Aves envy and moth matters

Occasional visits to relatives who live in the leafy suburbs of Surrey always make me feel a little envious of the habitat represented by their garden and its surroundings. Lots of old oaks and other tree species beyond their fence but plenty of spots for birds (Aves) and invertebrates in their garden.

I usually get a few moments to survey the life forms in the garden and among those oaks. It doesn’t take long to build a decent garden ticklist of birds. For a recent trip:

Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock, Firecrest, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Green Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Robin, Song Thrush, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl, Wood Pigeon, Wren.

I only heard and Goldcrest and it was the Merlin app that picked up the Firecrest. The Tawny Owl was a nocturnal caller, of course. Merlin claimed a Willow Warbler, but I didn’t pick that up aurally or visually.

Meanwhile, I’d brought a Skinner moth trap with me and put that out for a couple of sessions. Unfortunately, it got very cold (near freezing) during the first couple of nights and there were just a Brindled Pug (NFM) and an Early Grey. Third night was a lot warmer (10 Celsius) albeit rainy, but it brought in a much bigger moth haul. I was very pleased to see a few species I’d not seen before, those NFM (new for me) moths:

Brindled Pug x1, Frosted Green x3 NFM, Great Prominent x1, NFM, Grey Pine Carpet x1, Lunar Marbled Brown x3 NFM, Muslin x1, Purple Thorn x2, Red-green Carpet x2, Scarce Tissue x2 NFM, The Streamer x1.