Moth Mig

The heatwave continues and there has been a noticeable increase in the number of migrant moths. Isaac woke me up again so I was out in the garden at 430am again, early enough to police the garden birds raiding the moth traps. 

The traps were heaving again but today I focused on just checking them carefully for anything unusual rather than attempt to log all the species and count the individuals (I have some good baseline data for this heatwave from the last few days). 

As it was Saturday the rest of the day was spent doing family stuff round the garden and then a visit to Bognor for arcades and lunch and in the afternoon I had to catch up on some sleep for an hour or two. 

Ni-moth. I had the lure out but it avoided that and all the traps and I actually found it during the day on the garden office door. Similarly, I found a Blair's Mocha in the house office when I opened the window for some air. Both NFYs. Other migrants today included Small Marbled (below), a record 63 Small Mottled Willows, 6 Silver-Ys, 5 Dark Sword Grass, 3 Rusty-dots, 8 Rush Veneer, Vestal, Diamond-back. Acrobasis tumidana and Dewick's Plusia. There's also still 3 Hummingbird Hawkmoths around the lavenders and still good numbers of Yponomeuta (presumed Willow Ermine) which may also be migrants. 

Small Marbled

Horse Chestnut was a lifer. 

Dewick's Plusia

Double Kidney- a garden tick I think. Now on 681 moths and together with the 21 species of butterflies we have now passed the 700 mark for moths and butterflies. After quite a few NFYs today now on 432 for the year

Small Rufous

Pea moth, Cydia nigricana

Heatwave scenes at Little Oak Lodge

I've been constantly irrigating all the garden to try and maintain an 'oasis' here which seems to be doing the trick. The main surprise is the seemingly good population of Short-tailed Field Voles in the meadow in the back garden which I keep seeing dash across the mown paths.