The night temperatures have been around 8 to 10 degrees over the last couple of nights so I lit up again, the first time in a while. Had an Olive-tree Pearl, Palpita vitrealis today which is a NFY and always a welcome migrant visitor here and very good to get a migrant this late in the year. The full list of other moths recorded include Sprawler, December moth, Feathered Thorn, Brick, Red-line Quaker, Common Flat-body, Agonopterix hericliana and Light Brown Apple Moth. Moth garden year list is now 469 (633 all time).
In other news our offer on the Selsey property has been accepted and we are moving towards the memorandum of sale and getting the surveys done. Here at the Old Vic, exchange contracts have been signed and the completion date is in early December so things are suddenly moving very fast on this. There will be a few months in rental between moving out of here and moving into the new house so still a long way to go. On reflection it was great to get another year here at the Old Vic- I suspect I won't find a better moth trapping garden again, considering I'm not here half the time, getting nearly 500 species a year must indicate a special place. I feel like I certainly made the most out of it, even at the expense of birding time but these inner landlocked counties seem to be better for ecology overall rather than 'birding' so it seemed to make sense to focus on that as a better 'investment'. The learning curve has been steep and very enjoyable and I'm indebted to all the help from Dave Wilton and the Upper Thames Moths Community who incidentally have an upgraded website (now includes micro records) HERE. I've absolutely loved our time here.
However, I'm not gonna lie, if all goes to plan and we end up on the coast, I will finally, after decades of being landlocked, at last live next to a decent local patch to go birding on, which I'm very much looking forward to. When at the Old Vic, doing the mini-farming and wildlife garden and local exploring etc I often thought, just imagine this.... on the coast! So that's the plan to recreate here, there. The Selsey property will be walking distance from Pagham harbour and a couple of miles from Medmerry and Selsey Bill for sea watching and also to the north we will have access to the South Downs to do more ecology stuff too. The local schools are good, the commute to London is about the same as from here and the whole family already know and love the area as it's our regular holiday spot. I'm also hoping will get more moth migrant activity down there too especially if we create some decent habitat in the garden. Fingers crossed it comes off!
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