Natural(ist) Blonde: Sooooo I bought a moth trap

Sunday, 9 September 2018

Sooooo I bought a moth trap - Kirkconnel moths 08/09/2018

On Friday I returned from a field trip to Harris (more on that another day) to find two new toys waiting for me. A shiny new trail cam, and Skinner trap from NHBS. I've been looking forward to getting the trap since moving house, so, with a warm evening, only ten per cent chance of rain at between 2 and 3 am and a relatively low wind, I deployed the trap in the back garden.

I woke at 6 to cover the trap, then waited until the godson was up and about to open it up and identify the contents. NB: with a three-year-old "helping" I.D took about 2 hours...

On the night of the 8th of Sept we bagged:

1 canary shouldered thorn
5 large yellow underwing
1 common marbled carpet
1 silver Y
1 spruce carpet
1 autumnal rustic
2 centre barred sallow
1 pink barred sallow
1 frosted orange
1 small wainscot
1 setaceous Hebrew character
1 rosy rustic
1 dark sword grass
1 dotted rustic
1 dingy looking July highflier...
and one difficult barred chestnut.

I am happy to be corrected on any of these identifications, I'm just starting after all!

The trail cam also went out on Saturday; positioned on a well-used deer track. I'll be taking it in later in the week, so watch this space for shots of our local roe deer population.