The well named Carpet...

For mid-May, the total of fifteen moths last night was very poor, but this did include two new species for the garden.  In slightly showery conditions, the best moth was sadly dead in a nearby spiders web, but it was the very aptly named Water Carpet.  The other was two Narrow-winged Pug (its possible I've overlooked these before).

18th May:
2 Narrow-winged Pug NFG
2 Nut-tree Tussock NFY
2 Yellow-barred Brindle NFY
2 Shuttle-shaped Dart NFY
1 Flame Shoulder NFY
1 Brindled Pug
1 Peppered Moth
1 Mottled Pug NFY
1 Water Carpet NFG
1 Buff-tip NFY
1 Green Carpet NFY




Mottled Pug (not the best shot, but this was a pristine example)

Nut-tree Tussock

Buff-tip

Narrow-winged Pug

Water Carpet

No Sloe but quite a show

I went on my first field trapping session of the year last night, as it had been a hot day. I visited Bookham Common with Paul Wheeler in the hope of Sloe Carpet. There's wonderful habitat there, with massive Blackthorn thickets everywhere, too early for the Nightingales too! Despite this, we had a great night, and in just two hours (it got cold under the clear sky very quickly) we managed 19 macro moths, and a load of micros too. These included species that I had not expected to be out yet, and three new species for me. A Small Brindled Beauty was quite late, we had an Early Tooth-striped, and two Red Chestnuts. We also discovered some Brown Hairstreak eggs that had been marked by someone with some string. Quite a night!

6th April, Bookham Common:

9 Water Carpet

7 Common Quaker

6 Scorched Carpet

3 Clouded Drab

3 Frosted Green

2 Small Quaker

2 Red Chestnut*

2 Shoulder Stripe

2 Brindled Pug

2 Hebrew Character

1 Early Thorn

1 Streamer

1 Satellite

1 Engrailed

1 Small Brindled Beauty*

1 Oak Beauty

1 Early Tooth-striped*

1 Nut-tree Tussock

1 Oak-tree Pug

Water Carpet

Small Brindled Beauty

Shoulder Stripe

Scorched Carpet

Red Chestnut

Oak-tree Pug

Oak Beauty

Early Tooth-striped