A friend of mine has just bought a moth trap. They're quite simple wooden boxes, which come either with a blue, rather ethereal light that looks a bit spooky, or a whopping bulb capable of illuminating a whole city. For him - and me - we use the spooky one so as not to keep the neighbours awake!
He is going through what the theorists would call the 'change curve'. After the first burst of excitement of having a new bit of kit and of finding that by the morning - as if by magic - the trap has filled up with all sorts of creatures the like of which he's never seen, now comes the angst of trying to work out what all these little brown, speckly things are.
I'm encouraging him to 'stay the course'. Like a foreign language, it's impossible to become fluent overnight, and the thing is to enjoy all those moths which ARE readily identifiable and which ARE simply amazing to look at.
'Enjoy the process'. It's a motto that works for me in most things in my life!
Me, I've just passed through the nine month anniversary of moving into my new house with its abandoned garden. It means I've had the spring and summer to begin to explore which moths already use the garden, so about once a week I've been putting out my simple little moth trap.
If you know your moths, you'll probably enjoy the identification challenge, so I'll just put up some photos of recent captures for you have a go at without captions.
If you are new to moths, just enjoy the fantastic shapes and patterns and even colours and textures of common garden moths.
Answers next time. For now, enjoy the process; enjoy nature :-)
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw