Three's a crowd? (with an up-date!)

 My mention of Porter's Rustic, at the end of yesterday's offering proved to be a major "faux pas". I'd potted it directly off the perspex dome of the trap because it "looked" like the individual which Paul Howe had displayed on Folkestone Birds. In the cold light of day, my moth was nothing more than a very worn and pale example of the Common Rustic clan. Hey-ho! Not the end of my world, I make similar mistakes on an almost daily basis, especially with the bloody micro moths. However, all was not lost as there were three Convolvulus Hawk-moths present on the egg trays when I examined last night's catch. This is almost certainly a direct consequence of me planting Nicotiana in my garden planters.

Three Rush Veneer, five Rusty-dot Pearl and a single Dark Sword-grass were the only other obvious migrant species plus I did have another Old Lady within the trap, whilst two others were resting on the nearby fence panels. Bev and I are headed off to Corfu in little over a week's time, so these next few nights might just prove to be the end of my mothing for 2024? It will all depend upon the weather conditions when we return.

The Old Lady - quite a characterful moth

Rush Veneer

A couple of Chiffchaffs were splashing around in the bird-bath as I was examining the moth trap contents and it is really encouraging to see good numbers of juvenile Gold Finches visiting the garden feeders recently. Hedgehog numbers remain very buoyant, locally, and I guess that six individuals visit our garden feeding station on a regular basis. Although I am seeing the occasional Fox within the garden, I haven't actually seen one at the feeding bowl for several months now.

I hope that the day never dawns when I have seen enough of these wonderful creatures!

The evening up-date 

So, much as I was doing yesterday night, I'm sat in the study, listening to the England v's Finland game and watching the feeding bowls. Almost a case of "de-ja-vu"  there were two Convolvulus Hawk-moths nectaring on the Nicotiana flowers right outside the doorway. This time, however, I had the camera kit readied and close to hand, thus managed to get a few, much improved, images of the moths. I'm fairly confident that these moths were not those seen/caught yesterday as the trap contents were released nearly 400m away from the garden trap.