Lemony Pale

I'm not expecting anyone to jump up and down quite as vigorously as I am doing at the arrival of this moth.  It's not exactly an eye-catcher though as so often with moths, its subtle colouring rewards a careful and unhurried look. I admit absolutely that it's the sort of arrival which usually doesn't take up too much of my time because brown or grey UK moths have a habit of looking too much alike. Indeed, my lazy option of the iPhone's bug-ID got it as wrong as I would have done, suggesting a Common Quaker (not in season here) or the current default for an unknown brown moth, Vine's Rustic.

Luckily, a much newer recorder than my aged self put a photo - shown left - on our local moth-recording Facebook page earlier this week which she thought might be a Pale Lemon Sallow, and our generous experts confirmed that this was indeed so.  I was struck that such an unusual moth in these parts looked so, well, ordinary, and I wondered if I would recognise one in my own trap. Last night, I got the chance and passed the test. Yet another newcomer in my many long years of running the moth-trap.  This truly is a wonderful year in that regard. 

The trap had quite a number of other good moths in the eggboxes this morning and here's a selection: Turnip, Green-brindled Crescent, two nicely-different Beaded Chestnuts, Large Wainscot, Red-line Quaker and a spiky-looking Cypress Carpet, whose wing pattern is very similar to the much small Cypress Pug, shown in my final photo.  It must be something they ate.