With thanks to Jamie and James, we ran a couple of moth traps up at Binn Green car park for a few hours earlier in the week. The bright lights of the traps lure the moths in, and once inside they have a rest on an eggbox for an hour or two, then released to continue their nighttime adventures. It was a good night, in that it didn't chuck it down, and despite a bit of a breeze we recorded more than 30 species of moth.
Highlight was an Elephant Hawkmoth (see below), which we have seen before at Binn Green, but always good to see. We had some other new species for our moth nights - the dull sounding but quite attractive Dot Moth, and the Blackneck, a moth with a very distinct... black neck
There were of course a few quite plain looking faded moths to bamboozle the moth identifiers. A few midges got down the shirt, but couldn't have been too bad - we're planning on another evening in a week or two...
If you are interesting in joining a moth evening, let us know.
Best wishes
Dave (dave.ohara@rspb.org.uk)