I have risen early to
view a celestial wonder: a line-up of objects low in the south sky. A
waning moon, the red giant Antares, Ares itself (Mars), Jupiter and
Saturn. This event is well worth an early start. Frustratingly
though, the cloud clearing from an overcast night has not fully
dissipated and clings to the southern horizon.
There is, however, as I
turn my attention to the contents of my moth trap, another line-up of
phenomena that has been rare of late. For the first time in weeks
most conditions for good moth activity were met: an overcast sky with
light winds and a reasonable temperature which held up after sunset.
For days on end I have opened empty traps after stormy nights, making
do with occasional wind-blown moths clinging to fences or
grass-blades. The pressure amongst the local moth community must have
been building behind a bottle-neck of Atlantic storms, waiting for
their planets to line up until finally, last night, the cork was
popped, the blue touchpaper lit and it was party time.
Those celestial
fireworks forgotten, I delight instead in a meteoric rise in moth
numbers. There is a tiny, delightful, if dourly-named Brown-spot
Flat-body (Agonopterix alstromeriana) perched on the lip of
the trap; a behemoth Oak Beauty (Biston strataria), its wings
an embroidered quilt of lichen; several Early Grey (Xylocampa
areola), which blend in almost
perfectly with the paler egg trays I line my trap with; but
the numbers are dominated by Orthosias – the genus of
springtime moths which belong to the largest family of British
species, the Noctuidae. The egg trays are peppered with Common Quaker
(Orthosia cerasi) and Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)
and interspersed with Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) and
Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda).
In the season when
woodpigeons boast again from morning rooftops, when the wren
rediscovers its voice and when tits show renewed interest in our
nestboxes, so too do we begin to encounter many birds' major
nourishment, the moths. There are earthly pleasures to delight in. My
catch of wonders from that space between Earth and the heavens, their
names and numbers recorded, will spend the day in safety before
flying off at dusk back into the night sky.
