Blimey...

The last few nights have been fairly overwhelming in terms of sheer numbers: not huge by the standards of many people, but 182 individuals of 82 species on the 13th and 194 of 65 species on the 14th have taken quite some dealing with (and like Stuart, I've been finding my meagre supply of ten pots very inadequate - I've had up to five moths cohabiting them at times). So it's taken a while to write them all up: but there have been excellent numbers NFY, and quite a lot NFG. The newbies have overwhelmingly been micros, and the fun of IDing them quite something - quite a few feel like the mothing equivalent of birders' Little Brown Jobs, but some are quite spectacular - like this:

Enarmonia formosana, 14th July

Then again, some of the macros have been a thrill as well: Xander and I are both fans of hawkmoths, so we were pleased to see these:

Eyed Hawkmoth, 12th July

Elephant Hawkmoth, 11th July

- both of them being new to the garden. There've been some less showy additions, too,

Bordered Beauty, 13th July

Carcina quercana, 13th July

Leopard Moth, 13th July

V-Pug, 13th July

but still very pleasant (and in fact it's quite difficult to describe Bordered Beauty or Leopard Moth as not spectacular). In the pleasant weather, butterflies are on an upward trajectory, too: we've added Meadow Brown (pretty sure that's a garden first) and Red Admiral to our total, and I'd hope for others to show up - although we're now spending quite a lot of the next month or so away, so I expect our position on the scoreboard to slip badly quite soon...