Purple Thorn

 

Well the revamped kitchen is looking good but as well as being a bit lighter of pocket, I seem to have missed much of the Spring migration. Fortunately the moth season in the back garden has started and has kept me interested, although the catches so far have been poor.

As with last year I had nothing in the trap from the mid November to mid March except for one Light Brown Apple Moth and a Common Plume. My first real catch of the year was an Early Grey and a Double-stripped Pug on the 22nd March.

Early Grey - Xylocampa areola

April increased the catches a bit but I was still looking at five or six moths a night at best. Fortunately that included, new for the garden, Purple Thorn and a Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet.

Purple Thorn - Selenia tetralunaria

Purple Thorn - Selenia tetralunaria

Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet - Xanthorhoe ferrugata

Other moths of interest were a couple of Brindled Beauty and a Powdered Quaker.......

Brindled Beauty - Lycia hirtaria

Powdered Quaker -  Orthosia gracilis

...... with the numbers made up with Common Quakers, Flame Shoulders, Hebrew Characters and a good number of Double-striped Pugs.

Common Quaker - Orthosia cerasi

Flame Shoulder - Ochropleura plecta

Hebrew Character - Orthosia gothica

A change away from the northerly winds and some more humid nights would be welcomed. I suppose the Spring moths are flying somewhere but I am not seeing many of them in the garden.

Moths

 

My first full year of mothing has got off to a slow start with my current year list sitting at just nine moths. Poor return for the number of hours the moth trap has been out. I didn't manage to see any of the winter moths and in fact did not catch anything at the trap in January and February with my best catch being just three moths back on the 21st March.

Looking on the more positive side, five of those moths seen were are also new for my life list. That's not difficult though, as I only started recording moths in September of last year, so I am in the fortunate position that most of what I catch in the early part of this year is going to be new for me.

The five new moths are shown below headed up by the Brindled Beauty, probably the most impressive of those caught.

Brindled Beauty - Lycia hirtaria

With Common Quaker, Early Grey, Hebrew Character, and Small Quaker being the other moths new for me.

Common Quaker - Orthosia cerasi

Early Grey - Xylocampa areola

Hebrew Character - Orthosia gothica

Small Quaker - Orthoaia cruda

Other moths caught were the three below plus another Bloxworth Snout which I did not bother to photograph as it was so badly worn.

Double-striped Pug - Gymnoscelis rufifasciata

Light Brown Apple Moth - Epiphyas positvittana

Pale Mottled Willow - Caradrina clavipalpis

Angle Shades - Phlogophora meticulosa

Hopefully we will see an end to the cold nights over the next week or so and with the weather warming better returns from the traps. Something needs to change soon, we are less than a week away away from my earliest date for seeing Pearl-bordered Fritillary which for me marks the start of the butterfly season.