It seems like ages since I've done any proper birding, but I make no apologies. There will be plenty of time for that after mid-August when things start to pick up. Then it'll be all eyes to the weather forecast and keeping fingers crossed. In the mean time, I like to spend mid Summer with the insects, in particular, lepidoptera.
We have had a pretty poor summer this year so far but this week has seen an increase in temperature and a rise in moth activity to match. Without much time to trap during the week these days, I used two traps in my garden on both Friday and Saturday nights with excellent results. I used my own Robinson trap and a Skinner on loan from Roger Forster for the first time this year. Both burn 125w MV bulbs, so the place was well lit.
On Friday I had 415 moths of 91 species, of which 137 were in the Skinner, and this trap also accounted for 13 species not in the Robinson. Whether they would have found their way in had only the usual trap have been used, remains to be seen. Saturday was the same set up with even better results. This time I had 518 moths of 104 species, my first treble figure count of species this year.
So without further ado, here are a few from this weekend...
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| Double Lobed |
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| Lime speck Pug |
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| Gold Spangle |
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| Lempke's Gold Spot |
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| Only my second ever Small Yellow Wave. |
3 comments:
lots of old ladies and swallow tails flying around at night here
Great selection (and number of moths). That Small Yellow Wave is a beauty :)
Small Yellow Wave is nice
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