Diurnea duo

I've now had at least 1 moth a night for the past fortnight, with the maximum on the 12th with 27 moths of 10species. New for year in the last week are Engrailed, Oak Beauty, Twin-spotted Quaker, Powdered Quaker on 12th, Small Quaker(14th), Shoulder Stripe(15th), Diurnea fagella(17th) and Early Grey(18th), as well as plenty of Hebrew Character, Common Quaker, Clouded Drab, with the odd Satellite, Chestnut, Dotted Border, Agonopterix heracliana and Tortricodes alternella. A nice selection. No Small Eggar yet though, but fingers crossed.

Darren Seaman, Milton Keynes.

A couple of recent moths

Not in the trap, which hasn't yet emerged from the shed, but a small dark brown micro that had found its way into my car and was fluttering against the window on my commute last Thursday (12th).  Obviously a caloptilia sp, but when I arrived at my destination I had a chance for a better look and found that it was Caloptilia semifascia.  Not uncommon in my garden in Marlow Bottom and had presumably been enticed out from the winter by some milder weather.

The other was an Orange Underwing, which braved a rather cold morning last Saturday (14th) on Stoke Common, right next to a large stand of Silver Birch.  You can just about see the unfeathered antennae in this shot - I've blown the picture up at home and it looks like the fairly typical serrated looking antenna.

Adam Bassett

Better late than never!

Very belatedly I have emerged bleary eyed from hibernation to report that I have recorded only 3 moths so far this year (not got round to setting the trap as yet) but one of those was on 1st Jan - Herald - found indoors and almost certainly smuggled into the house in the Christmas tree. Others which have come to the porch light have been March Moth on 5th March and Dotted Border on 6th March. Looking forward to dusting off the Robinson trap soon!
Alastair Driver

A bit more variety

Moths have finally started turning up in the garden moth trap - small numbers but a good selection considering such: Common Quaker, Small Quaker, Hebrew Character, Clouded Drab, Dark Chestnut, Grey Shoulder-knot,  Early Grey, Agonopterix alstromeriana and Amblyptilia acanthodactyla. with the exception of Common Quaker I have never had more than one each of these and the greatest number of moths in a night was 5. Plenty of Scarlet Tiger Moth larvae around the garden though, must be at least 50 in one corner of the garden. There is no Green Alkanet or Comfrey (recently planted some of the latter) and they feed on Forget-me-nots (Myosotis sp) - these are also in the Boraginaceae so I guess it makes sense and our garden is stuffed with them.

On thursday evening I put a trap out at Harcourt and also sat with a sheet trap for an hour just after 9pm. At the sheet trap I had my first Yellow Horned along with another 14 species: Oak Beauty (10+), Small Brindled Beauty (2), Dotted Border (2), Common Quaker (4), Small Quaker (20+), Hebrew Character (2), Clouded Drab (3), Twin-spotted Quaker (1), Red Chestnut (4), Chestnut (2), Satellite (1),  Acleris ferrugana/notana (1), Tortricodes alternella (2), Ypsolopha ustella (1). Still fairly small numbers but a nice mix for just an hour's trapping. The over night trap added 3 smart Dotted Chestnuts (the most I've had in one trap) and a March Moth, whilst from under the nearby security light I added Engrailed, Agonopterix ocellana, A.heracliana and Emmelina monodactyla. Marc Botham, Didcot

Dotted Chestnuts, Harcourt Arboretum 12-03-15

Yellow horned moth

I had a fine female Yellow horned moth hatch a few days ago, reared from eggs obtained from moths trapped in the Chilterns last March - the larvae are very attractive, too. Dave Maunder

Yellow horned moth, captive bred.

The Merveille du Jour of the micro world

I had a smart Acleris literana in Bernwood Forest, Bucks last night as well as my first Dotted Chestnut of the year.  The results (20 species to a single MV) were otherwise very similar to Finemere Wood the previous night, the only additional items being Grey Shoulder-knot and Early Grey.  There was no sign of what seems to have become the "moth of the moment" here (Diurnea fagella), but that's no great surprise because I rarely see it before the second half of March.
Dave Wilton

Acleris literana, Shabbington Wood 12th March

Dotted Chestnut, Shabbington Wood 12th March

Another Diurnea fagella?

