusual moth. The resulted in Graham finding several freshly emerged Scarlet Tigers, the story is here. One thing led to another, and we returned loaded up with our mothtraps to see what else was lurking there.

It was a warm evening, and as we shared a bottle of wine we could already see a couple of Silver Ys in the garden, so the traps were duly set with good expectations. In the morning we returned to a good selection of moths. This included a Garden Tiger, though no Scarlets, plenty of attractive Poplar and Elephant Hawkmoths and a nice selection of other moths. How many can you name on the eggboxes below?

Selection of moths

One of the many pleasing things about the surveys is that I get to see moths that I have not recorded in my own garden. The moth highlight for me was one of those species, a Gold Spot.

Gold Spot

Another species that I have seen only once before is the Pebble Prominent, and this was another much welcome visitor. It is also a species that has not featured on the blog before, so an opportunity to put this right.

Pebble Prominent

There were also some of our 'regulars', species that we often catch in most sessions. Because they are so familiar we often do not look at them as closely as we should, but amongst them are some of my favourite moths. One of these is the Antler, which is often a favourite on our surveys.

Antler

Last of the pictures is of a moth that has seen better days, but a new species for us and so quite a notable one. This is a Buff Footman, one of three footman species that we recorded.

Buff Footman

It was overall a very enjoyable visit. We had excellent hosts and recorded some very nice moths - we caught a staggering 90 species. I will leave you with Graham giving Alison and Brian the benefit of his mothing wisdom!