Best night ever in Stutton

I have been trundling the 15w actinic around various parts of the village during this good weather as my rather plain garden gets a bit predictable. Last night, I set up in a very large, mostly ornamental garden with plenty of maturing trees and shrubs no more than 400m as the crow flies from me. The owner told me this evening that when they bought the house 30 years ago it was just a paddock. It came up trumps with 47 species (111 moths). If I could do all the micros, the total would have pushed in to the low 50′s. Highlights were Lesser-spotted Pinion, my first ever Scalloped Hook-tip, Pebble Hook-tip, gigantella and forficella. I think Least Yellow Underwings are rather smart and it was good to see my first of the year. The smartest moth though was clamped firmly in the jaws of a spider – a Bordered Beauty.

Back home, I think I have a Brown long-eared bat visiting the trap. I found several moth wings on the floor of the summerhouse next to where I run the trap. I have seen these chaps in action before at another house and was able to id seven different macros from the wings on the floor. (I saw the bats as well which was a fabulous sight).

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