More of the same

Although there's nothing exciting to mention, here at Westcott, Bucks I've certainly had no shortage of moths to the garden actinic trap over the past few nights.  Brown-spot Pinion (20th), Blair's Shoulder-knot (21st) and Dusky-lemon Sallow (22nd) have been new for the year.  The only migrant of note was another Dark Sword-grass on the 20th, although what turned out to be 'just' a Red Underwing in last night's catch did raise my hopes for a second or two!

Lunar Underwing is doing particularly well here with nightly counts well into three digits, even on the 21st and 22nd when there were 127 and 126 individuals respectively despite the temperature falling to about 3C under clear skies.  It was also interesting to note activity from them just before dawn on both those nights with moths still arriving as I closed up the trap.  The species which fly at this time of year are made of sterner stuff!

Dusky-lemon Sallow is a bit of a local speciality.  I've never seen it away from my garden and that's where more than 60 of the 80-odd records for Bucks have come from.  There is no Wych Elm around here so it is presumably using hedgerow Common Elm, but that's widespread throughout the county so there must be other factors at play.  Most of the other records have come from the area north of Milton Keynes.  A picture of the rather battered specimen from the 22nd is shown below.  Dave Wilton

Dusky-lemon Sallow, Westcott 22nd September