Grey Shoulder-knot

With our current southerly airstream, lots of interesting migrants have been turning up on the coast over the past week or two.  Even though few of them have been venturing this far inland I thought I'd try the MV as well as the actinic in the garden last night to see if it made any difference to the catch - the answer was very little!  Most moths still came to the actinic and the only new one to the MV was a Grey Shoulder-knot tempted out of hibernation.

Grey Shoulder-knot, Westcott 24th February

Another Shoulder Stripe came to the actinic and this example was in much better condition than the one seen on the 21st.  Looking rather different to the illustrations in the Field Guide, it showed the stunning purplish colouring seen regularly on fresh specimens here.  

Shoulder Stripe, Westcott 24th February

Another 2mm Nepticulid was potted up yesterday afternoon from the outside of a downstairs window which is about six or seven metres away from our Norway Maple Acer platanoides.  It looked identical to the last one found on 16th February so I won't upload another poor-quality image here, but Stigmella aceris seems to be a likely candidate.  Just what these moths are doing flying around in February is anyone's guess.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks