I take it all back…

Another first for the garden list last night: Mottled grey, which is a bit of a rarity up here on the clay. Other species in the trap included 6 clouded drab, 15 Hebrew character, 2 small quaker, 8 common quaker, 5 dotted border, 1 shoulder stripe and a March moth. Not as good as the last couple of nights – and I never get big total numbers (the quakers won’t peak for another two or three weeks). But I won’t complain again about it being poor here in March/April.

Tony H.

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6 Responses to I take it all back…

  1. Brian says:

    I’ve never seen Mottled Grey on any of my sites Tony; perhaps it will turn up one day.
    I trapped nearby woodland for a couple of hours last evening. Reasonable results, new ones for the year were A. alstromeriana, D. fagella (12) and Lead-coloured Drab. March Moth the most abundant at the moment with 42. The common orthosias made up the rest of the catch together with A heracliana, Dotted Border, Engrailed (one of which made me scratch my head because it was a deep shade of green), Shoulder Stripe, Oak Beauty, Satellite & Chestnut – 16 species in all. The garden trap produced E monodactyla and Early Grey to add to the night’s total. Over 100 moths counted.
    The moon didn’t get up until 8.30 and the temperature held at 10 deg. and this helped to produce sufficient moths to keep it interesting.

    Brian.

  2. tonyhopkins says:

    Thanks for this note Brian. It’s encouraging to know I get a few goodies!

    The green engrailed sounds quite exotic! I haven’t seen lead-coloured drab here for three or four years (when I caught several in the garden trap). I haven’t looked on a map to see how far apart we are but it might be intriguing to compare ‘signature’ species from your Waveney sites. And I suspect many of our flight dates might be similar – ie. significantly later than those for Ipswich or the southeast of the county.

    Tony.

  3. Raymond Watson says:

    No Mottled Grey for me either. Very good record. Lead-coloured Drab might move in on you as you have Aspen.

  4. tonyhopkins says:

    Whilst musing on my mottled grey I see it is considered a Brecks speciality. Which is something of an odd coincidence because at least a couple of my best catches over the last few years have been ‘Brecks specialities’ (Grey Carpet, Oblique Striped). I’m a long way from the Brecks and my local farmland habitats shouldn’t be suitable. There is a railway line next to my garden, which I have assumed to be responsible for the presence in my garden of glow-worms, shark moths etc. Could it be a mini-Brecks habitat? Probably not: even sedentary moths must just wander.

    I tried to upload a picture of the mottled grey for my blog note above, but for some reason I can’t get it to work.

    Tony H.

  5. Raymond Watson says:

    Interestingly Tony, I see that the Migrant Moth Facebook has included Mottled Grey as an immigrant at this present time at Bardsey Island, Gwynedd.

  6. Neil says:

    Could also have wandered from the Sandlings, there are some small populations on the coastal heaths. Foodplant is bedstraws, so you would need them close to you if it breeding locally.
    March moth now tailing right off here in Ipswich with Orthosia numbers remaining pretty static. Not at their peak here yet. Oak beauty is having a good year with me, seeing plenty of that. Never had a female though, always males. 10 in total last night.

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