Finally I put out my moth trap last night. The reward this morning was 17 species, including Buff Tip. This is a favourite moth – you look at it and wonder how it can be a moth as it looks just like a bit of broken birch twig. Camouflage at its sneaky best.
It also had the good manners to stay still as I took a photo using a macro lens which attaches to my smart phone. It works well for plants and well-behaved moths, but I have to take the phone very close to the subject. I don’t think it will be as successful with other insects that take off as soon as I approach them. It’s a useful gadget and a lot lighter than my camera.
At the start of the season, my ID skills are rusty and there will be many species that I’ll have to re-learn. So, I was chuffed to ID with reasonable certainty a micro moth. There’s nothing micro about its name: Notocelia cynosbatella. I thought the piebald appearance would be the giveaway, but its the yellowy-orange labial palps (front of the face) which is the distinguishing feature.
The moth that confused me is below. After turning many pages of my field guide I plumped for Tawny Shears which has been confirmed. Twitter is a wonderful social media platform – thanks @MothIDUK ! It belongs to the Noctuid family and many look, to my eye, very similar.
Natural history of the Bailiwick of Guernsey 