Beyond Bizarre

With little more than the odd shower here since mid-May, several hours of steady rain on Tuesday was a welcome respite. It lasted until after sunset, and I waited for it to clear completely before putting out the moth trap around 22:30. By now it was cool and clear, and very quiet. The night did not feel very mothy, and so it proved, with a paltry catch of 16 moths come dawn. None of the 10 species was new for the garden, the year, or anything at all. Dire. However, sometimes it is not all about the moths...

Quite often, when loitering by the moth trap after dark, you hear - and feel - the vibrating thrum of a moth's wings as it whizzes past your head. On such occasions you can easily tell when that moth is large, even if you've not actually seen it. On Tuesday night, the trap had been out about ten minutes when a rush of wings passed my ear and I sensed that something had hit the deck by my feet. It sounded huge, more a bird than a moth! I looked down, and could hardly believe my eyes. There, crouched in the beam of my head-torch, was a Common Sandpiper! It let me pick it up without complaint. I got Sandra to take a quick phone photo, then boxed it for the night, hoping it wasn't injured. At first light I gingerly opened the box. It stood up, peered around, then took off. Watching a Common Sandpiper head away from our driveway, low over the neighbourhood rooftops, was a very weird thing!

So, yes, a Patchwork Challenge tick for my Bridport North patch, and a big, fat...er...one-pointer.

Hmmm...

Think I'll be appealing for an extra point here. Surely justified on bizzareness alone?

Common Sandpiper adds itself to the very, very small 'Waders Actually in the Garden' list.

Anyway, no waders last night, but a decent haul of moths...

Wednesday night, July 5th

124 moths of 52 species, though only one new for year.

Poplar Grey. A species we've had several times, but they don't come much fresher than this one. I love the olive tones to this gorgeous moth.

A typical mothy LBJ (Little Brown Job), but thankfully identifiable.

Another example of the largest Scoparid, and a nicely marked one too. Odd that we didn't catch any in 2022, but have already trapped three this year.

A rather battered example of this smart little micro. Looks a lot better with all its scales present. We caught it twice last year, but this is the first for 2023. Apparently not recorded in the UK prior to 2003, but established in several counties now.

Love the tufty 'shark fins'. Nice to see it again after three in the first half of April.

This striking little moth could be any one of, I think, four species. Which is a bit depressing. Not our first this year, but the first which hasn't escaped the studio too quickly.

PS. Upon posting the Common Sand pic on Twitter, I learned that moth traps have attracted such bycatch as a flock of Greylags and a Sea King helicopter! Any other quirky trapping tales out there??