Wildlife

James Lowen

Plenty of other enjoyable moths too. I particularly enjoyed the White Ermine and female Muslin comparison (both white and dotted, but different shapes). This was courtesy of Matt Casey, who has now trapped at New Costessey for the final time. No more early-morning twitches for me - quick dashes 300m round the corner to see an unexpected rare. Thanks for them all, Matt. Mind you, the benefit of Matt leaving is that I might actually catch some of 'his' moths...

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25 May 2017 May moths

It has been a month of two halves for the moth trap. Nothing at all then a seismic leap to decent diversity. The first crowd-pleasers (the hawk-moths) have arrived.

Red Twinspot aside, the garden list has received some additions (most moths I have seen only once or twice before). Nice moths the lot of them, particularly Frosted Green. What a cracker. Seraphims are interesting: I caught one on two successive nights. There seem to have been a few around this spring.

I have seen a few new moths recently, some of which are below. The highlights - red-belter aside - have been a Lace Border at Narborough (which unfortunately flicked high into a hawthorn before I could photograph it) and a Pinion-spotted Pug, courtesy of Justin Lansdell in south Norwich. The 'Red Twin-spot' was in my garden, however, so doubly pleasing: a tick at home!

Last year, I became known as the Clearwing King, partly for the number of clearwing moths I found lurking in my garden (or rather, that found me and my lure). I wasn't expecting to trap any here this month, but Yellow-legged Clearwings have been out for a few days now, and they turn up briefly each time I put out the lure. Even more exciting, Sacha Barbato and I managed two brief visits from a Large Red-belted Clearwing (a tick!) at Holt Lowes mid-month. Folk who have tried here and at other sites subsequently have sadly failed. No photos of that individual, so some Yellow-legs instead. I expect my first twitcher - James Hanlon - later on today...