A cloudy night with temperatures around 10 C seemed to have done the trick with over 50 moths in the trap of 19 species most of which were new for years.
The first Blackcap of the year in the garden this morning too. Swallow and House Martins have been in for a week or so now and Chiffchaffs for longer. I haven't heard the local Curlews yet (they are normally singing and displaying by now and can hear them from here)- I saw a twitter post by Nick Mariner yesterday saying that they haven't arrived at Waterstock yet which is a bit worrying as I've normally seen there round here since early March- fingers crossed they return this year.
Blossom Underwing- only the 2nd garden record
Frosted Greens- two last night, a brighter one above and less well marked one below. Only the second and third records for site.
Purple Thorn
Nut-tree Tussock of the melanotica form - a new form for me. I had the other two forms in the garden this time last year see here
A nice fresh Pale Mottled Willow
Oak Tree Pug I presume
The closest I can get to this is Sycamore Slender, Caloptilia hemidactylella- only the second one of these too (if approved)
A garden lifer today- I presume a Smooth Newt (rather than Palmate), (above and below) a young one and presumably Smooth due to orange (rather than yellow) under belly
The mystery stowaway sea-slug (nudibranch) that we found in our reef tank turns out to be quite a sinister creature. I think it's a Mimic Nudibranch, Phyllodesmium rudmani that mimics and eats Xenia corals. I suspected it might be as our Pulsing Xenia kept getting smaller and smaller and the sea slug was getting bigger and bigger. I've taken it out the tank now and there's only about 10% of the xenia left. Elsewhere in the reef tank after sulking for a week our Tree Coral has finally started to open.
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