GMS Week 1

Oak Beauty

Blowy last night, 4 degrees. I was surprised to catch anything.

Taxa
0688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
1930 Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) 1 NFY
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 3
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 1
2256 Satellite (Eupsilia transversa) 1

7 moths of 5 sp. Takes me to 17 species for the year in the garden compared to 14 species at this point in 2011 and only 3 species in 2010!.

Bootiful...Oak Bootiful.

The fullest of full moons last night, with a white frost, down to 0 degrees. At 11.20pm it was light enough outside to still read the time on my watch, so it was a surprise to catch anything really...

Taxa
0688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
1663 March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) 1
1930 Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) 1 NEW
2139 Red Chestnut (Cerastis rubricosa) 1
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 1
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 10
2256 Satellite (Eupsilia transversa) 1 NFY

16 moths of 6 sp.

Oak Beauty was one of my most wanted species. Anyone south of the Tyne must be wondering what I'm on about but this one is just the 4th for VC68. What a superb moth...
It was nice to meet up with the Satellite again after the winter. This one has nice white spots, but I get orange ones too...

Reading Trent's blog (We are the Campions), it was strange to see him taking his trap in when the temp dropped to 2 degrees. If I had done that, I would scarcely have put a full night in! The warmest minimum night temp here so far this year has never been above 5 degrees...It looks like that might change over the next few days though with a mild spell forecast on Sunday / Monday.

Oak Beauty

Satellite