April Moths (8 Viewers)

[KenM]

Six of six last night to include two lifers!

Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, pug sp (wet and bedraggled), Common Quaker, Small Quaker, drum roll…Pale Pinion and Frosted Green!
Was particularly pleased as one it rained and two, I’d just fitted a new different UV bulb and was keen to see the results, am looking forward to more sessions, hoping it wasn’t just a “flash in the pot”.🤣

 

[Richard D]

From last night (a bit breezy and cool with light rain) : 7 Hebrew Character, 4 Common Quaker, 2 Clouded Drab, 1 well marked Powdered Quaker and a likely second, 1 Double Striped Pug, 1 Common Plume.

 

[KenM]

Frustrated with the “promised” forecast of rain overnight again last night and keen to try out my “new bulb”, I switched on at 8pm and back on with the covers at 10.30pm.
Not expecting much if anything, on a 150min trial…thus was surprised when I found a single Nut-tree Tussock in the pot this am!
Probably entered at dusk albeit an early individual date wise, as late April is given by Lewington for this species.👍

 

[Farnboro John]

Trapped last night, putting the trap out after the rain finished at about 2100. A reasonable haul, though with the first Grey Pine Carpet of the year the only NFY.

4 Common and a single Small Quaker were accompanied by singles of Brindled Beauty, Early Grey, Double-striped Pug, Clouded Drab, Hebrew Character and my second Acleris ferrugana/notana of the year.

John

Edit: pictures:

Acleris ferrugana/notana
Grey Pine Carpet
Brindled Beauty

 

[KenM]

Not unlike John upthread a reasonable haul- 2 Early Greys, 2 Frosted Greens, Hebrew Character, 3 Common Quaker, Double-striped Pug, Twin-spotted Quaker and drum roll…Least Black Arches!…plus a couple of pugs to ID.

 

[KenM]

New bulb doing wonders for the pot!…6 Lunar Marbled Browns, 4 Frosted Greens, Common Quaker, a couple that escaped + one in the ID section.👍

 

[Farnboro John]

Very ordinary catch this morning: Two Common and one Small Quaker accompanied by two Early Grey and singles of Clouded Drab and Brindled Pug.

John

 

[KenM]

Eight of nine for me to include-

2 Lunar marbled brown, Frosted Green, Pale Pinion, Early Grey, Twin-Spotted Quaker, Common Quaker, Pug sp, and my 2nd (different) Least Black Arches.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Pine Beauty was a garden tick for me this morning, Lichen Button a micro tick. Pale Pinion, Least Black Arches & Twenty-plumed Moth all NFY. The balance consisted of usual Common & Small Quakers, Clouded Drabs, Brindled Pugs and singles of Hebrew Character & Early Grey.

 

[Richard D]

Clear skies and breezy last night but an okay trap - 5 Hebrew Character, 4 Common Quaker, 2 Early Grey, 5 Double Striped pugs, 2 LBAM, 1 Lime-Spec Pug, 3 Brimstone, 1 Brindled Pug and the final Pug that I'm uncertain on... Oak-Tree?

 

[aeshna5]

I think that could well be Oak Tree Pug, but they are rather similar to Brindled.

 

[KenM]

Just three for me last night- Purple Thorn, Lunar Marbled Brown and what I take to be a Brindled Pug…..+ a just found Oak Beauty!

 

[JWN Andrewes]

I enjoy keeping abreast of everyone's catches, and I'd be interested to know roughly where people are trapping.

It's intriguing to see people who seem to have been trapping for some time, longer than me certainly, tickling stuff that I think of as pretty routine (Pale Pinion, Oak Beauty, March Moth, Least Black Arches), and at the same time being blase about stuff I've yet to encounter (Lunar Marbled Brown, Grey Pine Carpet).

Also, I have no idea what's considered the norm regards garden moth lists.

I'm in a village location in Flintshire, and started trapping in May 2020 (something to make limited travel opportunities bearable during lockdown) and have accumulated 323 species so far, 264 macros & 59 micros, although I've shamefully overlooked micros till quite recently (and also I hardly trapped at all throughout last year).

How about the rest of you?

 

[KenM]

I enjoy keeping abreast of everyone's catches, and I'd be interested to know roughly where people are trapping.

It's intriguing to see people who seem to have been trapping for some time, longer than me certainly, tickling stuff that I think of as pretty routine (Pale Pinion, Oak Beauty, March Moth, Least Black Arches), and at the same time being blase about stuff I've yet to encounter (Lunar Marbled Brown, Grey Pine Carpet).

Also, I have no idea what's considered the norm regards garden moth lists.

I'm in a village location in Flintshire, and started trapping in May 2020 (something to make limited travel opportunities bearable during lockdown) and have accumulated 323 species so far, 264 macros & 59 micros, although I've shamefully overlooked micros till quite recently (and also I hardly trapped at all throughout last year).

How about the rest of you?

