My New Moth Trap

If you have read my tweets, (over there <------- somewhere) you will know that my new moth trap arrived early on Friday morning. I couldn't wait to have a go with it and set it up in the garden on Friday night. The weather wasn't ideal and I wasn't expecting decent results, because living in a built up area near to a 'main road' (well for Seaton it is) I had to respect other residents and buy an actinic trap as opposed to a blindingly bright mercury vapour one. I don't know why I bothered though because the car sales place over the road from our house has two dazzling floodlights which come on intermittently all night long, they are on PIR switches but these are so sensitive a passing gnat could set them off! There are also floodlights at the yacht club, so my poor little trap, with its gentle blue glow, was going to have a lot of competition. Would any moths even notice it!? When I fetched it in at around 4 am I thought it was empty but later in the morning I completely emptied all the egg boxes out and right underneath the bottommost one were SEVEN moths! Whoo-hoo! Hopefully I'll be able to improve on that number but I doubt my garden will ever be a mothing hot-spot. I've spent a fair while trying to ID them today without the aid of a decent guide (one ordered today though), which is no matter really because I can't go out birding at the moment because I have to take it easy and rest my arm after my cortisone injection yesterday.

My moth trap, the Gladiator 22w actinic from Paul Batty in Sheffield

THE MOTHS

Suffering from a bit of a bald spot what I think is a Buff Ermine.

Another balding one, this time a Dot Moth

I think this is a Smoky Wainscot

I couldn't identify this one (there were three of these) so stuck it on the Moth ID section of Birdforum, where I was quickly informed that it is a Bright-line Brown-eye.

The other one was a teeny brown job so I didn't bother trying to ID that. A common bunch but not bad for a first attempt, you never know what's next. And besides like some other things, most of the fun's in the anticipation. :-)