Big boys

I was going to fill this instalment with caddis flies and other non-mothy callers at what has been a rather sparsely-inhabited trap during the last few frosty nights. But this morning revealed some nice surprises, although the overall population of the eggboxes didn't quite reach ten.

Much the biggest was my first hawk moth of 2020, a Poplar Hawk which looks as though it has already had an eventful life, like the rather worn Brindled Beauty sharing its eggbox. Its arrival is a clear two weeks earlier than my first hawk last year, also a Poplar, which flew in on 10 May, and well before the 2018 hawk debut, 7 May and the 2017 one on 6 May.  They were Poplars too, the 2017 one rather battered like this morning's.

I've just trawled further back and the debuts, all Poplars, are: 2016: 12 May; 2015: 1 May; 2014: 2 May and 2013: 22 May. Given the incredible spell of warm, no actually hot, days, it is perhaps not surprising that this year sets a new record for me, though the nights have often been cold - see the effect of my teamug on this morning's frost:

My second jumbo-sized visitor is well-equipped to deal with the chill - this lovely, fur-coated male Pale Tussock, below. In a nearby eggbox was a smaller moth with similar winter wear, the Lunar Marbled Brown below.

Meanwhile, the Emperor saga goes on and on.  I have centralised the three egg clusters in a box with daily fresh hawthorn deliveries, but this chapter is not about that. It involves my spotting a large moth flying slowly and rather clumsily round our Romneya poppy in the warm and sunny tail-end of yesterday afternoon.

It was a male Emperor and I duly photographed it when it came to rest. I did the same an hour later when it hadn't moved, again at 8.30pm when I lit the trap (rather hoping that the Emperor wouldn't be disturbed by it) and finally again, at 6.30 this morning.  What sedentary moths they can be!