That old Chestnut

A happy new year from Batch Valley also. After a hiatus of a couple of months the moth trap was out again. The endless bad weather brightened a little, with a stiller night and less rain.

Proof that moths were surviving the winter was provided as four made their way to the trap. Three of those were Spring Ushers, the same moth found by Graham a few days ago.

Spring Usher - a paler example

The other was a Chestnut, a case of the old familiar. This is one of several moths that can be found right throughout the winter, and is always a contender if the trap is out between autumn and spring.

Chestnut

These moths made a cameo performance at today's Strettons Community Area Wildlife Group AGM. We have several new people signed up for this years Moths in YOUR Garden surveys, so we have new places to visit once the moths start to play.

2014 is here and .....

A belated HNY to anyone looking. 
Not a lot of nights when it looked worth putting the trap on, but January the 5th seemed a possibility.
However the wind was very strong and turned the trap over quite early on. Nevertheless I re-set it and in the morning there were 2 Mottled Umbers.

Have not tried again since then and with the promise of cold nights it just did not seem to be worth the effort.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find a Spring Usher on the house wall last night when the outside light was left on for an hour or two. The fact that it snowed shows what brave (or stupid?) things moths are.

Spring Usher

Photo of a Spring Usher just to liven up the blog a little, but not the one from last night! These are quite pretty moths and very variable, as can be seen by looking at the photo from last year (click on its name in the list).

Anything you can do ...

I can do as well (sometimes!) So, because the forecast was for a balmy night,  I too put my trap on, and yes, Spring was Ushered in here too!



Spring Usher

It was in the trap with 2 Mottled Umbers and an agonopterix, which I have spent a long time trying to identify and arrived at the same answer at the end as I had assumed at the beginning.
Agonopterix heracliana, a moth which can be found all year round, but, like the Spring Usher, is a first for us here.









I just could not get a better picture of the agonopterix.



Agonopterix heracliana

Sign of spring

It has finally stopped raining in the Shropshire Hills, and with blue skies and sunshine, robins in song and slowly lengthening days it feels like spring may be on its way. How very apt then that on my first trapping session of the year last night that I caught a Spring Usher. This is a new moth for us in the Strettons and one which will be on the wing for the next couple of months.

Spring Usher

As with some of the other moths of the winter, this is easily identifiable as a male as the female is flightless. It is a species that likes oak, and I like to think that the large oak tree behind the house is part of the reason it is here.