Birding opportunities have been scant this week, but at least we now have a new carpet and my late mother's flat has been cleared of furniture. However this morning following a warm sticky night as I was in the garden preparing to investigate my moth trap I heard the screaming of Swifts overhead and looked up to see 20 of them careering overhead. This modest count was still the largest number I have seen this year as their UK population continues to decline.
As for the moths, well this was easily my biggest night this year. I counted 221 moths of at least 39 species. Typically the majority were micros, in particular the tiny Yponomeuta moths which are often impossible to identify to species level. Most were Yponomeuta evonymella (Bird-cherry Ermine) no doubt a reflection of the overgrown state of our garden. Some were definitely some of the other Ermine species. The common one I'm missing is Willow Ermine, Yponomeuta rorrella, but I had a few candidates.
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| Potential Y rorrella |
Fortunately most of the other species, even the micros, were easier to separate. I still did my best to overlook one of two other species which were lifers. To be fair, I knew the insect in question was something I hadn't seen before, I just didn't realise it was a moth. Fortunately I was curious enough to take a photograph and ask Obsidentify what it was. The name Homoeosoma sinuella meant nothing to me and it was some time later that I discovered it was the latin name of the pyrallid moth called Twin-barred Knot-horn.
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| Twin-barred Knot-horn |
It was rather good for Pyrallids and I also recorded only my second Grey Oak Knot-horn Acrobasis consociella, and several other species which are less than annual.
My last lifer was a macro-moth, but a very small one. As far as I can tell the Short-cloaked Moth is not rare locally, but I'd never seen one before.
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| Short-cloaked Moth |
At least I knew it was a moth.
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