Early call to the Bar

The Purple Bar to be precise.  Another very early record in the garden last night, 31.iii.2014, again far and away my earliest ever record.

Of fire and...

...Brimstone Moth.

The earliest I've recorded this, in my back garden last night.

Into second 'gear'

Or in other words, the second Pinion species of the year attracted to the garden trap: Tawny Pinion.

Had a rather dark example of Pale Pinion the same night so was able to get comparison shots too.

Springing into action

The last week has seen a steady stream of spring species to the garden trap, thanks to the mild weather. Including one for which I had a 'gap' year in 2013, Oak Beauty.



Twin-spotted Quaker



Pale Pinion



Double-striped Pug

Feb and Fifty

Just been getting MapMate up to date and now realise that I have reached over 50 species already this year and it is still February, albeit the last day of February. It took until 25th March to get there last year.

The success, like last year, is simply down to extensive daytime searching for early stages, predominantly of micros.

The species to push the list to 50 this year was the not-so-spectacular mine of Bucculatrix nigricomella in my front garden.






 The new for garden Red Chestnut from my most recent post, was species #51 for 2014, so hopefully onwards and upwards.

Code Red: February yields a garden newbie

Nice to get a new one for the garden so early in the season.

This beautiful Red Chestnut was flying around the security light yesterday.

Not-so Dotted Border

... although it's hardly her fault, given the vestigial nature of her wings, there's no room for the dots seen on the males.

Was very pleased to find her scuttling down an Ash tree trunk; there were males on nearby bushes too.