Best night so far with 20 moths of 16 species. New for the year were: Common Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Willow Beauty, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Dingy Shell, Tinea trinotella, Epinotia bilunana & Celypha lacunana.

 Dingy Shell

 Epinotia bilunana

 Tinea trinotella

Things still haven't really got going in my garden yet. Just 9 moths of 7 species. Mottled Rustic new for the year plus 2 Light Emeralds. Here's a newly emerged Scarce Chaser at Westbere the other day.

Scarce Chaser

A warm night with a min. of 13c. There were 14 moths of 10 species. New for the year were Light Emerald and May Highflyer.

Light Emerald

Just 12 moths of 8 species this morning.The best was a Pale Tussock-new for this year. Unfortunately it warmed up too quickly so I gave up on photographing it. Here's a Holly Blue taken at Westbere today.

Holly Blue

A low of 10c last night: 13 moths of 9 species, the best being the 1st Spruce Carpet of the year.

Spruce Carpet

A low of 13.5c produced a rather disappointing catch this morning of just 14 moths of 6 species. Only record of interest was the first Garden Carpet of the year. Below is my 1st Grizzled Skipper for 11 years seen at Dunge yesterday. It could have been a better specimen!

Grizzled Skipper

13 moths of 7 species this morning. The best being my 3rd garden record of Chocolate-tip. Also the 1st Heart & Dart and Common  Pug of the year. Agonopterix arenella was also new for the year. At Dungeness today managed to see my 1st Grizzled Skipper for 11 years. Several Hairy Dragonflies were also around at Dunge.

Chocolate-tip

Hairy Dragonfly

A warmer night again with a low of 13c. Eight species plus a very worn pug in the trap. Firsts for the year were Brimstone, Small Phoenix, Common Swift & Brown House-moth. Also, 1 Bee Moth, 2 Shuttle-shaped Darts, 1 LBAM & a Clouded Drab. 

Small Phoenix

A warmer night 11.5c min. produced 8 species (and 1 that got away when opening the trap). Scorched Carpet was new for the year plus 1 Silver Y, 1 Green Carpet, 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart,1 Turnip, 1 Bee, 1 E.sulpurella amd 3 White-shouldered House-moths. See my Flickr site for Badger pictures from Bonsai Bank area in Denge Wood.

 Scorched Carpet

A min. of 10.5c last night produced 5 moths: 3 Turnips, 1 LBAM & the first Green Carpet for the year.

Green Carpet

Well 5 species this morning was better than most nights lately: 3 Turnip Moths, 1 Hebrew Character, the first Streamer of the year plus 1 White-shoulderd House-moth and 2 LBAM. I know we're not quite at the end of May yet but last year I had recorded 87 species in the garden by the end of this month, whereas this year I'm currently on 32.

 The Streamer

Just 2 Shuttle-shaped Darts & a LBAM yesterday and this morning another LBAM, 1 White-shouldered House-moth and the first treble Lines of the year.

Treble Lines

Not much change yet. Just 1 Double-striped Pug on the night of 14th, 1 Early Grey & 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart on 15th, & 1 Hebrew Character plus the 1st Cockchafer of the year this morning.

Cockchafer

Cold nights still prevail. Yesterday I had 3 moths: Angle Shades, Cabbage and Muslin Moth. This morning there was a solitary Hebrew Character. Had a walk round Grove Ferry this afternoon before the rain started again. Just 1 Hobby seen and hundreds of Swifts.

 Hobby

A low of 5.5c last night and only 2 moths this morning: Muslin Moth and LBAM. Visited Samphire Hoe near Dover this morning. In addition to Spotted Flycatcher, Black Redstart and 2 Peregrines there were 3 Wall Browns, a Dingy Skipper and my 1st Painted Lady of the year. There are apparently 11,500 early Spider Orchid plants there too. Back home there was the 1st Holly Blue of the year in the garden.

Dingy Skipper

Things improved a bit this morning with 8 species in the trap including 4 year firsts: Angle Shades, Muslin Moth, White-shouldered House-moth & Epinotia immundana. Also I visited Bonsai Bank KWT Reserve this morning and saw about 8 Duke of Burgundy Butterflies and the pyralid Pyrausta nigrata. On the track down there were about 5 Crossbills including a nice red male. A Garden Warbler was singing close to where the "Dukes" were.

 Muslin Moth

 E.immundana

 Angle Shades

  

Well milder conditions seemed to have arrived with a low of 13.5c last night but it's still very wet. Yesterday I had an Early Grey & the 1st Bee Moth of the year. This morning had some soggy egg boxes to deal with and 1 Bee Moth, 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart & a Common Quaker-the latest I've had.

I've not reported much recently as there's not been much to report. I’ve just spent a week in Cornwall. I took the trap as the location where we stayed was mature parkland. I didn’t get anything in the trap all week. Last night was another wet one with 3 moths this morning: Pale Mottled Willow, LBAM, & E. sulphurella. Here's a picture of a Little Grebe taken last week with a prey item, but which Newt is it? (Click on picture to enlarge).

Little Grebe