Mothing Update..fruits of the garden

I have made a concerted effort this year to run the moth trap on a regular basis. Last years wet and horrible weather made it a poor  both for moths, and the running of a trap.  My enthusiasm waned as the summer rained on, resulting in a total of 33 pecies recorded. A baseline to work from at least.
This year I resolved to invest more effort in the trap when the weather would allow. I am also motivated by collecting data for the Garden Moth Scheme and partaking in a bit of friendly competion with Garden Moth Challenge  ( although I can only aspire to avoid the wooden spoon )

Whilst general moth numbers remain low, at least I have encountered some new and interesting species so far, and already surpassed last years total, having now managed to record 37 species to date for the year.
Of note in the last week or so have been 3 real corkers, Pale Tussock, Swallow Prominent, and a monster Polar Hawkmoth."Sexy" moths like these really make the 5am job of picking through the trap worthwhile and help counter the frustrations of trying to ID Pugs and "little brown jobs". Photo's of other species recorded can be seen via my Flickr link.

Pale Tussock

Swallow Prominent

Poplar Hawk Moth

Another recent garden venture was the construction and placing of a bee hotel in the to try and encourage solitary Bee's etc to utilise it. After work the other day, inspection revealed a visitor ! here's hoping for a few more and some over winter utilization.

Checking into bee Hotel