Hi there,
After a few nights of catching nothing, this turned up in my trap this morning. I'm thinking it's a scarce bordered straw. As it's got the word "scarce" in the name and I've never seen one before, I thought I better ask the experts. Is this another of those immigrant species that now also breeds here? Sorry the pictures are poor, it wasn't very co-operative. The dark photo was taken inside, and the colour was much lighter, really a light olive. I added the other picture to show that it had a dark band on the underwing.
Hello Ellen,
ReplyDeleteYes, that's Scarce Bordered Straw. It is a reasonably frequent migrant to the UK from continental Europe and there have been quite a lot of them about over the past month or so. Still quite a nice find this far inland, though.
Thanks Dave, it looked absolutely pristine which is amazing if it's had a long journey here!
DeleteSurprisingly, most of the migrants which reach our shores are normally in pristine condition. That's presumably because they are freshly emerged then whisked off on southerly winds almost immediately. They don't start to look battered or worn until they've been here for a few days and have had contact with vegetation or potential predators.
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