It took a while to process Saturday night's catch. In part, that was because of the number of Pugs needing a close examination as I have commented elsewhere, but also it was because I only started going through some of the moths in mid-afternoon. As Sunday was International Dawn Chorus Day, I had persuaded my wife to get up at a silly hour of the morning and to spend a couple of hours in a wood with me, listening to bird song. Consequently, at 04:30 before leaving home I had just closed up the traps and put them somewhere cool and sheltered to be looked-through later, and potted and put into the fridge any moths on the sheets hung behind the traps.
While potting the moths on the sheets, I had noticed a noctuid with a pattern that didn't seem familiar, but I then forgot all about it until I went through the pots in the fridge during the afternoon. As luck would have it, I didn't reach that moth until after having gone through nearly all of the others. What a pleasant surprise it was to find a Toadflax Brocade.
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| Toadflax Brocade Newton Longville, 30 April 2022 |
Among the other moths, several species appeared for the first time this year. Amongst these were a Pebble Prominent - only the third time I've had one here - and a fairly early Coronet.
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| Coronet Newton Longville, 30 April 2022 |
(Much) earlier on Saturday, I was carrying out a bird survey in the Chilterns. The transect includes about 300 metres of path through a narrow strip of wood containing mainly Beech with some Oak. The day had dawned bright and there were dapples of sunlight, in which I noticed about twenty micromoths flying. After the survey was over, I managed to catch and pot a couple of the moths. On getting them home, I took a closer look. Given their appearance, the time of year and the beech wood, my guess is that they are Phyllonorycter maestingella. However, there are at least two species with very similar appearance so I have retained the moths for gen. det.
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| Phyllonorycter sp. Ellesborough, 30 April 2022 |
Newton Longville, Bucks
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