Sunday, 17 November 2019

That's the lot


The final moth of the year arrived last night, undeterred by the chilly weather. Appropriately-named, the December moth is a fine and well-clad creature to round off the annual tally. It much resembles the sort of elderly lady wrapped in furs who was a commoner sight when I was young.





It came in force; there were nine in the eggboxes, along with the cappucino form of the Green-brindled Crescent and the Feathered Thorn below - both the latter getting to the end of their flight season just as the December moths begin theirs.



The lid of the trap meanwhile hosted a couple of Sprawlers directly opposite one another - can you see them in the first picture below? Like the December moth, the Sprawler is well-clad and furred for these chilly times.




We were behaving like moths ourselves last night, attracted by Oxford's outstanding annual light displays in the run-up to Christmas.  Here's a small selection of what we enjoyed:





Our favourites were the tricycle projectors which drove children ecstatic with images on streets and walls like the platypus above. They also did a butterfly but, as you can see from my final picture, it attracted so many kids that getting a clear photograph wasn't easy.




3 comments:

Conehead54 said...

Love those December Moths. Maybe I'll see one tomorrow when I go to our monthly meet tomorrow. I saw somebody post several of these next to a photo of group of Musk Ox- similar front ends! Lovely lights too- thanks for all your posts this year.

As that was your last moth post for the year have a wonderful Christmas + look forward to your posts in 2020.

Martin Wainwright said...

Hi there and I hope you got some Decembers at the meet. Funnily enough, the ox comparison occurred to me yesterday when I got a whole lot more and couldn't resist photo-ing their amazing antennae. As a result, there'll be at least one more post!

all warmest and thanks so much for your interest - and a very excellent Christmas to you too

Martin

Conehead54 said...

Hi Martin- we did have a single December Moth which was good to see. A decent haul of 21 moths of 9 species. Also had Winter Moth, Mottled + Scarce Umber, Chestnut, Feathered Thorn, Red-green Carpet, Brick + a Light-brown Apple Moth. Better than I had hoped for.