Birding in Dorset & Poole Harbour Area: July 2017

A Budding Moth-er

I have been meaning to do a blog about Something Different but never seem to have find the time before now.

Back at the earlier part of June I commented on some very nice pictures of moth on my Twitter feed and stated that moth trapping would be something I would like ago at one day as it seemed very interesting .

Little did I know that little sentence would lead me down in to a very absobing hobby, I started off thanks to a fellow Twitter follower and Dorset bird Mark Andrews ( Thank you Mark) you kindly lent me is Skinner Moth Trap and some small pots and a field guide. He came over one evening to show me how to set everything up and just looking through the field I was surprised how nice some of the moths looked. While sitting in the garden talk moths Mark spotted a moth on the house was under the bench , Mark quickly potted up the moth and showed me how to use the field guide and my first garden moth was a very worn and faded Green Carpet.

Robinson Light trap

The light that started it all

Faded Green Carpet

So on the 10th June I set up the light and went to bed wondering what will be in the trap I woke up early on the Sunday excited to see what I had caught over night . There was not many which was not a bad thing for my very first go which helped as I I was not over whelmed with trying to find the IDs in the book. These were Riband Wave, Treble Brown Spot,Willow Beauty,Bee Moth and Heart and Dart.

After this I could hardly wait to set up the light again specially after reading through the field guide and looking at all the wonderful moth with in. So on the 14th June it was back out in the garden for the night and once again I had that exciting feeling of what will the night yield.

It is amazing what I have discovered that is or could be flying round the garden on any given night.

Heart and Dart

Willow \beauty

From those first few nights I was totally hooked on moths and whated to get myself a light trap so once again I put out Tweet asking if any body would know were I could get hold of a second moth trap from as I was very interested in obtaining one. Twitter can be a wonderful place at times as it was not long before I had a reply back from Nature Of Dorset ( Peter ) stating that he had a trap if I would like it, after a few emails late I went of to Peter's and picked up and wonderful moth trap.

Thanks to Peter I have also enjoyed many new moths in this trap. Thank you Peter, Iam certainly enjoying the the light trap.

Since starting this wonderful hobby I have so far gained 32 new species of moth for the garden and it is truly amazing to see these moth close up some of the details and colours are just a nice and perhaps a little better than some of the butterflies.

So here are a few of the moth that have been in my garden.