Dark Sword-Grass...it turns out!

It stayed a lot milder than expected tonight and despite a few very light showers I ended up with a decent catch, Blair's Shoulder Knot are now taking over as most common garden visitor with no less than 10 of them in the trap tonight and it was nice to see another Black Rustic which gave me a chance to get a better photo. Among the catch was a moth I didn't recognise

which I have now been informed is a Dark Sword-Grass(ID Thanks to Karen and Ben).

The trap was out from 7pm to 3:30am

Tonight's Log

2 Lesser Yellow Underwing

10 Blair's Shoulder-Knot

1 Common Wainscot

1 Black Rustic(see photo above)
1 Garden Carpet

1 Common Marbled Carpet

1 Canary Shouldered Thorn

1 Silver-Y

2 Setaceous Hebrew Character

1 Dark Sword-Grass(see photo above)

Worth a try....

After a lovely warm day the temperature plummeted to around >5c so I didn't expect to catch a lot of moths tonight but I had to try the new trap out and I also wanted to try taking a photo of a moth using a halogen lamp as suggested by Ben from Essex Moths blog in response to me posting a forum entry asking if anyone could recommend a good light for photographing moths on the Back Garden Moths website(which I'm sure you're all aware of but just in case.... http://www.back-garden-moths.co.uk/index.php).

The catch wasn't very big or exciting but the photographic results with the tungsten lamp are a vast improvement I'm sure you'll agree.

The trap was out from 8pm to 3:15am

Tonight's Log

2 Large Yellow Underwing
1Lesser Yellow Underwing
3 Blair's Shoulder-Knot(see photo above)
1 Common Wainscot(see photo above)

1 Willow Beauty

Best night this month

The 'Skinner' trap has been out twice this week with very little to show for it but tonight proved to be somewhat better!!!, quite early in the evening I spotted a lovely Pink Barred Sallow in the trap which is a new species for my garden and there were a multitude of Carpet moths in there too....mainly Common Marbled Carpet with quite a bit of variation as well as at least one I didn't recognise and a very fresh looking Orthopygia Glaucinalis(is that a macro or a micro?). I was pleased enough at getting the moths I had seen through the perspex sheets but I wasn't expecting what I found when I came to empty the trap....a fantastic looking Black Rustic which is also a new species for my garden and oddly enough is one of the species I saw for the first time last Saturday night at Foremark Reservoir as was the Pink Barred Sallow so it's good to know that these moths turn up in my back garden eventually.

The trap was out from 8pm to 3:30am

Tonight's Log

2 Large Yellow Underwing

8 Lesser Yellow Underwing

5 Common Marbled Carpet(more new variations - see 2nd photo above)

4 Silver-Y

1 Shuttle Shaped Dart

1 Square Spot Rustic

1 Angle Shades

1 Brimstone

2 Grey Pine Carpet

1 ???? Carpet(see 3rd photo above)
1 Willow Beauty
1 Blair's Shoulder-Knot

1 Pink Barred Sallow(see 4th photo above)

1 Black Rustic(see top photo above)

Blair's Shoulder Knot

After the excitement of the past 2 nights and despite the fact that the temperature was down to below 8c I couldn't resist putting the trap out tonight just to see if there was anything about and I'm pleased to report there was....not much though!. The first surprise of the night was a Small Blood Vein which is only the second time I've caught that species in my garden, the second and nicest surprise was a Blair's Shoulder-Knot which is new to my garden.

The trap was out from 8pm to 3:15am

Tonight's Log

1 Large Yellow Underwing
2 Lesser Yellow Underwing
1 Common Marbled Carpet
1 Common Wainscot
1 Small Blood Vein(see photo above)
1 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Canary Shouldered Thorn

1 Willow Beauty

1 Lunar Underwing

1 Blair's Shoulder-Knot(see top photo above)(ID confirmation thanks to Ben)

National Moth Night - Addendum

Just last week I mentioned in a comment on the Essex Moths blog that I had never found a single caterpillar in my garden, then as I was tidying away in the garage tonight I noticed this hairy little creature crawling across the floor...unfortunately as it was on concrete and not feeding I don't know what it eats so I can't keep it but it was nice to finally find a caterpillar in - or at least very near to - my garden!! :0).

