2010.....here we go again

So far 2010 has been a dead loss moth wise, the ice and snow obviously hasn't helped and several attempts at trapping on the few milder nights has failed to produce anything...until tonight!. I decided to put the MBT on the window ledge as the weather forecast promised 4c tonight and it was worth taking the chance because within 20 minutes I had 2 moths on the outside of the window. Firstly there was what I'm guessing is a late flying Winter Moth as opposed to an Early Moth?, the other one I'm less sure of...could be a Pale Brindled Beauty?...looks a lot like a small version of a Peppered Moth to me. Nothing else turned up but it did get a lot cooler after 11pm....I can't wait for it to get a bit warmer.

First moth for December!

I'm still placing the MBT on the window ledge regularly and I finally got my first moth for this month but unfortunately it's not a December Moth it's a Dark Sword Grass but as it's the first macro I've seen for weeks it's more than welcome.

Mottled Umber

For the last 2 weeks the weather has been doing its very best to stop me from putting a trap out, I have managed to get a trap out for a few odd hours on various nights but I have mainly been stuck with just putting the MBT lamp on the window ledge. Apart from a few micros I haven't seen or caught anything until tonight when I was very pleased to see a Mottled Umber resting on the window...it wasn't so pleased to see me and it took 25 minutes to get it to 'pose' for the photo but well worth the effort if it means I have another moth to add to my list!! :0)

2009 best photos

I had a great time at the Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Entomological Society(DANES) annual insect show last Saturday, it was good to meet a few of the people who have been helping me with ID confimation etc.....it's always nice to put a face to an email address!!. I'm really looking forward to attending their trapping events next year as well as any other events I can get to, all the details are on their website http://www.danes-insects.org.uk/index.htm

Anyway as I haven't had anything apart from a rather lonely and sorry looking Silver-Y recently I thought I would share my favourite photos from my catches since I got back into 'serious' trapping 5 months ago, I'm guessing I wont be catching much between now and new year but I will be trying and if anything interesting does turn up I will be sure to share it with you.

Weekly update!

I'm getting such a small amount of moths now that I thought a weekly catch list would make better reading so until things pick up again I will only report once a week.....unless anything interesting turns up. The Brick is getting to be a regular visitor along with Spruce Carpet and several November/Winter/Autumnal moths which after consulting with Ian Kimber from UKMoths I have now decided to bunch together as 'Epirrita' because it's near impossible to tell them all apart.

In the last 7 days I have had the trap out 3 times and had the MBT lamp in the spare room window twice.....

7 Blair's Shoulder Knot

4 The Brick(see photo above)

4 Epirrita

5 Spruce Carpet

2 Silver-Y

2 Angle Shades

1 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Rosy Rustic

1 Black Rustic

1 Feathered Thorn

Feathered Thorn

I decided not to put the trap out tonight due to the poor weather conditions(wind & rain)but at 11pm I decided to put the MBT on the window ledge so I went out to the garage to fetch it and on the way back into the house a Feathered Thorn(see photo above) flew right past me and straight up to the kitchen strip-light!.....which was lucky because nothing else turned up!.

Winter Moth?

I put the home made MBT trap out tonight because I expected rain and this has much better lamp protection than my other traps, it rained quite heavily at 2:45am ending the trapping session but I'm pleased to say the lamp didn't suffer at all. In the trap I found the moth in the photo above, at first I thought it was a November Moth but I now think it's a Winter Moth which leads me to think that what I thought was a Northern Winter Moth in my previous posting was also a Winter Moth?.

The trap was out from 7pm to 2:45am

Tonight's Log

2 Blair's Shoulder-Knot

1 Winter Moth(see photo above)?

1 Angle Shades

1 Black Rustic

1 Spruce Carpet