Some Spanking Garden Moths

It's that time of year when keeping up with MapMate recording is hard work, with ever growing garden lists in conjunction with mothing forays around the county. As soon as I catch up and have a couple of nights off, I start again and I am back behind. As it stands I have garden lists from 1st, 2nd & 3rd July to enter, plus the Watermead and Cossington lists to sort out from 2nd. In the meantime, here's some shots of a few from the garden over the last two nights including some corkers!

For the garden mother, there is only one thing better than picking up a garden first and this is when a really smart/scarce/outlandish species reappears. There's nothing worse than having lots of single individual/record species on the garden list - I should know as I have lots of them! So really pleased that these two turned up again:

Small Ranunculus - second record, first was 25/07/2010

Blackneck 02/07/2011 - second record, first was 02/07/2010 (amazing coincidence)

Another one to reappear was this:

Carpatolechia alburnella 02/07/2011 - second record, first was 13/07/2008

There is a potential garden first in the offing as well though - depending on how the gen det turns out. I've been looking out for Rufous Minor in the garden for years and it looks like I may finally be in luck ..

Rufous Minor 02/07/2011

CONFIRMED - gen. det. by Jon Clifton Jan 2012

This one is a definite garden first - albeit just a form of a regular species.

Lime Hawk-moth f. brunnea 03/07/2011

The last three are just cause I fancied getting a shot of them.

Lilac Beauty 03/07/2011 - stunning moth

Acleris forsskaleana 03/07/2011 - common in my garden

Slender Pug 02/07/2011 - subtly smart when fresh(ish)