Westcott, Bucks

Poor weather continued on the 6th and 7th but the last two nights have certainly seen an improvement in garden catches with 50 species here on the 8th and just short of 70 on the 9th.  The following have been new additions for the 2020 year-list:

(6th)  Dark Arches
(7th)  nil
(8th)  Blastobasis lacticolella, Celypha striana, Eudonia lacustrata
(9th)  Brachmia blandella, Clepsis consimilana, Epinotia abbreviana, Crambus perlella, Dwarf Cream Wave,
          July Highflyer, Barred Straw, Brown Silver-line, Dingy Shears, Dusky Brocade

Clepsis consimilana, Westcott 9th June

Epinotia abbreviana, Westcott 9th June

July Highflyer, Westcott 9th June

Dusky Brocade, Westcott 9th June

Of the four illustrated above, two are again my earliest ever garden sightings, Epinotia abbreviana beating 14th June in 2017 and July Highflyer beating 13th June in 2011 & 2014.  The Dusky Brocade was a fairly cryptic specimen and that's another quite common species which can easily cause ID problems. 

Last night's Brown Silver-line is an odd one.  I used to get it irregularly up to 2014 but it has been an annual visitor since then and last year I had five.  It is supposed to feed only on bracken, but there is no bracken around here so it must surely be using something else too.  I wonder what?  The other unusual thing last night was a Privet Hawk-moth which was just a set of wings on the patio, typical of a bat casualty, but that seems like rather a large meal even for our nightly squadron of Brown Long-eareds!  We do also have quite a few Tawny Owls locally and I wonder if they might occasionally take larger moths?     

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks