31

I cannot think of a good reason why the moth trap should be out tonight, but it is. I shall curtail this folly before bed because heavy rain is forecast. An empty trap is bad enough - and there have been a few lately - but a wet, empty trap is a pain. And anyway, despite extremely slim pickings recent catches have already exceeded expectations - three new species for the Axminster garden, including a lifer for me. I think the last time I wrote about numbers we were on 28 here. I pressed on in the hope of a Winter Moth. That duly happened when I plucked one off the trap vanes on December 6th. So, 29. A nice, round 30 would be good to finish the year on, and I wondered if Mottled Umber might be a possibility. I only ever caught a couple in Bridport, but thought it worth a try nonetheless. And then last night I caught two. Result. However, I didn't discover them until this morning, and they had already been beaten to number 30 by a lifer...

I found this beneath a window ledge late last night, but had no idea what it was.

This moth is clearly very worn, with just a few sketchy remnants of what were no doubt nice markings once. I was completely stumped. When that happens I often try ObsIdentify first. Considering the really bad phone shots I was asking it to deal with I wasn't expecting much, but hoped maybe it would point me in the right direction...

Two really bad images of my mystery moth. Surely too reflective and shiny to be of any use?

As you can imagine, I was a bit surprised by this confidence!

Obviously my next step was to get books off the shelf and check out The Brick. Not an especially common moth in Devon (just four records last year, though double figure totals normally) and not one I'd caught in Bridport. Seems to be a variable species, but I could see just enough on my knackered specimen to convince me that ObsID was correct. And thank goodness for that, because if I had been limited to books alone I am not sure I'd have nailed it. Eventually I came across an online photo that suggested what my moth would have looked like fully dressed...

Photo on the right by Tom Morris, and lifted from the Dorset Moths website.

So that was fun. And unexpected.

At least I knew what Mottled Umbers looked like, and they are rather lovely...

Mottled Umber 1

Mottled Umber 2

In the past I have written at some length about ObsIdentify and its use. Three years on, my view is pretty much the same. I see it as a handy tool to have at hand when I am stumped - or just feeling lazy - but I never trust it. Those 100% confidence IDs have occasionally been 100% wrong. And sometimes it struggles for no obvious reason. Many times though - like this time - it has solved what I thought was a tricky ID with surprising ease and accuracy.

So there we are: 31.