17th April 2015 ... December Moth larvae

My garden is about as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip when it comes to December Moths.
The surrounding trappers get them annually, sometimes in numbers but not here.
I had a brief glimpse of one back in 2009 around the trap in my complete novice days and nothing since, which leads me to doubt my ID at the time.
To boost my chances of getting another, Matt of trappingsofsuccess arrived at The Dells couple of days ago with a pot of newly hatched larvae which I attached to a branch of a young Hawthorn tree growing in the garden.
Two days on I found 6 of them resting on the trunk during this afternoon, some distance away from the release branch.
As they are night feeders I will see if I can locate any of them feeding on the leaves tonight and try to monitor their progress if possible.

December Moth larvae

The larvae are about 8 or 9mm long at present and are vunerable to birds as there are Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits nesting nearby, but maybe they prefer the numerous green larvae inhabiting the garden.
A year first Dark/Grey Dagger was added to the year list on the 16th April which is very early, but little else.

2284x Dark/Grey Dagger agg.

Cold N/E winds will hamper the mothing this week as it gets a good chilling from the cold North Sea, might be ok for bird migration though.