Off the mark at last

January is always a slow month for moths, although more often than not I've seen my first adult garden specimen of the year sometime during the first week and quite often on the night of New Year's Day.  That's certainly been the case for most of the last 15 years, which is as far back as I've looked, with the only later initial sightings all being on the 17th (in 2009, 2010 & 2014).  For 2021 the first visitor proved to be a rather small but very smart Mottled Umber which turned up here last night. 

Mottled Umber, Westcott 10th January

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks