Fresh arrivals

The warmest day of the year bought Peacock, Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell onto the wing in Batch Valley. This was followed by a cloudy warm night, the perfect time to put out the mothtrap. I was not to be disappointed, with 25 moths of 12 species, easily the best catch of the year.

The commonest moth was the Mottled Grey, a species I caught in quite large numbers in spring last year.

Mottled Grey

Half of the species were making their first appearance this year, though most were expected. This included some wonderfully fresh Hebrew Characters, a real crowd-pleaser.

Hebrew Character

I also recorded single Common Plume, Small Quaker and Clouded Drab, the first records of this year. The other new species for the year was Early Grey, with three of these beautiful moths.

Early Grey

There were still some 'hangers on', species I have been recording for the last couple of weeks. There were two Red Chestnuts, a moth I record here in good numbers, along with single examples of The Satellite, Chestnut, March Moth and Dotted Border. The last of these is a species I record occasionally in the late winter, but I had not until now secured a reasonable photograph of.

Dotted Border