October quietly passes

Did not have the trap out for a while due to cold and being away for the half-term week (missing the Shore Lark in the meantime). In the last four nights however, despite the recent mild spell, things have been quieter than I had expected with just five moths trapped comprising:

Pale Mottled Willow x2
Shuttle-shaped Dart
Spruce Carpet
Yellow-line Quaker (garden first record 31/10)

taking the October total to just 27 species of which 21 were Noctuidae.
Still plenty of autumn fayre to pickup for the first time next year !

Yellow-line Quaker

Second week of October

A couple of new ones this week though numbers have been low in general. Black Rustic has been the most numerous, a Chestnut, a few Blair's Shoulder-knot and four species of carpet, Garden, Common Marbled, Spruce and Grey Pine, with a few lingering yellow underwings and Turnip.
Illustrated are the two new ones for the list and a lighter form which I had not encountered before.

Green-brindled Crescent (garden first on 12th)

Brown-spot Pinion (garden first on 8th Oct)

Large Ranunculus (paler form than those I trapped in September)

Merveille du Jour - Oct 8th

Looking in the literature to see what might be around each month, there are a few moths which jump from the pages and on to the "hope I catch one of those in the garden" list. The Merveille du Jour is one of those and this moth duly obliged by finding its way into the trap before I went to bed on 8th Oct. I released it on to a leaf of an apple tree and tried to capture an alternative view of this very distinctive species.

Merveille du Jour (garden first on 8th Oct)

An early October selection

A few new ones have come into the garden in the last week. The tally for the year continues to climb almost daily and still a few of the more common autumn species have yet to appear. With some warm and dry nights forecast it's looking good...

Red-line Quaker (first on 6th Oct)

Rosy Rustic (first on 6th Oct)

Sallow (first on 5th Oct)

Red-green Carpet (first on 7th Oct)

Angle Shades (29th Sept, previously only in June and early July)

In addition, a few more Blair's Shoulder-knot and Black Rustic have been trapped over recent nights and thankfully numbers of yellow underwings have gone right down making the trap a more peaceful place for the remainder of the moths to rest for the night

Autumn coming...Sep 28th

I have been anticipating new autumn moths for a couple of weeks now and nothing has arrived since a couple of Centre-barred Sallows at the start of the month. Tuesday night brought the following two similarly shaped species that were on the "hoped-for" list however so maybe some more will follow as the season progresses.

Black Rustic

Blair's Shoulder-knot

Large Ranunculus

One thing about the first year of looking at moths is that new species for the garden appear regularly as the seasons change and whether they are likely to be common or not is somewhat unknown for many of them. It is only when the season has changed and the number of records can be seen that a picture emerges. One new one that appeared on Monday night was Large Ranunculus, is this the first of many, first of a few, or the only one that might be trapped this season ? If there is only one in this season, will it appear next year or not ? Only time will tell and that just adds to the fascination.

Large Ranunculus (garden first trapped 20/9)

Rather a nice looking moth this one, presumably fresh

Quiet mid-September

It's been quiet this week with a continuation of the various coloured underwings and rustics including an increased number of Lunar Underwings in a variety of forms. Just the one new species for the garden, hiding amongst the brown noctuids.

Green Carpet (garden first on 13th September)

Female and male Orange Swift

Lunar Underwing (from the palest to the darkest so far)