Another pair of new arrivals for the year. Both predictable: I am keeping pace with previous years and comparative scoresheets such as the excellent Hants Moths Flying Tonight.
Above is the Dotted Border; two were snoozing on a wall about ten yards from the trap, one was on the cowl (handy, because I can illustrate its underwing in today's second picture) and two more were in the eggboxes. You can see how they got their name, especially when seen from below.
Below is a Clouded Drab, a big and very variable moth which had found a niche on the wall behind a stick, left leaning there. My final picture is of a Hebrew Character, one of the three cosying up with the Dotted Borders in the trap.
It was a mild night but I note from last year's records that we had a heavy frost on 28th April. So don't lower your guard yet. Having said that, yesterday's lovely and genuinely warm sunshine brought me my first Brimstone butterfly sighting of the year and there was a Vanessid butterfly, either a Red Admiral or a Peacock woken from hibernation, skittering around the garden in the early afternoon.
2 comments:
Nice to see them. We had a Shoulder Strip here last night. First time I've seen one.
Hi there! Good to hear from you and glad you are mothing busily away. Wish the weather would look up, though we've had some lovely days. But they seem to coincide with our grandparenting down in London. All warmest M
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