Turned up this morning.

Mark Griffiths,Garsington, Oxford.

Diurnea fagella

Well, Andy (see below)...

I put my actinic out on Wednesday night; the total haul was 3 March Moth, 2 Emmelina mondactyla, 2 Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, 1 Agonopterix heracliana and 1 Diurnea fagella.
(there's a pic of it on iRecord).

Also, the Burial Park 6w heath trap was on last night; 1 Tortricodes alternella, 1 Hebrew Character and 1 Small Quaker.

If nothing else, all but the March Moth were new for my year list!

Dave Morris

Slightly interesting.

Four Diurnea fagella in my trap at home (Chorleywood) last night. I'm a little bit surprised nobody else seems to have reported them yet.

Andy King.   

Confirmation and ID please

After about 2 weeks of trapping in my Benson Garden caught my first moth yesterday, an Hebrew Character. Strangely it was keeping company with a Ruby Tiger caterpillar. Three moths in the trap this morning, an Hebrew Character and the two pictured here. After not seeing a moth for so long I don't trust my identifications. Fairly sure the first is  a Grey Shoulder-knot but the second???

Very grateful for Confirmation and ID if anyone can help.
Tom Stevenson

Early Moth (ID confirmation)

Like others I had a go last night and got what I think is my first Early moth. I also got a couple of Common Quakers and had a March moth over the weekend.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

First Trapping of the Year

I finally decided to get my actinic trap out last night for my central Oxford garden on the promise of cloudy, calm and relatively mild conditions. To be honest I wasn't holding out much hope so I was presently surprised to find three moths in the trap the next morning: a Common Quaker and two Depressaria species. The latter are rather worn but I'd appreciate some help in narrowing it down: I think that it's D. radiella (Parsnip Moth) but would like to rule out things like D. daucella or ultimella. Any help with the ID would be much appreciated.

Adam

The Common Quaker

Depressaria sp. 1

Depressaria sp.2

A proper start to the season?

If you have yet to dust off your trap for this season, now's the time to do it!  A single MV light run for three hours from dusk in Finemere Wood, Bucks last night did at last produce a reasonable total of moths from 20 different species, even though the only food source there at the moment would appear to be hazel catkins.  Like everywhere else locally, there is no sallow blossom available yet (Marc must have been lucky to find a flowering bush at Chimney Meadows the other day).  The trap produced Tortricodes alternella (62), Agonopterix heracliana (2), Acleris ferrugana/notana (1), Yellow Horned (10), March Moth (11), Shoulder Stripe (7), Red-green Carpet (1), Engrailed (3), Small Brindled Beauty (25), Pale Brindled Beauty (4), Oak Beauty (2), Spring Usher (1), Dotted Border (6), Small Quaker (26), Common Quaker (41), Clouded Drab (7), Twin-spotted Quaker (3), Hebrew Character (3), Satellite (5) & Chestnut (26).  Back home at Westcott the garden actinic trap didn't do too badly either, bringing in Agonopterix heracliana (3), Agonopterix arenella (2), Dotted Border (2), Small Quaker (1), Common Quaker (6), Clouded Drab (1), Hebrew Character (6), Grey Shoulder-knot (1) & Chestnut (2).  At least in our garden there is some nectar available from mahonia which is a useful winter-flowering plant to have.  It is always worth inspecting the flowers even if the trap is in operation nearby.
Dave Wilton


Yellow Horned, Finemere Wood 11th March

 

Twin-spotted Quaker, Finemere Wood 11th March

 

Common Quaker, Westcott 11th March



 

Small Brindled Beauty in garden

My MV garden trap in Cookham last night yielded 1 Hebrew Character, 1 Small Quaker and 1 Small Brindled Beauty - a first for the garden. I know Small Brindled Beauty is a common moth in woods, but maybe not so much so in gardens.

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Slightly more common Eggar

Not quite as rare as the beast Marc was looking for, but this morning, while searching some hedgerows at Bernwood Meadows, Bucks that we didn't get around to on our Brown Hairstreak egg search a couple of weeks ago, I found this early instar Oak Eggar caterpillar over-wintering on a blackthorn stem. It was only 1.5cm in length.
Dave Wilton 

Oak Eggar caterpillar, Bernwood Meadows 11th March

  

Small Eggar

On Monday night I went trapping at Chimney Meadows, near Shifford lock where there is a Rothamsted light trap. A few years back I used to identify the catches from that trap and there was a Small Eggar in March one year so I thought I would go and have a proper look for it with the original forecast for Monday night, well at least the one I was following, suggesting a warm, cloudy night. I set up 2 MV traps and 3 Actinics (which were left running overnight) near Blackthorn/Hawthorn hedgerows. One of the actinics I placed under a flowering Sallow, the only one I could find and which stood out quite remarkably with its fresh yellow catkins. The catkins were being visited by lots of moths, invariably Common Quaker, Hebrew Character and Clouded Drab with the odd Chestnut and the trap positioned underneath it had 174 moths the following morning. Well over a hundred of these were Common Quaker, with another fifty made up of Hebrew Character and Clouded Drab. Other species included Shoulder Stripe, Dotted Border, Twin-spotted Quaker, Dark Chestnut, Chestnut and Satellite. I gave up with the MV traps at 21:30 after catching less than a dozen moths between them in over 3 hours and the temperatures having plummeted with superbly clear skies and the promising cloud and light drizzle at the start of the night showing no signs of returning. The other actinic traps fared similarly badly, adding just a March Moth to the overall species list. No Small Eggar, but it was too cold and there is so much potentially suitable habitat there that for an increasingly scarce moth it felt a little bit like trying to locate a needle in a haystack in a freezer. I intend to return on a warmer night in the near future for another go IF the weather improves enough - the nights are so cold at the moment. Small Eggar is a moth I have seen a number of times as larvae, I have reared them and even found the odd cocoon, but have never actually personally trapped an adult. The signs are that it has greatly declined and it would be nice to try and find out more about its distribution and ecology so that we can try and implement suitable conservation. Waring, Townsend & Lewington suggests hedgerows that are lightly cut in Autumn are favoured. In my experience of farmland locally outside of nature reserves there is no such thing as a 'light trim'  so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising this moth is doing so badly.

A few moths at last

I finally got my first moth of the year in my Aylesbury garden trap last night - a single Common quaker! I ran my actinic 15 watt trap in the Chilterns near Dunsmore also last night, but only got three moths as it was clear, beezy and around 6 c. - these were a Dotted chestnut, Small brindled beauty and a Tortricodes alternella. Dave Maunder

Dotted chestnut, 7-3-2015

Still slow going

So far this month it has been very slow going in the garden here at Westcott, Bucks.  Apart from Agonopterix heracliana which has appeared almost nightly, the only moths have been Hebrew Character (2nd), March Moth, Dotted Border & Common Quaker (all 5th) and another Common Quaker (6th).  I took a single MV light to nearby Finemere Wood for a few hours last night and got a bit more variety - but not much!  Acleris notana/ferrugana (1), Tortricodes alternella (5), March Moth (1), Small Brindled Beauty (25), Pale Brindled Beauty (7), Oak Beauty (5), Dotted Border (1), Clouded Drab (1), Hebrew Character (1) & Chestnut (4).
Dave Wilton

Finemere Wood, 6th March

   

First Moth of the year! ID please

I've run the trap a few times nothing. This one turned up on the kitchen window and I found another one inside.

I'm thinking Agonopterix heracliana - I had a quick look at the underside, yellowish brown, no pink I could see.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Sunday night

A couple of moths came to my trap in my Milton Keynes garden on Sunday 1st March, a Satellite and a Clouded Drab. Hopefully this week will be the start to getting regular moths, this time last year i was getting at least one moth per night.

Darren Seaman, MK

Grey Shoulder-knot

I am still trapless but enjoying the relatively quiet life and the chance to stay a bit longer in bed of a morning. It's also quite bracing to have to look for moths at other sources of light and this Grey Shoulder-knot has kindly doubled my tally for 2015.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Moths Count

February's 'Mothy Mutterings' from the Moths Count team are available here.

Garden Moth Scheme

Several of the 'regulars' from this blog attended the Garden Moth Scheme conference last Sunday at Jordans, near Beaconsfield, and a very enjoyable and informative day it was too. If you're not familiar with the GMS it involves running a moth trap in your garden once a week, on the same day each week, whatever the weather, and recording the numbers of moths from a standard list of about 220 species. The 2015 recording season starts this coming Friday, so if you want to take part you need to dust off your trap!

Click here for full details of how to join in the GMS, and following on from the conference I've just added to my blog a post about moth monitoring in general and the GMS in particular, including links to some of the research that GMS data has been used for.

I'm now looking forward to my first GMS session at the end of this week.

Hebrew Character

I probably should have actually checked the Wallingford RIS trap yesterday before writing that it had only caught one moth in 2015. In fact, I checked it last night before leaving work and there were 4 moths in it from Wednesday night: 2 Chestnuts, 1 Pale Brindled Beauty and the first Hebrew Character of the year. Marc Botham, Didcot

Last night's results

Like Marc I had a reasonable night last night but, considering how mild it was, had hoped for rather better results.  A single MV trap was run in Bernwood Forest, Bucks for a few hours and it brought in just over 80 moths of 11 species:  Ypsolopha ustella (1), Agonopterix heracliana (1), Acleris cristana (1), Tortricodes alternella (5), March Moth (11), Small Brindled Beauty (1), Pale Brindled Beauty (32), Spring Usher (9), Dotted Border (1), Satellite (1) and Chestnut (18).  Back home at Westcott the garden actinic trap got into double digits for the first time this year but from only three species:  Agonopterix heracliana (4), Pale Brindled Beauty (4) & Dotted Border (2).  The most significant thing here was the numbers of Ophion obscuratus which came to this light (23).  Each of those wasps will presumably have meant a gruesome end for one noctuid caterpillar.
Dave Wilton

Acleris cristana, Bernwood Forest 25th February

Ophion obscuratus, Westcott 25th February

 

Warm night but moth numbers still low

Took advantage of last nights balmy weather to complete Feb surveys at Bagley Woods and Harcourt Arboretum. tried to get there early this morning to avoid the rain but Oxfordshire's road network's inability to deal with traffic when the A34 goes down caused me a 2 hr journey from Didcot to Bagley and I arrived just as the heavens opened. Anyway, it was t-shirt and shorts weather last night so i had expectations of a fairly good catch. It was certainly better than January's catch, but still rather disappointing. The night started with a quick hour or so scanning tree trunks on Shotover Hill trying to find some wingless females. No luck, and more puzzlingly I only saw one moth - a male Dotted Border!

The traps (2 x MV left overnight) this morning at Bagley yielded my first Small brindled Beauties of the year, though only 4, along with a single Spring Usher, Tortricodes alternella (5), Acleris notana/ferrugana (2), March Moth (5), Pale Brindled Beauty (3), Chestnut (20), Satellite (8) and Acleris cristana (1). The good numbers of those species spending the winter as adults shows that conditions were good, and further supports my feeling that 'winter' moths have not had a good year.

At Harcourt, in a single MV trap left overnight, numbers of Pale Brindled Beauty were better with 13 caught, but other species abundances were very low: March Moth (2), T. alternella (2), Red-green Carpet (1), Chestnut (4), A. notana/ferrugana (1) and my first Common Quaker of the year.

