A hawk and two canaries

I good nights weather saw the moth trap going out on Saturday night. I had a feeling it was going to be an interesting, if not a bumper, catch when I checked the trap before going to bed and saw a Feathered Gothic nestling in the egg boxes. I decided to leave it until the morning rather than disturb the trap, and it was one of last moths I took out.

Feathered Gothic

The first moth I saw on Sunday morning was a beautiful thorn clinging to the outside of the trap. The moth was quickly potted and then easily identified as a Canary-shouldered Thorn, the third thorn in four trapping sessions following Early and September Thorns this month.

Canary-shouldered Thorn

As soon as I looked in the trap a broad grin stretched across my face as the familiar profile of this beast was obvious.

Poplar Hawk-moth

This Poplar Hawk-moth is one of the species I was looking forward to catching, and I was not disappointed with this exquisite moth.

Poplar Hawk-moth

There were plenty of other good moths in the trap. This included new macro species Common Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet and a Small Wainscot. I also made an effort with more of the micros, and this added Blastobasis adustella, Agriphila geniculea and Agriphila tristella. One the the most interesting things about trapping regularly is seeing how the spectrum changes over time, with 16 Flounced Rustic becoming the commonest moth this week and only one Scarce Footman caught, as opposed to 2 of the former and 41 of the latter two weeks ago.

Small Wainscot