Wildlife

James Lowen

I have caught a few odd fenland wanderers, although godaddy seems to be refusing to let me upload photos of them. Nevertheless, Chilo phragmitela, Silky Wainscot and Calamatropha paludella have all been NFG. In the absence of pics of them, here's some crowdpleasers.

But let's get back to the action: ermines, pearls, shells and thorns.

This year I have got to grips with moth-ing vernacular. Every hobby has this, and branches of wildlife-watching are no different. For moths, however, it transpires that acronyms are key. Hence NFM, NFG and NFY - in descending order of excitement. New For Me... Garden... and Year... All bar the Snout in the following sequence fall into one or more of these categories.

That Black Arches is worth a second look.Or is that what it is doing at me?

Twittering moth-ers have suggested that the quantity of moths I've pulled in has been high - and I certainly never expected to regularly process traps with more than 400 winged critters in them. The quality is what is hard to judge. With the exception of Golden Plusia and Red-necked Footman, I haven't caught anything particularly classy. But every time I open the trap, there is something new, something exciting and many things unidentifiable. So no shortage of interest. Here are some pics of moths that have recently made into, and out of, my trap.

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27 Jul 2015 Moffin'

It's been a fair while since I updated on moth-trapping in my Norwich garden. It has been a quite exceptional summer for migrant moths, with pretty much everyone bar me apparently enticing a first for location/county/Britain (* delete as appropriate). Absolutely everyone - bar, ironically, the Mothmaster himself, Jon Clifton of Anglian Lepidopteran Supplies - has caught Small Mottled Willow, for example. Being a novice, and this being my first summer moth-ing in Norfolk, I find it rather difficult to judge whether my hauls have surpassed expectations or not. I guess having some expectations to start with would have been useful.