Things are picking up

Much the same as happened in the final week of February last year (when we had a mini heat-wave), the number of moths in the garden has started to pick up and last night saw my first double-digit count for 2020:  Agonopterix heracliana (1), Small Brindled Beauty (1), Dotted Border (1), Clouded Drab (1), Common Quaker (4), Lead-coloured Drab (1) & Hebrew Character (2), along with an example of the large diving beetle Dytiscus marginalis (a regular visitor here). 

There are 13 previous records for Small Brindled Beauty in the garden but it is by no means an annual visitor so that was a welcome sighting.  On the other hand, with around 100 records of more than 200 individuals, Lead-coloured Drab is very much a garden regular thanks to all the local poplars although it is usually a moth of March and April and this was only my second February record here after one on the 22nd in 2011.  It is also worth mentioning that it wasn't as obvious a specimen as they usually are.  A male, it had the clearly feathered antennae (which distinguishes it from Clouded Drab) but then again so does the male Common Quaker, of which this looked like a very grey example.  However, on closer inspection the sub-terminal line was the wrong shape and less obvious than it should be on Common Quaker, while the two wedge-shaped marks mid-way along the sub-terminal line's inner edge - typical of Lead-coloured Drab - became obvious on the photo (in red here rather than the usual black).

Small Brindled Beauty, Westcott 23rd February

Lead-coloured Drab, Westcott 23rd February

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks