Another Small Mottled Willow

Well it's all a bit mundane for this year when so many recorders have been getting scores of Small Mottled Willows, but here such migrants are few and far between and I was chuffed to get my second Small Mottled Willow on the night of 17th August.  Especially so as unlike the first one this was a much fresher individual with a properly orange spot.

Small Mottled Willow, North Elmham, 17th August

Two species were new for the year: Currant Pug and a very tatty Mouse Moth.

Mouse Moth, North Elmham, 17th August

Currant Pug, North Elmham, 17th August

Others were 3 Bird-cherry Ermines Yponomeuta evonymella, Woundwort Case-bearer Coleophora lineolea, Long-horned Flat-body Carcina quercana, Orange Crest Helcystogramma rufescens, Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix Pandemis heparana, 2 Garden Rose Tortrices Acleris variegana, 2 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, Two-coloured Bell Eucosma obumbratana, Marbled Piercer Cydia splendana, 6 Pearl Veneers Agriphila straminella, 25 Common Grass-veneers Agriphila tristella, 3 Elbow-stripe Grass-veneers Agriphila geniculea, Ringed China-mark Parapoynx stratiotata, 2 Garden Pebbles Evergestis forficalis, 9 Mother of Pearls Pleuroptya ruralis, 2 Ash-bark Knot-horns Euzophera pinguis, Beautiful Plume Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, Common Plume Emmelina monodactyla, Orange Swift, Pebble Hook-tip, Large Emerald, Blood-vein, Small Fan-footed Wave, 4 Single-dotted Waves, 5 Riband Waves, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet, 2 Common Carpets, Small Rivulet, Maple Pug, Tawny Speckled Pug, 2 Magpie Moths, Scalloped Oak, Willow Beauty, 2 Coxcomb Prominents, 2 Pale Prominents, Yellow-tail, 2 Dingy Footmen, 2 Shuttle-shaped Darts, Flame Shoulder, 3 Large Yellow Underwings, Lesser Yellow Underwing, 7 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings, 8 Setaceous Hebrew Characters, Square-spotted Clay, 4 Six-striped Rustics, Lychnis, Antler Moth, Common Wainscot, 2 Dun-bars, 2 Dark Arches, Common Rustic, Lesser Common Rustic, 4 Flounced Rustics and Straw Dot.

Beautiful Plume Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, North Elmham, 17th August

Small Mottled Willow at last

(Apologies for last night's incomplete post if you saw it... I posted the wrong one!) 
 
The night of 21st July was one of the best in 2015.  This year has been an excellent one nationally and in Norfolk for migrant moths and nearly everyone seems to have been seeing Small Mottled Willows.  Not just coastal watchers either, some of the guys at inland locations have been getting multiples.  Not here though.  Diddly squat here.  Hardly any migrants at all - even Silver Ys have been decidedly scarce.  So it was with a sense of relief and "at last"-ness that I located a smallish noctuid with a distinctive posture under the sheet on which the moth trap was sitting.  Close inspection confirmed my suspicions - it was a Small Mottled Willow.  Not the finest specimen mind - in fact a pretty grotty one, but at least it was one!

Small Mottled Willow, North Elmham, 21st July

It wasn't the only migrant either - a Rush Veneer Nomophila noctuella also turned up.

Rush Veneer Nomophila noctuella, North Elmham, 21st July

As for everything else that turned up that night - that will have to wait for another post.  Suffice for now to say that the Small Mottled Willow was just one of three new moths.