The garden trap at Didcot was, as per usual, empty, and the Rothamsted trap at work in Wallingford has only seen one moth so far this year. Marc Botham, Didcot

Small Brindled Beauty - Bagley Woods 25-02-15

Common Quaker - Harcourt Arboretum 25-02-15

Some garden moths in Cookham

My garden trap here in Cookham attracted 3 moths last night. 1 March Moth, 1 Common Quaker, and a micro photographed below which I think is Tortricodes alternella, but I would appreciate confirmation. It is certainly good to see moths again after the winter break.

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Radnage Moths

I ran the MV trap last night,for only the 4th time this year. 4 Pale Brindled Beauty, 2 March moth, 1 Early moth and 1 Chestnut. Also 5 Agonopteryx sp.
Ched George.

Join the dots

Things have been very quiet here because my trap bulb is broken and too much has been going on for me to get my act together to order a new one. Tonight, however, this Dotted Border came and spent the evening on our kitchen window and by so doing, becomes my first record for 2015.

By a happy coincidence, the Dotted Border was one of my first moths last year too, and features on the blog for this very Wednesday in February twelve months ago.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Westcott, Bucks

Some activity in the garden at last.  A March Moth and a Dotted Border came to the actinic trap here at Westcott last night.  Tonight's weather looks quite promising too.
Dave Wilton

March Moth, Westcott 24th February 

Dotted Border, Westcott 24th February

March Moth

Single March Moth to the Rothamsted Light trap at CEH Wallingford on Thursday 12th Februrary. Garden trap still drawing blanks with the exception of a solitary Satellite over a week ago. Marc Botham, Didcot

Finemere Wood, Bucks

A single MV run for a few hours at Finemere Wood on Saturday night (14th) produced a single example of Tortricodes alternella as the only species new for the year.  The rest of the catch comprised Early Moth (1), Pale Brindled Beauty (9) & Spring Usher (11), so still very few species around and none of them yet in significant numbers.
Dave Wilton

Tortricodes alternella, Finemere Wood 14th January

Loosley Row, Bucks

A March Moth and a Pale Brindled Beauty came to the garden trap last night.

Nigel

A Moth, A Moth, and the first one of the year..

At last, a nocturnal winged beastie made it's way into my garden in Seer Green last night; a Satellite

Dave Morris

Moths and light pollution

A new research paper was published today on the effects of artificial light on Winter Moths. It struck me as a fascinating experiment, and inspired me to add to my own blog for the first time since 2012!

In brief, Koert van Geffen and colleagues have demonstrated that artificial lighting reduces the breeding success of Winter Moths. To find out more go to:
Lightness falls

P.S. Pale Brindled Beauty on the bathroom window two nights ago was my second moth for the year :)

More spring moths

Like Darren, i have found Pale brindled beauties and Early moths emerging over the last couple of days cloudier, calm weather. By cycling around Fairford leys estate in Aylesbury and checking security and porch lamps i've found 7 Early moths and 3 Pale brindled beauties - great to find a few moths at last! Dave Maunder

Pale brindled beauties and Early moth, 12-2-2015

Micro

Just 1 micro last night, a new one for my Milton Keynes garden, Tortricodes alternella.

Darren Seaman, MK

Two moths in one night

Without a doubt the best night of my year with 2 macros, first coming to my 25w Blacklight bulb was a lovely Early Moth shortly after dark. Then about 11pm a Pale Brindled Beauty landed on the trap.

Hopefully more tonight.
Darren Seaman, Milton Keynes

Mothy Mutterings

Here's the latest news from the Moths Count team:

http://bit.ly/1vBIKUS

Garden Moth Scheme Conference - a reminder

Martin Harvey's post on 20th January gave full details about the annual GMS Conference which will be taking place on Sunday 1st March at the Chiltern Woodland Burial Park (Potkiln Lane, off the A40 east of Beaconsfield, Bucks).  Some spaces are still available and you don't have to be a contributor to the GMS to take part.  Contact Janet Cheney to reserve a place.   

Ushering in spring?

