Westcott, Bucks

With catches by the actinic light varying between ten and just over 20 species each time depending on the weather conditions, there hasn't been a great deal of interest at Westcott over the past seven nights.  Two adult moths have been added to the garden year-list, although the micro was actually a daytime sighting, found flying around in our shed:

(7th)    Acrolepia autumnitella

(13th)  Yellow-line Quaker

Acrolepia autumnitella, Westcott 7th October

My first Grey Shoulder-knot of the autumn appeared last night, as did the garden's eighth Clifden Nonpareil this season (in quite reasonable condition too), while other species not so readily associated with this time of year have included Lesser Treble-bar (8th), Willow Beauty (11th) and Straw Dot (10th).  None of that trio is actually a particularly unusual sighting in the first half of October although more often than not they are over by the end of September.  

Grey Shoulder-knot, Westcott 13th October

Straw Dot, Westcott 10th October

There are no large numbers of anything now.  Lunar Underwing is down to single digit counts and Beaded Chestnut has overtaken it but not by much.  The November numbers are increasing and five examples of Merveille du Jour last night was nice to see.  What is noticeable around the garden is that our copious amounts of flowering ivy have had few takers so far apart from the odd Brick, Sallow or Angle Shades, which is unusual.  

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks