30/3/19 - Yes, Tim, definitely a Friends' Meeting for Quakers.

Much less interesting here last night, with just 29 moths, and 5 species.  The only items of note were another Small Eggar (or maybe the same one coming back) and unusually, 3 Twin-spotted Quakers.  I have only ever had singles of these before.

Best night of the year so far with 105 moths of 15 species. FFG was a Tawny Pinion. FFY were Grey Shoulder-knot (1) and Powdered Quaker (3). Common , Small , and Twin-spotted Quakers joined the Powdered thus forming a congregation - or is it a meeting of Quakers?  The others were mostly the usual suspects including Brindled Beauty (1) , Oak Beauty (1) and Red Chestnut (6).

Pretty misty, damp and miserable here this morning. Still not a lot happening in my garden as yet, just three of each of Hebrew Character, Clouded Drab and Common Quaker. The highlight was a fairly early male Muslin Moth.

28/3/19 - a few more last night (31), mostly the usuals, 14 Hebrew Characters, 7 Common Quakers, and 7 Clouded Drabs, with singles of Pale Pinion and FFYs Engrailed and Small Eggar.  I have only ever previously recorded the Eggar here in Pylle, as larval webs in 2005, so It's good to know they're still around.

My first Hummingbird Hawk Moth for the year this afternoon in the garden.

Netted an example of Caloptilia stigmatella this afternoon - my first NFG of the year; hopefully more to come!

Just the actinic put out as the forecast was for +3c .  73 moths of 14 species. Red Sword-grass was the only FFY - last seen here in 2016. Of the rest : Brindled Pug (9) ; Early Thorn (1) ; March Moth (3) ; Brindled Beauty (1) ; Oak Beauty (1) ; Early Grey (20) ; Clouded Drab (10) ; Common Quaker (7) ; Small Quaker (3) ; Hebrew Character (12) ; Twin-spotted Quaker (2) and Red Chestnut (1).

26/3/19 - much better in terms of numbers, but little variety again.  55 moths of only 5 species.  30 Hebrew Characters, 12 Common Quakers, 11 Clouded Drabs, and 1 each Small Quaker and Dotted Border.

24/3/19 - very disappointing catch last night, only 13 moths, and 5 species.  ?Too breezy?  Who knows?

2 actinics run and plenty of moths.  The first Dotted Chestnut I have seen for 10 years or so.

Common Quaker (58)
Hebrew Character (22)
Clouded Drab (9)
Shoulder Stripe (6)
Small Quaker(5)
Chestnut (3)
Oak Beauty (3)
Water Carpet (3)
Twin-spotted Quaker (2)
Early Thorn (2)
March Moth (surprisingly only 1)
Diurnea fagella (1)
Light Brown Apple Moth (1)
Early Grey (1)
Dotted Chestnut (1)
Streamer (1)

No such luck as my last trapping session but a creditable 76 moths of 11 species with three FFY: Shoulder Stripe (not seen last year, Brindled Pug (2) and Diurnea fagella.

22/3/19 - an improvement on recent catches, with 49 moths, of 9 species.  As expected, the Orthosias were dominant, with Common (22), Small (2) and Twin-spotted (1) Quakers, Hebrew Characters (10) and Clouded Drabs (10).  Other than those, there were singles of Dotted Border & Early Grey, and FFYs Early Thorn and Satellite.

A little milder (8.3c) but foggy with drizzle at dawn. 34 moths of 12 species but Brindled Pug (3) was the only FFY.

20/3/19 late entry.  A FFY Double-striped Pug found in the porch this afternoon - most likely an escapee from last night's catch.

I ran a 20w Actinic in Thurlbear Wood for a couple of hours yesterday evening. 47 moths of 13 species.

Diurnea fagella (6), Double-striped Pug (1), Brindled Pug (3), March Moth (4), Oak Beauty (4), Engrailed (1), Early Grey (1), Clouded Drab (1), Common Quaker (10), Small Quaker (9), Hebrew Character (2), Twin-spotted Quaker (4) and Red Chestnut (1).

Best night of the year so far for general interest. 78 macros of 18 species with 5 firsts for the year. The highlight was only my 6th garden Small Eggar. Other firsts were Water Carpet, Dark Sword Grass, Brindled Pug and Double Striped Pug.
Most numerous were Hebrew Character(22) and Common Quaker(17) with another 2 Dotted Chestnuts being the best of the rest.

20/3/19 - quite disappointing considering the relatively mild night, with just 18 moths of 6 species, and nothing new, but there were 2 (worn) Pale Pinions, which usually only appear as singletons.

After ten days working away, what a fantastic night! 113 moths of 17 species including no less than four FFG! The new species were Satellite, Red Sword-grass, Early Tooth-striped and Acleris cristana* all singletons. FFY were: Clouded Drab (8), Double-striped Pug (4), March Moth (6), Twin-spotted Quaker (2), Early Thorn (3), Early Grey (4), A. heracliana (2), E. monodactyla (2). The most numerous was the Common Quaker with 56 - a record.

* Thanks to James McGill for confirmation

Between 2nd and 25th April last year I released a total of 22 adult Mompha divisella from my garage where they had presumably been hibernating.

Things have started to happen earlier this year. The first two were found on 27th Feb. and, to date, I have liberated 12; six this morning included a pair in cop.

A little chilly at 5.2c but at last the wind has dropped.  38 moths of 14 species produced 3 FFY: Ypsolopha ustella (1) ; Double-striped Pug (1) and Red Chestnut (2). Others were : Mottled Grey (1) ; March Moth (1) ; Oak Beauty (1) ; Dotted Border (1) ; Early Grey (4) ; Chestnut (3); Clouded Drab (3) ; Common Quaker (11) ; Small Quaker (1) ; Hebrew Character (5) and Twin-spotted Quaker (3).

18/3/19 - A slight improvement, with 22 moths, but only 5 species.  including 14 Hebrew Characters, enough for a quorum in the Knesset.  One nicely marked Clouded Drab, very different to the dark grey ones I usually get.

Nothing new, apart from two large Caddis Flies, the ones with the pale strip along the top of the wings when at rest.  Anyone know the species ?

Found today in Bramble on platform 3, Castle Cary station, mines of Coptotriche marginea all with pupae. Phone pics waiting for train!

On close inspection the mystery noctuid appears to be an extremely faintly marked Twin-spotted Quaker, var immaculata. The hindwings are the right colour and there is just a suggestion of the twin spots (ringed on the second photo). Comments welcome!

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John, a noctuid that you are struggling to identify is intriguing. Any chance of posting a photograph?

17/3/19 - dry, chilly, with light wind, so hopes were high.  Sadly, hopes dashed !!  Just 9 moths altogether, of which 7 were Hebrew Characters (no real surprise there), and 1 each Twin-spotted Quaker and FFY Pale Pinion.  Not one Common Quaker, odd, given the large numbers a couple of weeks ago.

I put the trap out on Friday evening despite winds howling through the garden and to my surprise there was a good catch - Emmelina monodactyla 1, Dotted Border 1, Common Quaker 4, Hebrew CHaracter 6, Early Grey 1 - and 10 Small Eggar which normally only comes in as singletons. Also a Twin-spotted Quaker size russet coloured noctuid which has so far defied my idenmtification efforts.

A couple of nice leaf mines in West Somerset recently - Trifurcula immundella is a small Nepticulid that makes blackish coloured mines on broom. You can tell its mines apart from Leucoptera spartifoliella (which makes similar mines) with the little black egg case (circled in red here). This one was found at Willet Hill a few weeks ago. It seems to be a bit of a rarity in Somerset, though it's probably under-recorded (you can also see a silken spinning on this bit of broom - either A. assimilella or LBAM, but no-one was home!)

Scrobipalpa instabilella mines Sea Purslane at this time of year, leaving a distinctive hole through which frass is ejected, and turns out to be a first for Somerset (thanks Neale for confirming!), found on Porlock Marsh yesterday, another one that's probably under-recorded in saltmarsh habitats, and worth looking out for.

The forecast was for a lessening of the winds last night and I put my trap out in the most sheltered spot in my garden. The result was 60 moths of 6 species. Mainly the usual suspects but it did include 2 Dotted Chestnuts, a moth I only ever record in very low single figures but is almost an annual.

Best night of the year so far with 97 moths of 9 species. Common Quaker, 46, and Hebrew Character, 33, were the most numerous but best moth of the night was my first Oak Nycteoline for a couple of years and only my 7th ever record.

8/3/19 - a bit of a disappointment last night, considering the weather wasn't too bad, and a nearly new moon, with just 29 moths of 6 species.  The usual early March bunch as expected, but including a nice surprise, a faded and worn FFG Dark Sword-grass.

I'm planning on trapping tonight too - the forecast looks reasonable, so fingers etc. crossed.  Where does one submit records for GMS ?

My first Double-striped Pug of the year on my garden gate this afternoon. Trapping tonight for GMS - fingers crossed.

Amongst all the Ectoedemia heringella and Phyllonorycter messaniella mines on the Holm Oaks in Butleigh I found some Stigmella suberivora. None of Nigel’s Acrocercops brongniardella...yet!

The promising start continued here with 62 moths of 9 species. Most numerous were 33 Hebrew Characters followed by 18 Common Quakers. 5 Twin-spotted Quakers was the most I've ever recorded in one night. Firsts for the year were March Moth, Early Thorn and Red Chestnut.

6/3/19 - the weather finally relented a bit, albeit still quite cold and breezy, so out went the traps, only for them to get rained on before I got up.  Never mind, the moths appeared again, but not in the numbers of 2 weeks ago.  36 in total, of which there were 17 Common Quakers, 13 Hebrew Characters, 3 Clouded Drabs, and singles of Small Quaker, March Moth and FFY Early Grey.  Not too bad, all said.

This afternoon I found an Acrocercops brongniardella mine on Holm Oak in Bishops Hull. Looking at the map it would appear that this species has a primarily coastal distribution in Somerset.

Lots of signs of feeding on Bramble in the lane with larva in silk tube under this leaf.

I found small numbers of E. heringella mines on Holm Oak in Bishops Hull and at nearby Roughmoor today. As far as I am aware the only other site in VC5 is Thurlbear Quarrylands where they were first recorded in 2017. This species is spreading quite quickly and there must be more sites out there waiting to be found.

Still in the second division compared to recent high numbers elsewhere around the county but pushing for promotion with 44 macros last night. Most numerous were Common Quaker with 26 and Hebrew Character with 11. Twin-spot Quaker was my only first for the year.
This is easily my most productive February night and the month itself was the busiest February I have ever recorded with a total of 112 moths. My average for the month over the last 16 years is just 17 moths. I like to hope that it is a sign of things to come but the reality is that it was probably the unseasonably warm weather that helped and I generally find that the colder the winter the better it is come the summer.