Blame the weatherman

15th March 2012

After a week of cold mornings I was hopeful for Thursday night. Whichever weatherman I listened to they said it was going to be a nice day, warm temperatures and a warm night. What did we wake up to? The thickest fog all year and a daily maximum of 9 degrees! I debated about putting out the trap, but then I had been looking forward to it all week, so I decided to try it. By 10pm I'd not had a sniff, so I was very doubtful about the mornings success.

However, just to prove me wrong I did have a few moths to pot up. Three species in all, and all three new for the year, of course.

These two Twin-spotted Quakers were a nice find as I've only caught two other individuals before.

I've never seen one with the rusty coloured marking across the middle before.

 Next were two Common Quakers, a common species in the garden but such lovely markings when they're nice and fresh like this.
And of course the last one had to be the Clouded Drab. I managed three of these and the variability of their colours can be seen in the photos of the three of them together below right.

So not quite as bad a night as I was expecting. 7 moths of 3 species. Not a big catch but certainly a sign of things to come...