First moth of 2014...

Today was mild and spring-like. Rosie and I went out just before sunset, and for the first time this year it felt like a spring evening, with the balckbirds trying out their first tentative song, and a mix of scents on the breeze - a brief whiff of the sweet but cloying perfume of cherry-plum, the pungent scent of a fox overlaid with the smell of damp, fertile earth.

Pete has switched the moth trap on for the first time this season, and this is an image of the first arrival, a pale brindled beauty. This is one of the earliest moths, being on the wing from January to March. It's generally a woodland species, but also occurs in well-wooded gardens like ours, the caterpillars eating a variety of broadleaved trees and shrubs. This one is clearly a fresh example as the abdomen is still pinkish.

This brings the total number of species recorded from our garden in 2014 to 209 - not a bad total. We're now fairly sure we'll reach our target of 1000 species, maybe earlier than we thought!