Saturday November 3

Oh Ye of little faith! My pessimistic forecast of no moths was proved wrong this morning when I discovered that my trap contained two moths, and they were both lifers.

The temperature overnight dipped to around 4 degrees, and the egg-boxes were mothless as expected. But on the sides of the trap I noticed first a rather attractive streaky grey moth, and then a less impressive fawn-coloured moth.

At first I assumed the grey one would be a Blair's Shoulder-knot (only because I knew JS had caught one a couple of weeks ago so I'd looked it up), but on closer inspection I concluded it was a Sprawler.

Sprawler

The flight period is given as late October to early December, and apparently it is quite infrequently caught because it mainly flies after midnight.

The fawn one was one I had been half-expecting based on JS's captures. It was a slightly worn Yellow-line Quaker.

Yellow-line Quaker

The books say it flies from September to November, which probably explains why it was a bit tatty. Interestingly the Warwickshire Moth book says it is less plentiful than the Red-line Quaker (which I have yet to see)!

Perhaps its a bit too early to give up on moths.

PS I recently ordered the third edition of Waring and Townsend, which arrived today. As I had suspected the taxonomists have got to work and have changed the Latin names of many moths and have changed the taxonomic order. So I'm going to have to overhaul my gallery and my year list. Oh joy.