Bridgend garden last night

At last after the sustained warm spell we get a decent haul of 37 moths of 16 species. Dominated by 16 Treble Lines, the trap held a few surprises for us in the form of our second ever Broken-barred Carpet and Apotomis betuletana - we hadn't had either since the moth rich year of 2006. Maybe this is a good omen?... Others new for the year were Notocelia cynosbatella, Spruce Carpet, Yellow-barred Brindle, Common Wave (1st since 2014), 2 female Pale Tussocks (1st since 2015) and a Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Picking up in Llandaff North

My garden catches have been pretty good of late, but not exceptional given the fine weather. But last night things really took off with 36 species caught, and many of them in good numbers - 24 Common Marbled Carpet is my highest garden count by some margin.

There was nothing exceptional among the macros, though it was nice to catch my second Lime Hawk of the year as well as my first Cypress Carpet of 2018. The highlight among the micros was Elachista argentella new for the garden, and also my first Plutella porrectella since 2009.

Creigiau 21 May 2018

Moth Box out in the garden for a few hours (22:00-00:30) last night - approx 100 moths of 28 species. My first ever Eyed Hawk-moth - in one of the flower beds, but it only let me take one shot before flying off. At least 15 moths were new for the year including a very nice Mompha locupletella and , what I think could be, Swammerdamia pyrella. Not at all sure about the latter so would appreciate confirmation/correction.

Castle upon alun 10/5/18

                                Little thorn, on the wooded slope just beyond the ford.

Merthyr mawr dunes 5/5/18

                                 25+ Pyrausta ostrinalis on the wing, also purpuralis
                                        and Cingulata seen.

                                 2 Grizzled skippers. Also 3 Dingy skipper.

Nantyffyllon 4/5/18

                               Clepsis senecionana, netted at dusk.

Pontycymer

On saturday night I did my first proper trap since I moved to Pontycymer from Carmarthenshire - previously I had caught a couple of hebrew characters and small quakers in early April in an actinic trap.
Not that many species on saturday with the MV (35 moths of 13 species) but 11 of them were new to my newly-started garden list. Highlights were pebble and pale prominents, brown silver-line, common wave and powdered quaker which were all FFY for me. I'm looking forward to adding to my list as often as I can from now on...