Day 19 #30daysWild - a morning of moths

I woke up sneezing, and that continued throughout the day, so after helping with the moths this morning from our trapping overnight, I spent most of the rest of the day inside, apart from a little bit of gardening and making a little alteration to one of our bird feeders. Hopefully tomorrow after the rain the pollen will have calmed down again!
Here are some of our spectacular moths from this morning

Blood-vein

hawk-moths - Eyed, Poplars and Elephants 

Eyed hawk-moth

Barred straw

Barred Straw

Day 11 #30DaysWild Moth trap - new setting, new habitat, new moths

We had the opportunity to set up our moth trap in a different location last night, so this morning we were hopeful for a few new moths. we usually set up in a garden adjacent to open grassland  but last night it was in a garden full of mature shrubs and surrounded by tall trees - We had a bumper haul but unfortunately as it poured down with rain this morning I was unable to photograph the moths outside and most were photographed in their collection specimen pots, so not the best collection of moth pictures, some photos were so poor because of the reflections on the pots surface, that they would be of no use at all for ID confirmation and some  moths I just didn't take photos of at all, because they wouldn't stay still, but here are the ones I did take. sorry there are still quite a few!

Buff-tip

White-pinion Spotted

Scorched Wing

Clouded Border

 

Mullein Wave

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Pebble Prominent

White Ermine

Peppered Moth

Brimstone

Buff Ermine

Satin Lutestring

Ghost Moth

Sharp Angled Peacock

Small Yellow Wave

Purple Bar

Map-winged Swift

Beautiful China-mark

Brown Silver-lines

Small Angle Shades

Small Elephant Hawkmoth

 A few of these are new species for us which is a great bonus!

Day 8 - #30daysWild - recording a new species and more moths

Last night the moth trap was set up again in our garden for an hour or so. This morning it was emptied. moth traps don't just trap moths, we regularly get other insects including hornets, cockchafers and other beetles, but this was our first ladybird, and not just any ladybird but an orange ladybird, the first time we have seen one here!

It is a shame it was a mid week evening, with the number of moths we collected in that hour we would have had a bumper haul if it had been left up all night! here are a couple of gems from the hour  a Lime Hawk Moth 

and a Small Phoenix 

Day 4 - #30DaysWild - a day with moths - oh and a shieldbug!

Last night Mr S set up our moth trap in our garden, this morning when I woke at 6.45am Mr S was already up and out sorting the trap, this is not unusual, I just roll out of bed to take the photos, Mr S does the hard work of emptying, identifying and recording. I can now recognise quite a lot of the moths after four years of trapping though I have to say that small brown moths are and probably will always be just small brown moths to me! they have to have a bit of colour or character for me to take any interest! so here are the moths that caught my eye today! - there were quite a lot! ...

Pale Tussock (male)

Pale Tussock (female)

Peppered moth

Chinese Character

Small Magpie

Oblique Carpet

Clouded Silver

An early group photo

Gold Spot

group photo - some moths didn't want to hang around for the group photo and flew off but these obligingly stayed!

Silver-y

Pebble Prominent

White Ermine

Oak Hook Tip

Ingrailed Clay

Buff Ermine

Brimstone

hawk moths - Poplars and Elephant

Scorched Wing

Later on we had another pyralid moth,the tiny mint moth, flying around our garden.

Mint moth 

and then Mr S spotted this stunning shield bug which we have since identified as  a Woundwort Shield bug

Woundwort shieldbug

Woundwort shieldbug