Finally found a reasonable moth here in Aylesbury after weeks of cold weather, a Spring usher found below a security lamp in Fairford leys. Although common enough in local woodland, i've only found these sparingly here in Aylesbury. Also saw an Angle Shades larva being eaten by a Wren on my patio yesterday! Dave Maunder

Spring usher, 8-2-2015, Fairford leys, Aylesbury.

Ectoedemia heringella

An hour's circuit of local villages this afternoon to look at holm oaks (Quercus ilex) produced many active mines of Ectoedemia heringella on every one inspected, including a few on an isolated road-side tree west of Steeple Claydon, Bucks which had none on it this time last year.  The image below was from a hedge near the church in Quainton, Bucks and shows a typical leaf with several active mines.  A few active and many vacated mines of Phyllonorycter messaniella were also found.  There was no sign of Stigmella suberivora which should also be actively mining now on holm oak.  The species has yet to be discovered in Bucks although it is known from some adjacent counties.
Dave Wilton

Mines of Ectoedemia heringella, Quainton 6th February

   

Recorders Meeting in Birmingham

I thought I'd cheat with the report and copy Ina Smith's that she posted on the Ceredigion blog - with a few minor changes. Thanks Ina.

On Saturday Martin Albertini and I attended the National Moth Recorders’ Meeting in Birmingham. There was a very interesting program of talks on some wide ranging topics from Sweden, Scotland and even Wales!

Mark Young put forward the arguments for and against a national micro-moth recording scheme, a very good idea but for the obvious problems of verification.

Some interesting work being done on producing synthetic pheromones for some of the rarer moths, using Burnet moths as an example.

A talk by Dr Lars Pettersson of Lund University in Sweden, on the rapid range expansion of moths in Sweden. This to some extent echoed the northerly shift of some moth species in Britain.

Other subjects covered were Cinnabar Moths, recording moths in Lakeland and some thoughts on results from the Garden Moths Scheme.

A very good finale was a piece on extreme mothing in Wales by George Tordoff, this included high altitude recording, some of it with a cherry picker!!

There was of course a discussion on the up-coming atlas of Macro-moths and a list of ‘white holes’ was available, should anyone fancy a holiday in an out of the way place, we have the list.  We have no under-recorded squares in Bucks or Berks but there are 3 in Oxon: SP20, SP32 and SP52 with 4, 3 and 1 record respectively.  I can see Mr Wilton already getting his map out.

This was a very enjoyable day - and we both chatted with people we knew and also those that we'd been e-mailing over the year. Martin Harvey was there as was Marc Botham  and a good contingent from north Bucks. If you've never been to one of these, try and make the effort in early 2016, although booking is essential. You can usually scrounge a lift, like I did. Peter Hall

Striped Lychnis in the local news

Just seen this on the Bucks Free Press website:

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/11762269.Can_you_help_save_a_rare_moth_/

Nigel

Indoor Mothing

This Agonopterix alstromeriana was found indoors last night (Loosley Row, Bucks).

Nigel

Mild night but few moths

The long run of frosty nights locally probably put paid to getting much from last night's brief mild interlude.  I ran a single MV light in Bernwood Forest, Bucks for a few hours from dusk and got just 14 moths of six species, rather fewer than I'd anticipated:  Winter Moth (1), Pale Brindled Beauty (1), Spring Usher (2), Mottled Umber (4), Satellite (1) & Chestnut (5).  Meanwhile, back home at Westcott, Bucks the garden actinic managed only Chestnut (1) & Dark Chestnut (2).  Still, at least something turned up to break the monotony!  Dave Wilton

Spring Usher, Bernwood Forest 25th January

First moths of the year

First moths of the year (coincidently on the same day): a Grey Shoulder-knot and a female Light Brown Apple Moth flying around inside my office (near Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire) on the 22nd January.

E-moth newsletter

Here is the latest E-moth newsletter from Butterfly Conservation/National Moth Recording Scheme.

