Last night I dusted off the moth trap and put it out into the meadows overnight. I really like mothing at this time of year because catches are very small and you can feel in control and like you know what you are doing. Later in the year, catches are enormous and can be extraordinarily time consuming to photograph, release and then subsequently trawl through the books identifying. All a bit daunting.

So I caught four moths of three different species:

And, the most interesting for me since I had never caught one before:

Very distinctive overlapping wings at rest and I can tell you for sure that this is a male because the female March Moths are flightless and have no wings. Therefore you will absolutely not find them attracted to light in traps but they hang around on tree trunks. Here is a image of one from the internet because I have never see one but then perhaps I should spend some time investigating tree trunks and then I will:

This is a good start to the mothing year!