Like you, micros are not often recorded by me, principally because I’m bias somewhat towards macros and do not possess reference for the former.
I have 3 traps… the back of the house “white wall” upon which there is a 400w halogen.
(moths get either beneath, or above the light on the wall)
“The pot” a (home made…UV clamped bulb to a parasol stem overlooking the urn.

Plus “inside” the parasol, which often attracts the moths that don’t like the UV over the urn, instead preferring to fly up into the folds of the parasol.

Not particularly interested in the numbers…just “the quality” of the visitors!
For e.g since 2004- a single Puss Moth, single Eyed-Hawk, single Crimson Speckled, Twin Gold Spot, Vestal, Sallow Kitten and never had a Grey Pine Carpet or an Emperor Moth (much to my chagrin).

Cheers

 

[Farnboro John]

Rather to my own surprise I just discovered I've been moth trapping in my back garden since 2010, so this is my fourteenth year. The first really positive interest I took in moths was twitching a Death's Head Hawk-moth at Portland Obs (mind you that was only from Winspit where I'd been twitching my first Monarch butterfly) - it turned out they had a Convolvulus as well, which was nice. And they got them both out for us so we could photograph them (not digital then, sorry!)

I stuck to macros apart from the really big obvious micros like Mother of Pearl for years. I couldn't tell you exactly how many I've had in the garden because I haven't maintained a garden list - that's the problem with secondary hobbies, you don't hit them from the off with the same level of fanaticism as the main event, birding. One day I'll work it out. My total list is currently 389 macros and 72 micros. It's not that long since the micros pushed the total over 400 so to be approaching 400 macros now is nice.

Best garden moth is Striped Hawk-moth though it wasn't a tick because Mick Scott had shown me two on Scilly during James Andrewes's stag weekend. Mick has also shown me a couple of Death's Heads over the years and my only local Eyed Hawk-moth back when he lived in Fleet. Other good garden catches include two Dark Crimson and one Light Crimson Underwings: favourites include Merveille du Jour and various hawk-moths. Marion occasionally takes a bit of interest and has a knack of noticing Hummingbird Hawk-moths at our Red Valerian and Buddleia - her record was one evening when she casually mentioned there were eleven on the Buddleia!

For several years I've had ambitions to trap in every month and failed early, but this year I'm still on course to this point. I use a LepiLED in a plywood self-assemble box powered by a powerbank that will do a short summer night but currently requires a change just before bedtime if it's not to run out early doors. I put a selection of eggboxes in the same pattern each night and I wonder whether others do the same or just chuck them in in a heap?

I enjoy seeing everybody's records on here and comparing what they think are regulars to what I usually get - the variation between my trap and James's is quite wide, for instance!

Cheers,

John

 

[KenM]

Did anybody get a “return” last night?, as I only got two pugs (yet to be ascribed) one Early Grey in the pot + no doubt the returning Lunar Marbled Brown on the wall.😩

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Did well last night, in quality at least, with a macro tick no less, Tawny Pinion, along with a Pale for a nice comparison opportunity. Two Powdered Quakers were only my second record (from memory, will check spreadsheets tonight), and a possible Oak-tree Pug.

 

[earthdragon64]

I've been trapping in my garden in Aviemore since 2007 using a Skinner 125w MV trap. In 2011 I started trapping as part of the Garden Moth Scheme, GMS, so putting the trap out every Friday for 36 weeks from early March to early November. You can miss a few weeks here and there for holidays etc, so not quite as daunting as it sounds. I'm now Scottish co-ordinator for the GMS and look after the records database.

I've recorded 322 species in the garden, a mix of macros and micros and my best species, from both looks and rarity was a single Kentish Glory in 2018. Other notables are Rannoch Sprawler and Cousin German and I also once had a Merveille du Jour. Moth envy creeps in a little sometimes, there's a trapper lass than half a mile away who gets more Kentish Glory and Rannoch Sprawlers, more moths overall really, beacuase his garden backs onto some nice woodland whereas I've got streetlights to the front and back.

 

[KenM]

I suspect like most “moth-ers” the thought of a Kentish Glory in the trap might initiate “a whooping dance” around the said!
I’ll probably never catch up with that one however, apart from last year (just the one), I normally get good returns with Merveille du jour.
It was the poor return with the latter, also my 1st year without Elephant Hawk that prompted me to change from my 20W UV to my current 60W UV, if that doesn’t work, I might try a higher wattage bulb.
In the early years I was given a Moth trap with a 120W MV bulb, this produced some megas…4 Convolvulus HM’s one morning😮
Eventually it died (the choke) and I didn’t replace it, never felt very comfortable using such a high powered MV, as it gave off an odd odour, prompting me to think of Health and Safety concerns. 😮

 

[Ribbon]

Did well last night, in quality at least, with a macro tick no less, Tawny Pinion, along with a Pale for a nice comparison opportunity. Two Powdered Quakers were only my second record (from memory, will check spreadsheets tonight), and a possible Oak-tree Pug.

Interesting. I had four Powdered Quakers last night. For me it was my first record in three years of mothing here in the southwestern part of the Netherlands. Good year for this species?