BC's Zoë Randle says "This is a bumper edition which includes the usual update on the National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS), submitted articles on Luring Red-tipped Clearwing and possible and potential moth extinctions in England amongst other things."

Garden Moth Scheme: 2015 conference near Beaconsfield

The Garden Moth Scheme collects information from people around the UK who run a moth-trap on a regular weekly basis in their gardens. The scheme is organising a conference in 2015, and it is on our patch, at the Chiltern Woodland Burial Park near Beaconsfield, on Sunday 1 March 2015. 

The programme looks excellent. If you'd like to attend you need to book a place by contacting Janet Cheney. For full details see:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/184286/GMS%20Conference%202015%20programme.pdf

For more about the Garden Moth Scheme see:
http://www.gardenmoths.org.uk/

An early moth

I found a micro moth in my bathroom this afternoon, which after potting up looks like Celypha lacunana.  This seems ridiculously out of season, as I thought they emerged in May.  There is a banana plant over wintering in the bathroom at present and I wondered if it might have emerged from here and got a bit confused with the warm temperature.

A bit blue due to low light

Adam Bassett, Marlow Bottom, Bucks

Moth trap results

Last night was relatively mild, so I couldn't resist running the moth trap  (in Great Kimble), which produced a grand total of: one Chestnut moth. Still, it's a moth and therefore a pleasure to see!
Martin Harvey

Loosley Row, Bucks

Off the mark for the year with a Mottled Umber which came to the house lights last night.

Nigel

Edit:
03-01-15: Winter Moth (house lights)
05-01-15: Early Moth (house lights) and E. sarcitrella (indoors)

Mopping Up From Last Year

My apologies for rather throwing a spanner in the works here: I know that we're all geared up to our new year lists etc but I've rather let my records slip since the autumn and am only now trying to get things back in some sort of order. Sorting through my records for the autumn I've come across three photos that I never got around to ID'ing so I was wondering if someone could help me out here.

18th Sep: 4.5mm "nano" moth - I know that I've seen this before but can't place it

21st Oct: November Moth agg?

24th Oct: November Moth agg?

Jan 1st moths, Marlow Bottom, Bucks

My first two moth species of the new year were a Winter Moth on the kitchen window and more unexpectedly an Angle Shades in the bedroom.

Adam Bassett

Admin: A Year On

Happy New Year everyone,

Now that boring December is finally out of the way and 2015 has arrived, so the interest level should perk up a bit as we start all over again with a clean sheet, not knowing what is going to turn up.  For me at least, 2014 was an excellent year so let's hope that the next twelve months bring us all an equally interesting and varied collection of moths!

As far as the Blog is concerned I think 2014 also proved to be quite a successful year.  We've had more than 800 posts and just short of 70,000 page-views in the twelve months it has been running.  However, it would be good if we could see a few more people taking part.  Even amongst those of you who have signed up there are several who have yet to contribute - your sightings will always be of interest!  We are aware that many more people view the blog than contribute to it but if any of you who record moths within Bucks, Berks or Oxon and haven't yet 'joined' would like to do so, please do get in touch (see the 'Getting Started' tab).  We can have up to 100 contributors and we're barely halfway there yet.  For anyone (signed-up contributor or not) who would like to add a post or comment on one but would rather not do so themselves, I'll happily upload a contribution on your behalf if you send it to me by e-mail at the admin address (burnhamlodge at gmail dot com). 

To try and re-inject a little bit of the competitive spirit which was lost when the moth reports were transferred from the BC Upper Thames Branch website to this Blog, I'm currently looking into how we might manage bringing back the 'First Sightings' page, at least for macro-moth species.  Watch this space...

Dave Wilton     

First moth of 2015 ---

A solitary Winter moth was found below a porch lamp in Fairford leys, Aylesbury - a rather dull, worn specimen, but at least it's something!   Dave Maunder

Satellite

I switched on my Radnage, Bucks. garden MV trap at 00.30 hours this morning. One Satellite in the trap at 08.00 hrs.
Ched George.