11th March 2011 ...A beautiful pair

The garden was affected by last nights early evening stiff breeze which calmed down at about 21.00 hrs. Most of my garden moths are trapped in the first hour or so after dusk so the early evening produced very little.
A solitary A. heracliana braved the wind at around 18.45 with two Common Quakers clinging on to the walls near the lights.
As soon as the wind dropped, at around 9pm , the situation improved when a March Moth put in an appearance followed by an Oak Beauty.
The trap turned up another Oak Beauty this morning which makes 7 for the year to date.
Oak Beauty is a garden "first" this year so to have 7 of them turn up has pleasantly surprised me.
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A brace of...OAK BEAUTY 1930

MARCH MOTH 1663

EARLY GREY 22436 x Common Quaker

2 x Oak Beauty

1 x March Moth

1 x Early Grey

1 x Hebrew Character

1 x Agonopterix heracliana

This years garden total:-

107 moths of 20 species (14 macro, 6 micro )

After a recount ! 62 macro and 45 micro....

Of the 45 micros, A. heracliana accounted for 30, Tortricodes alternella weighed in with 9. Also Ypsolopha ustella x 2, Emmelina monodactyla x 2, with one each of Amblyptilia acanthadactyla and Epiphyas postvittana.

Of the 62 macros to date, half of them have been Common Quaker, with surprisingly, 7 x Oak Beauty and only 4 x Hebrew Character. The rest is made up of 3's, 2's and 1's of various species.

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For anyone following the little side bet between myself and Matt (http://thetrappingsofsuccess blog) for the most species caught in one year....

As far as I know, Matt bagged a Red Chestnut last night, which on my reckoning, makes the score 22 t0 20, putting me two behind.

Embarrassingly, I still haven't paid for last years defeat, the bet being an "excellent" bottle of red.

The local wine shop in Biggleswade closed down and the supermarkets around here only stock "good" wine scaling down to "barely drinkable".

A foray further afield or an email to Mr Laithwaite is required, but if I wait long enough, we might be quits !