22 April 2012 - Warburg Reserve, Oxon

With a seemingly dry night ahead, I decided upon a quick Mothing request at the Warburg Reserve. Unfortunately the temps were down to 6oC when I left, so had little hope of anything special by the morning...

Pebble Prominent

After a couple of Lesser Swallow Prominents, this Pebble Prominent was a welcome find. Purple Thorn was great as always.

Scarce Prominent

Final moth of four traps - 2 x MVs and 2 x actinics, was this Scarce Prominent - new for me.

Last activity of the morning was a bit of pond dipping with Max - several newts and a few other odds and ends managed to jump in to the net...

Junior Baldie - happening upon some newts

13 April 2012 - Blairgowrie, Perthshire

Junior Baldie with Tree Sparrow

Final bit of garden ringing on last day of Easter hols. Lots of Tree Sparrows in the garden as ever - superb wee things in the hand.

12 April 2012 - Struan, Perthshire

A visit with Marc to the Bog Myrtle growing on the roadside near Struan yielded many posts but few moths... Some close inspection revealed a smartly patterned Engrailed - and just below it was my first female Rannoch Brindled Beauty. Further searching of the posts produced a second specimen 'calling' for males.

Other things seen included two Orange Underwing, Red Squirrel and a couple of Short-tailed Voles.

Rannoch Brindled Beauty (female)

Engrailed

Rannoch Brindled Beauty (female)

11 April 2012 - Blairgowrie, Perthsire

Not much of a catch last night owing to temperatures. One Pug spp looked interesting but is currently being 'dismissed' as a Brindled Pug. A Clouded Drab was yet another colour variant - and trying to look like Twin-spotted Quaker (but failing).

Clouded Drab

Presumed Brindled Pug

Sexton Beetle - caught earlier at Loch of the Lowes

7 April 2012 - Loch of the Lowes, Perthshire

Thanks to Emma and her volunteer colleagues (Brian, Lauren & Tom) I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening mothing at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes Reserve. A respectable 192 moths of 17 species. Highlights were a stunning chocolate form of Water Carpet and an as yet unidentified micro... A few other more regular species were nice to catch up with again.

Water Carpet - f. piceata

Micro spp

Twin-spotted Quaker

Red Chestnut

Dunno...

Mottled Grey

Dor Beetle?

6 April 2012 - Moors above Kinloch, Perthshire

With a passing visit by Marc Botham, we decided to head up on to the moors for a bit of naff weather mothing. Sure enough, wind, rain and general cold temps did little to enthuse us. Out of 3MV's and 3 x actinics we just about mustered 89 moths of 11 species. Highlights for me were an Early Tooth-striped and a few Mottled Greys. Highlight for Marc was possibly an Acleris spp - yet to be determined.

Early Tooth-striped

Acleris spp

Acleris spp

Mottled Grey

Water Carpet (and a well marked one at that)

5 April 2012 - Blairgowrie, Perthshire

First night of Easter break in Scotland. A modest catch of 29 moths of 9 species, but including this fantastic Red Swordgrass. New for me, it was a champion wee thing - unfortunately though, the weather isn't going to last very well this week (unlike last week here when there was a heat wave...). 

Red Swordgrass

Red Swordgrass - front view!