Thursday 31 March 2011

Marching on...

As the last few days of March passed with warmer and dryer nights, the trap continued to pull in moths each evening with the expected Common Quakers, Hebrew Characters and Clouded Drabs and a few Small Quaker and Early Grey to add some variety. Two new species for me in addition to these broke up the relative monotony, both pleasingly distinctive from the usual brown jobs.
Streamer (first for garden 24/3) presumable fresh as showing lots of purple colour


Early Thorn (first for garden 28/3)

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Oak Nycteoline... first "goodie" of the year

Warm and cloudy evening produced my first real variety of the year from the garden trap. Top spot on the list goes to this garden first Oak Nycteoline which seems to be rather an unusual species in Bedfordshire. The book tells me this is of the form "notata".
Also new for the garden in the last couple of nights have been a Twin-spotted Quaker and Shoulder Stripe (three records) and a couple of micros that I actually managed to identify !

Oak Nycteoline (form notata) - garden first 22/3/11


Twin spotted Quaker

Shoulder Stripe

Full garden list for the evening of March 22nd: 20 macro of 9 species
Common Quaker - 5
Hebrew Character - 8
Small Quaker - 1
Clouded Drab - 1
Twin Spotted Quaker - 1 NFG
Double-striped Pug - 1 FFY
March Moth - 1
Early Grey - 1
Oak Nycteoline - 1 NFG
Twenty Plume Moth
Emmelina monodactyla
Diurnea fagella NFG

Wednesday 16 March 2011

You (Oak) Beauty !

After a couple of days fretting as others seemed to be getting these while none were arriving at Wychwood Moths, I was most pleased when a check around the trap during Saturday evening produced this Oak Beauty investigating the illuminated fence panel. I have had no return visit or second individual in the three subsequent evenings. Also new for the year have been a few Small Quakers and one Grey Shoulder Knot, a species that I did not record last autumn.
Common Quaker continues as the predominant species with plenty of Hebrew Characters and multiple Clouded Drab and Early Grey also.

Oak Beauty (garden first March 12th)

Small Quaker

Grey Shoulder Knot (garden first March 12th)

Friday 11 March 2011

Spring springs at last - March 10th

The last days of February and first week of March passed by with only a handful of moths trapped, a few Dotted Border, a March Moth, a Chestnut and the first few Common Quakers and Hebrew Character. The warmth of the last night prompted the first proper haul of the year though with a better total of 14 moths in the trap. I am now hoping that the next few nights will bring some variety to add to the numbers. Still waiting for my Oak Beauty to arrive...

Last nights total: Common Quaker - 11, Clouded Drab - 1, Hebrew Character - 1, Early Grey - 1

Hebrew Character

Early Grey

Common Quaker


Common Quaker - 11


Clouded Drab - a very dark one

Dotted Border
March Moth