I am realising the joy of micromoths, even if I typically do not yet risk spending half-an-hour or more trying to identify them. I appreciate them for their splendour: Beautiful Plume, Double-striped Pug, Diamond-backed Moth and Bird-cherry Ermine all cue an ecstatic groan. 

I am up to four hawkmoths: Poplar, Lime, Elephant and Small Elephant. All of them crippling. Most make good nasal jewellery too. 

Thesestriped moths with flaming underwings feel more like tropical butterflies than they do British moths. I am used to seeing them: south-east London has long been a stronghold. But I never get bored of seeing them. And, apparently, nor do they get bored of seeing the MV light adorning my Robinson-style mothtrap. We appear to have struck a deal.

Three Toadflax Brocade - formerly a Red Date Book species restricted to shingle beaches in SE England - have made themselves known. One Bordered Sallow - a sandy grassland species - was a similar surprise. July Highflyers appear partly appropriately named: the month is right, but they sure come down low. Ruby Tiger looks nothing like the other Tigers. Swallow-tailed Moths are exquisite - but appear camera-phobic. Hoary Footman added to the infantry haul. 

I have no benchmark for what to envisage; this is absolutely 'learning by doing'. I have now put names - with a pretty high degree of confidence - to some 135 species of moth. I have photographed another 30 odd species ('micros' = small ones) that I will try to identify in quieter times, ie when not buying a house in a different county. My biggest catch has been a gobsmacking 2,000 individual moths - although admittedly 90% of those were a single, tiny species that is wreaking havoc on British plantlife: Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner. I won't honour it with a photograph, but will offer another unidentified but very attractive macro instead.

Wildlife

James Lowen 

All this diversity is brilliant. I wouldn't mind an entire trap full of Tigers though, all burning bright...

Even within two months of trapping, I have seen the ebb and flow of flight-seasons: today I failed to catch even a single of the previously and continuously abundant Heart and Dart, but caught a dozen Jersey Tigers (none at all until this week).  ​

It is hard to pick out highlights when almost every individual species is new to me or relatively so, and thus exciting. But let me have a go. 
I have twice caught a male Four-spotted Footman, which is a fairly scarce migrant. 

Wildlife

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23 July 2014   Tiger, tiger burning bright

An update on Blackheath moth-ing.

Following myconversion to the cult of moth-trapping ('moth-ing'; I am now a 'moth-er') in late May, I have become well and truly hooked. Weather conditions permitting (cold is bad, wind is bad, rain is bad), I rig up the gear in our small terraced garden four nights a week then divest the trap of its six-legged contents early the following morning. I have come to love the ritual, to cherish the expectation that every new dawn brings.