On cue

Dave's forecast of Feathered Thorn and Sprawler the other day was very helpful this morning, when I opened the trap to find these two new arrivals. Actually, there were three Feathered Thorns, one of them on the lawn about two feet from the trap and wonderfully similar to scattered leaves in the same area. One Merveille du Jour turned up, snuggled into an eggbox. Also five Red-green carpets, the same number of Beaded Chestnuts, a Red-line Quaker and two Black Rustics. So things continue well here, and it's a bonus to have newcomers.

A couple of behavioural points: the Sprawler was among the most sound-asleep of any moths I have ever trapped, rolling around on my pyjama-covered lap without waking and still dead to the world (but not, I think, actually dead) when I decanted it into a shrub. Also, when I first went out to turn off the trap in the dark, various moths (mostly Autumnal/November ones, I think) fluttered up off the grass and either scooted or went into the still-lit trap.  When I went out just now, in daylight, those moths still outside the trap did not stir.   Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon.