May has arrived. Moth trapping in the later part of April was difficult, mainly due to cold winds a lot of the time. Moth list at the end of the month was 49. Interesting records in April included my 2nd ever Bloxworth Snout, a Grey Pine Carpet, aand a female Emperor Moth at Oare Marshes KWT Reserve, where a Ring Ouzel was also seen. 

 

 Bloxworth Snout

  Grey Pine Carpet

 Emperor Moth

Ring Ouzel

During March the moth trap added 7 new species to to year list, bringing it to 27. Best was the micro Agonopterix propinquella, which was new for the garden list. The Engrailed and Oak Beauty are always good to see. Interesting birds seen in march included 2 Red Kites at Oare Marshes. 

 Agonopterix propinquella

 Engrailed

 Oak Beauty

Red Kite 

I seem to have missed a monthly update for January, in which month I spent 2 weeks in South Korea. Bird pictures form this trip can be found on my Flickr site. I did no moth trapping until February due to the mainly wet weather, and the trap didn't really produce much until the last week in the month when mild conditions produced a couple of my best ever catches for the month of Feb. So the year list stands at 19, which compares to 8 at the same time last year. It has been mostly the "usual suspects" for the time of year but Twin-spotted Quaker and Yellow Horned are not ones I get every year. Interesting birds seen in Kent this year include Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Bittern.

 Bittern

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 

Yellow Horned

Twin-spotted Quaker