National Moth Night(Part 2 - Foremark Reservoir)

It turned out to be a surprisingly warm evening with plenty of cloud so ideal conditions for trapping, Foremark Reservoir is a Severn Trent Water nature conservation site with plenty of woodland surrounding the car park that everyone gathered in. I set up the 'Skinner' and quite quickly saw results with a lot of Carpet moths heading toward the trap within minutes, quite a few other species turned up during the night and 2 other traps with MV lamps were also being used not far from me one of which had attracted a couple of Black Rustic which I unfortunately didn't get in my trap but I did get to see one and very beautiful it was. Big thanks to Chris Burnett for running the event and big big thanks to the guy who jump started our car after the battery died(bloody Volvos!) I didn't get your name sorry but thanks!.

Observed or caught on the night were...

Large Yellow Underwing

Common Marbled Carpet

Grey Pine Carpet

Green Carpet

Brimstone

Copper Underwing

Common Wainscot

Gothic

Snout

Canary Shouldered Thorn

Pink Barred Sallow(see photo above)

Pine Carpet(see photo above)(ID thanks to Leigh)

Deep Brown Dart(see photo above)(ID thanks to Leigh)

National Moth Night(Part 1 - My Garden)

It was more like National Micro Moth Night for me with a dozen or so assorted micros in the kitchen before I'd even put the trap out, early on it was mainly micros in and around the trap including a few I don't remember noticing before(I got some photos to keep things more 'interactive). Most of the macros started turning up after midnight and oddly enough they included a couple of species I haven't seen for a few weeks(Burnished Brass & Brimstone), I also got a Lunar Underwing(ID Thanks to Ben) which is a new species for my garden so not a bad night and it was specially nice to see the lack of Large and Lesser Yellow Underwing(the chavs of the moth world!).

The trap was out from 8pm to 3:30am

Tonight's Log

2 Large Yellow Underwing

2 Lesser Yellow Underwing

3 Common Marbled Carpet

3 Setaceous Hebrew Character
2 Common Wainscot
1 Angle Shades

1 Burnished Brass

1 Brimstone

1 Lunar Underwing(see top photo above)

Keep trying

I've had the trap out a couple of times since my last blog but the amount of moths/species caught hasn't been worth writing about, I've made a few 'improvements' to my home made Skinner trap in readiness for taking it out to Foremark Reservoir this Saturday for their National Moth Night event so I put it out in the garden tonight to see if it does any better than the new trap. I've caught mainly Large and Lesser Yellow Underwing with a few Common Marbled Carpet and a couple of Common Wainscot over the last few nights but I still live in hope that something new will turn up in my garden to add to the list which is currently 'stalled' at 94 different macro species....with luck I will get that up to 100 before Christmas?. Tonight is the mildest night so far this week with a lot of cloud cover keeping the temperature up a bit and there were certainly plenty of flies around, early indications were that there aren't many moths but I did ok compared to the other nights this week. The photo is of a moth I regularly see in our front garden and on the local park but I've never seen one in the back garden nor have I found one in the trap....some type of Tortix at a guess?.

The trap was out from 8pm to 3:15am

Tonight's Log

6 Large Yellow Underwing
4 Lesser Yellow Underwing
3 Common Marbled Carpet
2 Setaceous Hebrew Character

2 Square Spot Rustic

2 Common Wainscot

1 Copper Underwing

1 Silver-Y
1 Angle Shades

Another newbie

It was much colder and windier tonight so I only put the trap out till 2:15am, I'm going to visit Attenborough nature reserve tomorrow so I thought an earlier night might be a good idea so we can get and earlier start. The weather conditions and the early finish meant I didn't get very many moths in the trap but I did get something new for my garden so it was a good night!. I'm not sure what it is but I'm sure someone will tell me....please!!.

