Martin's Moths

Rain stopped trapping last night, but I've a backlog of interesting arrivals to show off. Here, for example, is this year's earliest...

Oh good, another favourite has made its debut: the handsome Herald which features on the spine of Waring, Townsend and Lewington's Field...

A new arrival last night - this Lunar Marbled Brown. It's always exciting when you see something nestling in the egg boxes which has nev...

The sun has come out and so have the butterflies. The nights remain cold, and the moths are staying in. That seems to be the situation at th...

We've just celebrated Tamil New Year with our excellent in-laws. A green woodpecker hopped around their garden in Dorridge, south of Bir...

Rain stopped trapping last night, but Nature is exuberantly busy elsewhere in the garden. And indeed the house. We came into the kitchen to ...

I've been exchanging comments with Steve Thorpe of Derbyshire about the Early Grey - he had an impressive five of them in his trap the o...

Another night, another Satellite. And if you compare this one with its much darker relation several posts below, you can see how much variet...

There were many fewer moths in the trap last night; two dozen Quakers, Drabs and Hebrew Characters compared with over 50 on average this wee...

I realise I may be testing the patience of those longing for vivid moths, but this humble arrival (above) isn't completely uninteresting...

Those mystified by moth enthusiasm may have their doubts increased by today's offering. Here are some of the trap's first arrivals -...

In my lifelong absorption with butterflies and moths, I have never known anything as effective at catching them (temporarily) as the light ...

More moths soon, but I can't resist diverting just for today to butterflies. We hear an awful lot about their decline in the UK, especia...

It's been worth starting the trap in good time this year - nearly three weeks earlier than last and more than two months before I got go...

We're off! The incomparable Watkins & Doncaster delivered my new bulb yesterday morning early and here it is, shining brightly, whi...

Hello again, World! And earlier than ever this year, though I'll not be recording any moths 'til a new mercury vapour bulb arrives f...

Sorry - I've been rightly chided by one or two people for failing to make clear whether the blog has shut up shop for 2009 or not. It ha...

I forgot to mention, the other day, that one of my last captures before the great bulb disaster was this fly. Like most people, I'm rath...

I keep trying to stop this blog, for work reasons, but the moths won't let me. That's even despite the drastic result of last week...

It's not quite all over yet. Penny and I spent part of the weekend making the lovely crossing from Ennerdale to Buttermere along the Flo...

Two posts in one day, goodness! Unprecedented but also valedictory, nearly. I'm shutting up shop for the year any minute now but just wa...