Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Thursday 11 January 2018

Foggy Moths

So yeah, I've been busy/distracted and done nowt worthy of bothering the blog about.

I have sorted out all of my 2017 garden moth records (381 species including 17 additions, garden list up to 684). I'm also just about finished putting together a garden moth report, quite some time since I last bothered. I've not run the garden traps since November, but I have stuck a 20W actinic CFL into an old outdoor light fitting that was still live and conseqently I've had one or two moths so far this year. Mostly Winter Moths, but also a Scrobipalpa costella and then last night a couple of surprises.

Conditions were far from good, not too cold but certainly not unseasonably warm, fairly still but a quite dense fog early in the night. Quite a surprise then to find two Early Moths and a Grey Shoulder-knot resting on the wall under the pale blue glow of the actinic. Trouble is that it is pitch black when I go to work and the same when I get home, so these are compromised shots using the daylight bulbs I have. Doesn't help when both moths were not playing ball ..... not much use putting winter-flying moths in the fridge!

Early Moth

Grey Shoulder-knot

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