A year of mothing

It’s a year to the day since I first got bitten by the mothing bug, as it were. Initially, it was all about seeing what turned up at the scientific trap and trying to get a photo or two of anything interesting. I did keep a record of new species and I think had logged and photographed approximately 130 of the 2600 or so species we see in the British Isles by the end of the long, hot summer of 2018 and into the winter. Canary-shouldered Thorn, first one of 2019 for me I kept on lighting up until well into December in the vain hope of spotting some of the late autumn and early winter moths with marvellous names such as Merveille du Jour and the more obviously named November and December Moths. It wasn’t to be, but a few others did turn up late in the season, no Mervs, but a November or twoo. I started occasionally lighting up again in February 2019 and then more seriously into the spring as the Quakers and Muslins began to turn up. As of my first year anniversary, I have logged and photographed 270 moth species. So a little more than 10% of those we might see across the country. Least Yellow Underwing, new for me 25 July 2019 Weirdly, the temperature yesterday and today are the same as they were this time last year and I had high hopes for some of the summer highlights, the less common Pine and Convolvulus Hawk-moths, some Garden Tigers and the like too (they’re spotty and used to be called Leopards). None of those last night, but I did have my first Canary-sh...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Moths Source Type: blogs