Striped Lychnis in the local news

Just seen this on the Bucks Free Press website:

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/11762269.Can_you_help_save_a_rare_moth_/

Nigel

Indoor Mothing

This Agonopterix alstromeriana was found indoors last night (Loosley Row, Bucks).

Nigel

Mild night but few moths

The long run of frosty nights locally probably put paid to getting much from last night's brief mild interlude.  I ran a single MV light in Bernwood Forest, Bucks for a few hours from dusk and got just 14 moths of six species, rather fewer than I'd anticipated:  Winter Moth (1), Pale Brindled Beauty (1), Spring Usher (2), Mottled Umber (4), Satellite (1) & Chestnut (5).  Meanwhile, back home at Westcott, Bucks the garden actinic managed only Chestnut (1) & Dark Chestnut (2).  Still, at least something turned up to break the monotony!  Dave Wilton

Spring Usher, Bernwood Forest 25th January

First moths of the year

First moths of the year (coincidently on the same day): a Grey Shoulder-knot and a female Light Brown Apple Moth flying around inside my office (near Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire) on the 22nd January.

E-moth newsletter

Here is the latest E-moth newsletter from Butterfly Conservation/National Moth Recording Scheme.

BC's Zoë Randle says "This is a bumper edition which includes the usual update on the National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS), submitted articles on Luring Red-tipped Clearwing and possible and potential moth extinctions in England amongst other things."

Garden Moth Scheme: 2015 conference near Beaconsfield

The Garden Moth Scheme collects information from people around the UK who run a moth-trap on a regular weekly basis in their gardens. The scheme is organising a conference in 2015, and it is on our patch, at the Chiltern Woodland Burial Park near Beaconsfield, on Sunday 1 March 2015. 

The programme looks excellent. If you'd like to attend you need to book a place by contacting Janet Cheney. For full details see:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/184286/GMS%20Conference%202015%20programme.pdf

For more about the Garden Moth Scheme see:
http://www.gardenmoths.org.uk/

An early moth

I found a micro moth in my bathroom this afternoon, which after potting up looks like Celypha lacunana.  This seems ridiculously out of season, as I thought they emerged in May.  There is a banana plant over wintering in the bathroom at present and I wondered if it might have emerged from here and got a bit confused with the warm temperature.

A bit blue due to low light

Adam Bassett, Marlow Bottom, Bucks

Moth trap results

Last night was relatively mild, so I couldn't resist running the moth trap  (in Great Kimble), which produced a grand total of: one Chestnut moth. Still, it's a moth and therefore a pleasure to see!
Martin Harvey

Loosley Row, Bucks

Off the mark for the year with a Mottled Umber which came to the house lights last night.

Nigel

Edit:
03-01-15: Winter Moth (house lights)
05-01-15: Early Moth (house lights) and E. sarcitrella (indoors)

Mopping Up From Last Year

My apologies for rather throwing a spanner in the works here: I know that we're all geared up to our new year lists etc but I've rather let my records slip since the autumn and am only now trying to get things back in some sort of order. Sorting through my records for the autumn I've come across three photos that I never got around to ID'ing so I was wondering if someone could help me out here.

18th Sep: 4.5mm "nano" moth - I know that I've seen this before but can't place it

21st Oct: November Moth agg?

24th Oct: November Moth agg?

Jan 1st moths, Marlow Bottom, Bucks

My first two moth species of the new year were a Winter Moth on the kitchen window and more unexpectedly an Angle Shades in the bedroom.

Adam Bassett

Admin: A Year On

Happy New Year everyone,

Now that boring December is finally out of the way and 2015 has arrived, so the interest level should perk up a bit as we start all over again with a clean sheet, not knowing what is going to turn up.  For me at least, 2014 was an excellent year so let's hope that the next twelve months bring us all an equally interesting and varied collection of moths!

As far as the Blog is concerned I think 2014 also proved to be quite a successful year.  We've had more than 800 posts and just short of 70,000 page-views in the twelve months it has been running.  However, it would be good if we could see a few more people taking part.  Even amongst those of you who have signed up there are several who have yet to contribute - your sightings will always be of interest!  We are aware that many more people view the blog than contribute to it but if any of you who record moths within Bucks, Berks or Oxon and haven't yet 'joined' would like to do so, please do get in touch (see the 'Getting Started' tab).  We can have up to 100 contributors and we're barely halfway there yet.  For anyone (signed-up contributor or not) who would like to add a post or comment on one but would rather not do so themselves, I'll happily upload a contribution on your behalf if you send it to me by e-mail at the admin address (burnhamlodge at gmail dot com). 

To try and re-inject a little bit of the competitive spirit which was lost when the moth reports were transferred from the BC Upper Thames Branch website to this Blog, I'm currently looking into how we might manage bringing back the 'First Sightings' page, at least for macro-moth species.  Watch this space...

Dave Wilton     

First moth of 2015 ---

A solitary Winter moth was found below a porch lamp in Fairford leys, Aylesbury - a rather dull, worn specimen, but at least it's something!   Dave Maunder

Satellite

I switched on my Radnage, Bucks. garden MV trap at 00.30 hours this morning. One Satellite in the trap at 08.00 hrs.
Ched George.