February Moths

The last 3 weeks have been very poor for moths due to the night time temperatures frequently falling to zero or below. Consequently, there have been many blank nights and ones where I have not run the portable trap around the parish, just relying on the garden trap. Between 29th Jan and 7th Feb no moths were recorded, my longest barren spell since 2014,  but a warmer night on the 8th meant I carted all the gear into Stocking Wood. Upon returning later in the evening I had trapped 8 moths of 4 species

Chestnut

Dark chestnut

Pale brindled beauty

Satellite

There were another 7 blank nights before the temperatures picked up enough for me to get out. I visited Millennium Wood with just my headtorch and net where Graeme Smith was running a single trap. Between the 2 methods we took 29 moths of 6 species. Dotted border, Early moth, Spring usher and March moth shown here. The other species as above.

Dotted border

Early moth

March moth

Spring usher

another blank night followed before a break in the weather as temperatures remained around 12C. Time to leave the portable trap at Pig's Green and run the garden one, too.
27 moths of 7 species taken to the portable trap. I also wandered a few woods with the headtorch and net, catching Agonopterix heracliana in good numbers. The garden trap realised 4 moths of 3 species, all taken already.

Small brindled beauty from Pigs Green

Common quaker, 1st of the year from Pigs Green

1 of 9 Agonopterix heracliana, this one from Millennium Wood

The temperatures dropped a little on the 19th but still worth running both traps. Alder Wood was the destination for the portable trap where I scored with a disappointing 8 moths of 6 species, but nothing new and the garden trap was empty this morning.
This leaves me on 142 moths recorded, made up of 14 species (11 macro species, 3 micro species)
Millennium Wood has given up the most so far this year, with 9 species, but it has had more trap nights than anywhere else. The next 7 - 10 days look fairly bleak and, I suspect, very little to record.