Five Nights

This post is what happens when I'm a bit slack with the moth diary. Five nights, lots of action...

Thursday night, August 17th

79 moths, but only 26 species. No new ones...except the one that got away. Clinging to the cabin wall first thing was a moth I recognised instantly from lustful sessions with the literature: Catoptria pinella. I didn't even get close to potting it. Gone. But I'd seen it, hadn't I? So I dried my eyes and wrote it down. Hours later, racked with self-doubt, I crossed it out. Mind you, I cannot imagine what else it might have been.

Catoptria pinella is apparently quite common, so I shall simply wait.

Meanwhile...

Our second one of these, though we've had another since.

Friday night, August 18th

99 moths of 38 species; two new for year.

No show-stoppers, but a nice selection of bits and bobs...

Bright-line Brown-eyes are usually a bit tatty, so this one was worth a snap.

New for the year, after one in 2022.

White-point, a migrant. This was one of five, which is a very good haul for here.

I thought this was new for the year, but then noticed we had two in June. Senility is a bad thing.

First of the year and, no doubt, of many.

Our fifth one of these, and still we appear to have the only Bridport records.

Wax Moth #3 for the year.

Saturday night, August 19th

107 of 46 species; three new for year, one new for garden.

Again, some nice highlights, including a couple of decent [presumed] migrants...

Our first Six-striped Rustic this year. Nice.

According to Sandra, this is a Koala Moth. I can see where she's coming from. In 2022 we trapped four Portland Ribbon Waves, so this is number five, and by far the most pristine. There are just four other Bridport area records on the Living Record map, shared between three locations. Another one we seem to have done well for. I assume this is a migrant, but perhaps not?

A nice migrant. Just six Bridport area records on the Living Record map.

Sunday night, August 20th

115 moths of 50 species; four new for year, one new for garden.

Another great selection, amongst which was a very smart Knot Grass. 'Excellent,' I thought to myself, 'It's about time we had one of those,' and put it down as a new species for the garden. And then I discovered that we recorded it on four occasions last year! What is the matter with me?

Turnip Moth, our third of 2023. Recorded on 12 nights last year.

Knot Grass. Not new for the garden.

A 3mm speck. New for the garden, but apparently confusable with a similar 3mm speck and therefore pending. Judging by online pics, looks pretty unequivocal to me, but strictly requires 'gen.det.' to confirm. I would like to see the tools employed to extract the microscopic 'nads of something this small.

Our first Vestal of the year. A pukka migrant, and a rather pale one. Bet it's from somewhere very hot. In 2022 we recorded nine, between 8/9 and 13/11.

Monday night, 21st August

149 moths of 47 species; three new for year, one new for garden.

Moth of the night (of the post?) was on the garage wall this morning...

The whole process of its discovery and identification gave me some troubling insight into how sluggish my early-morning brain is. At the time of taking this photo I'd decided it was not the Old Lady that I had initially thought. Clearly the markings did not fit. But it was HUGE, so what other moths were as big as, indeed bigger than, an Old Lady? In my head was a big blank space where there should have been at least a couple of obvious options.

I fetched a plastic box from the kitchen and proceeded to pot it. Instantly the moth woke up and flashed red and black and white. Of course! But I haven't seen Red Underwing for more than 25 years, and had forgotten how enormous they are. And how stunning...

Red Underwing. Legitimate use of the word 'awesome' I think.

There were other moths of course, but yes, they had been seriously upstaged...

The year's first Flounced Rustic.

A very nice Yellow-barred Brindle.

Our second Oak Eggar of 2023. This monster is a female. Not as big as the Red Underwing though.

Small Rivulet. Two last year, and now two this year as well.

New for the year. We trapped this species twice in 2022.

Finally, the Blair's Mocha count is now 21, one more than last year...

Blair's Mocha #20 and #21. Despite occasionally catching this species on consecutive nights, as in this case, it always seems to be a different individual each time.