The trap was out from 8pm to 2:15am

Tonight's Log

5 Large Yellow Underwing

11 Lesser Yellow Underwing

1 Common Marbled Carpet

1 Setaceous Hebrew Character
2 Square Spot Rustic
1 Copper Underwing
1 Grey Pine Carpet
1 Silver-Y
1 Canary Shouldered Thorn

1 Pale Mottled Willow(see photo above)(ID Thanks to Ben)

Unsure again

After 2 days away I was really looking forward to trapping again and it was a fairly mild evening with a reasonable amount of moths around early on, things got a bit windy later on and there were a few spots of rain but I still got a nice selection of moths. I got 3 Thorn moths which I took to be 2 Dusky Thorn and a Canary Shouldered Thorn but as I am still waiting to get assorted other Thorns I took a photo of one of them for confirmation.....the Canary Shouldered doesn't seem to have the right wing colour or 'pattern' to me so is that something else?. I also got a blue-ish carpet moth which is probably just another Common Marbled variation but it would be great to be proved wrong!.

The trap was out from 8pm to 3:45am

Tonight's Log

2 Large Yellow Underwing
9 Lesser Yellow Underwing
2 Common Marbled Carpet(possibly 3....see photo above)

2 Setaceous Hebrew Character

3 Square Spot Rustic

2 Copper Underwing

1 Common Wainscot
2 Willow Beauty

1 Garden Carpet

1 Green Carpet

1 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Angle Shades

3 Silver-Y

1 Flounced Rustic

2 Dusky Thorn

1 Canary Shouldered Thorn?(see photo above)

Two nights in Lincolnshire

I went camping for a couple of nights and got really lucky with the weather but there wasn't enough room in the car to take a trap, apart from the MBT I don't have any other form of mothing light yet and I'm guessing the MBT would have caused at least a few raised eyebrows.

I did find a couple of Brimstone moths hanging around the lights of the campsite toilet/shower block but there were more rabbits than insects on the campsite. I got 'up close and personal' with a fantastic assortment of Butterflies, Dragonflies and damselflies at Chapel Six Marshes and I imagine that place would be a wonderful place to take a trap to....maybe next year?.

Not new but.....

I didn't get chance to trap last night and I wont get chance to trap for the next two nights so I had to give it a try tonight even though once the sun went down it got very cool very quickly. Not a brilliant catch but better than expected and it included a Shuttle Shaped Dart which appeared to have a lot more brown/copper tones to it than all the previous examples I've seen...not new but certainly different.

The trap was out from 8pm to 3:15am

Tonight's Log

3 Large Yellow Underwing

10 Lesser Yellow Underwing

2 Common Marbled Carpet
4 Setaceous Hebrew Character
2 Square Spot Rustic
2 Common Wainscot

3 Willow Beauty
1 Shuttle Shaped Dart(see photo above?)

Something new...

The weather forecast for today just got better and better with a promise of a cloudy night and a temperature of 17 degrees which is exactly what we got, the garden was busier than it has been for weeks with a lot of flies and micros early on making way for plenty of macro moths later in the evening. I got a few moths I don't get often(Centre Barred Sallow & Snout) and though I didn't get a new species I did get a Common Marble Carpet variant that I have never seen before.

The trap was out from 8:30pm to 3:45am

Tonight's Log

9 Large Yellow Underwing

8 Lesser Yellow Underwing

7 Square Spot Rustic

1 Flounced Rustic

1 Willow Beauty

2 Common Wainscot

1 Silver-Y

8 Common Marbled Carpet(including the new variant...see photo above)

2 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Garden Carpet

3 Copper Underwing

1 Flame Shoulder

1 The Snout

1 Centre Barred Sallow

1 Staceous Hebrew Character

2 Brimstone

Gothic

I had a bad feeling that for tonight's blog(which is my 50th!!) I wasn't going to have much to write about, it was cold out there and I only ended up with 32 moths in the trap BUT one of them was new to my garden and what a beauty!.

The trap was out from 9pm to 3:15am

Tonight's Log

17 Large Yellow Underwing

4 Lesser Yellow Underwing
1 Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing
1 Angle Shades
1 Garden Carpet
1 Square Spot Rustic

1 Common Wainscot

2 Setaceous Hebrew Character

1 Copper Underwing
1 Vines Rustic

1 Common Marbled Carpet

1 Gothic(see photo above)