I had 3 moths in my garden trap last night here in Cookham. The first was an Oak Beauty which I hadn't seen before (I am fairly new to mothing).
The second I am fairly confident was a Clouded Drab.
The third one I found a bit more tricky, but eventually decided it was a Chestnut. I would be grateful for a second opinion.
They are all common species, but when you are new to mothing all catches are exciting!
Steve Trigg.
Hi Steve, all three of those IDs are indeed correct. My garden up here in mid-Bucks has managed around a dozen moths of five species over each of the past three nights, including Agonopterix ocellana which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere yet, but the species count should improve quite quickly now that we've had some decent weather. For good numbers woodland is still best at the moment. I ran a Skinner MV in some local oak woodland last night and in three hours got 289 moths of 18 species (including Shoulder Stripe, Oak Beauty, Engrailed, Small Quaker & Grey Shoulder-knot which were new for me for this year).
ReplyDeleteHi Dave, many thanks for confirming my IDs. That is a very impressive number of moths already flying in your local woodland!
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