A rather quieter night with a surprise

After the night before's bumper catch of nearly 40 moths, it was a little slower, windier and cooler last night, under a clear sky (but luckily no moon).

 

The big surprise was my earliest ever Brimstone Moth by 16 days! A lot of other species i've been seeing people post are also putting in their appearances early, like Least Black Arches, V-Pug and Iron Prominent, to name but a few.

 

I also had another early spectacle happen as I was standing on the patio netting, a Humming-bird Hawk-moth shot over the garden, another earliest record! This could well have been an individual that had over-wintered.

 

Netting at dusk was a bit hard going. 30 minutes staring at the paling sky yielded just 2 sightings, one was well out of reach, a rather large dark micro, but one I did manage to connect with, with an upward swoop of the net, a year first Mompha subbistrigella.

 

To the trap, there were no new ones for the year.

 

Moth garden list for 2024 stands at 62 species

 

01/04/24 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

 

Brimstone Moth 1 [NFY]

Humming-bird Hawk-moth 1 [NFY]

Brindled Beauty 4

Clouded Drab 5

Common Quaker 1

Double-striped Pug 1

Early Grey 1

Hebrew Character 2

Red Chestnut 1

Red-green Carpet 1

Micro Moths

 

Mompha subbistrigella 1 [NFY]

Emmelina monodactyla 1

 

Brimstone Moth

Clouded Drab

Mompha subbistrigella

Red-green Carpet