Beauty and the Brindled

I got a fantastic catch last night, in near perfect conditions. I got 20 moths of 9 species, which is about the amount I would have to wait till May to get with my old (Actinic) trap. These included two new for the garden. An Oak Beauty and a Small Brindled Beauty (seemingly scarce round here) were those in question. These are ticks 255 and 256 on my garden macro list.

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28th Feb:

7 Common Quaker

5 Small Quaker

2 Hebrew Character NFY

1 Small Brindled Beauty NFG

1 March Moth

1 Spring Usher

1 Pale Brindled Beauty

1 Oak Beauty NFG

1 Clouded Drab

....and no Chestnuts!

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I also got this Agonopteryx which I would appreciate an ID for (Heracliana?):

Hebrew Character

Small Brindled Beauty

Oak Beauty

The usual suspects

Nothing unexpected in the trap last night, well, not moth-wise anyway.  A queen buff-tail bumble bee rather took me by surprise though!

However, there were a lot of moths!

11 Small Brindled Beauty
6 March Moth
6 Pale Brindled Beauty
3 Spring Usher
3 Small Quaker
3 Chestnut
2 Dotted Chestnut
1 Common Quaker

  

Dotted Chestnut

Queen bee (Buff Tail)

Quiet night last night

I'd expected a few more moths this morning but not to be......

2 Pale Brindled Beauty
1 Chestnut
1 Common Quaker
1 Small Quaker

Common Quaker

Small Quaker

Tonight is looking promising though....making a good start out there already.

Cloudy but not Drab

Nothing to right home about last night, but it was great to get two more true spring species, Clouded Drab and Small Quaker.

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27th Feb:

3 Chestnut

2 Clouded Drab NFY

1 Pale Brindled Beauty

1 Small Quaker NFY

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Clouded Drab

Small Quaker

More than I bargained for!

Like others, I've been taking advantage of the very unseasonal weather to pop the moth trap out in the garden. To be honest, I didn't expect to be as successful as I have been, with a total of 15 species recorded (and god knows how many individuals!) over the past 3 days, bringing the 2012 garden moth list to 20... a figure that wasn't reached until 22nd March last year. Perhaps a sign of things to come?
Here's the list so far:

Dark Chestnut
Chestnut
March Moth
Common Quaker
Small Quaker
Clouded Drab
Small Brindled Beauty
Pale Brindled Beauty
Winter Moth
Spring Usher
Tachystola acroxantha
Epiphyas postvittana
Carpatolechia decorella
Ypsolopha ustella
Tortricodes alternella
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla
Emmelina monodactyla
Agonopterix heracliana
Mompha subbistrigella
Acleris cristana

Small Quaker, 1 of 3...

Small Quaker w/ big brother, the Common Quaker...

Spring Usher...

March Moth...

Small Brindled Beauty, the most numerous moth in the trap at present...

Pale Brindled Beauty, a belated garden first...

A gang of 'Beauties'...

Clouded Drab...

Dark Chestnut, a first for the garden...

Carpatolechia decorella...

Mompha subbistrigella...

Ysolopha ustella...

Emmelina monodactyla...

Not exactly a moth, but the thin crescent of the moon was looking nice on Friday night...

Happy mothing!

Nice to get some moths!

I trapped a couple of nights ago, and got nothing. Last night was not as warm, but I decided to trap anyway. Amazingly, I got 10 moths (+ a few micros)! Presumably, this is because it took a few nights of warmer temps to persuade moths to hatch out, or leave thier hibernation places. Nothing new for the garden, but some nice species.

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24th Feb:

3 Chestnut

2 Spring Usher

2 Common Quaker

1 Dotted Border

1 Satellite

1 March Moth

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Sorry about the ugly black rectangles, but I am using my new laptop, and I haven't got quite used to the photo editing software yet!

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Spring Usher

Satellite

March Moth

Dotted Border

Common Quaker

And a few more....

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Having only started mothing last August, I still have the joy and expectation of finding a moth in my trap that I've not come across before, and this morning did not disappoint.

Amongst the Pale Brindled Beauty, Small Brindled Beauty, Spring Usher and Chestnuts I found a beautiful Dotted Chestnut.  A new find does give such a thrill!

The moths come out to play at last....

...defintiely a milder night last night and I was hopeful of one or two moths in the trap this morning so I was delighted to find nine of the little beggars!

4 Pale Brindled Beauty
2 March Moth
2 Spring Usher
1 Small Brindled Beauty

Anyone else had any success?