FlyinginFordham: Getting busy!

With highs of 28 degrees on Saturday and wall to wall sunshine, it was a very warm day and a barbeque was enjoyed on both days of the weekend with family.

I did a field trip locally to Chippenham Fen, and returned back home at half past two, went outside to check the home trap, and it was heaving, potting moths that I recognised as new for year whilst getting bitten by lots of bitey flies.

2hrs sleep later I was up sorting through the trap, a very mild night and it felt pleasant even at 4:30am, indeed it didn't drop below 16.5c.

I logged nearly 70 species, the best night of the year so far, with 18 species new for the year.

Below are the new for year species, I just don't have the time to list every single species.

Notice how most and nearly all are single moths of each species, I thought this was odd and probably down to how poor this year has been so far, and how dry and hot it was last year (pupa getting baked alive), but then I look back 2, 3, 10 years and it seems about on par for a regular garden.

Things still continue to be busy here with more new species showing up every night.