Saturday April 29 - mostly moths

 Before all the birders avert their eyes, there is a little Morton Bagot bird news from yesterday. Andy G saw a Whinchat and five Wheatears among the plastic tree-collars.

However, my activity was confined to moth-trapping in the garden last night. I caught 29 moths of 14 species including nine Brindled Pugs, five Oak-tree Pugs, and four Brindled Beautys (they seem to be having a strong year).

I had five new for the year, and one new for the garden. The latter was a micro called Epinotia immundana and was photographed next to the strip light before promptly disappearing. Obsidentify wasn't much use, so I've had to use the old method of comparing my shots with the book/internet images. However, I also ran it passed MothIDUK, and eventually got the thumbs up.

Common Birch Bell - Epinotia immundana

The pick of the nfy moths were Frosted Green (second for garden, previous one being in 2019), Acleris literana (first since 2020, third for garden), and Tawny-barred Angle (almost annual, but not seen last year). 

Frosted Green

Lichen Button - Acleris literana

Tawny-barred Angle

The others which were new for the year were a Shuttle-shaped Dart and an Iron Prominent.

I am pleased to say that my garden moth list has now topped 400 species. Not bad for five and half years trapping in suburban Redditch. This includes micros, the macro list something like 234.