February 2019 has been mild, with record-breaking daytime temperatures tempting wildlife out earlier than is the norm. Morale-boosting for many naturalists who struggle with the cold, dark, lack of action during winter but perhaps also concern.  Is this a sign of our climate going awry?

Comments on the weather are a regular theme in Alice’s notebooks. For example in 1918 She notes:

“from 10 Jan for 10 days or so very cold. (Therm in garden down to 3 at night) and 8-12 ins snow. Then became warm & fine, very fine from Jan 26 to Feb. I heard blackbird singing several times in last week of Jan – also saw a honeybee exploring a snowdrop – Many snowdrops then out & many daffodils 1″ or more above ground.”

Of the moths she records in January and February (1913-1925), Spring Usher and Pale Brindled Beauty are by far the most frequent. Mottled Umber, Dotted Border, Satellite, Common Quaker and Hebrew Character are occasionally encountered along with an Angle Shades “hybernating in the vinery“. On her micro list are Tortricoides alternella, Agonopterix heracliana and Agonopterix alstromeriana. How would my first light trapping session compare?

On 23rd February I set five light traps; in the arboretum, the bottom of the glen and some birch and rhododendron to the south of the House.

It was a mild and calm night and Saturday dawned with a beautiful pink sky as a backdrop to the avenue of Limes in the arboretum. The traps here had twelve species, a respectable haul at this time of year. Some, like Satellite, Chestnut and Ysophella ustella will have overwintered as adults, nestled in old vegetation or cracks and crevices, maybe emerging on milder evenings to refuel on any winter nectar sources available. Others such as Brindled Pug and Pine Beauty have overwintered as pupae and, triggered by the mild weather, are already starting to emerge as adults.

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In amongst the trap in the birch and rhododendron I added Tortricoides alternella, Dark Chestnut and Yellow Horned to the list.  Yellow Horned is a fantastic-looking moth, beautifully cryptic grey and black wings, an unruly mop of grey hair which from the right angle sticks up in two ‘horns’ and a pair of fancy yellow antennae (hence its name).

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Traps at the bottom of the glen added Hebrew Character and Clouded Drab making my total up to seventeen. Of this total, seven were recorded by Alice in her notebooks from 1913 onwards. The other ten she doesn’t mention. These could have been absent in her day, or perhaps they are more easily attracted by modern light traps? The most notable absence on my list was Spring Usher. Alice encountered this moth most years but all her observations are of individuals found at rest on tree trunks by day, except one found in “top room of house, evening”. There aren’t many modern records of this species in East Lothian. Has it declined, or are there fewer naturalists out looking in the right places at the right time of year?

Not moths, but some of my other invertebrate finds…

On the banks of the Whittingehame Water, I found some other invertebrates to add to my list: Hawthorn Shieldbug, 7-spot ladybird, a small slug (Arion owenii), a couple of small parasitic wasps (to be identified) and a stonefly (Protomenura meyeri). The slug is a species that has become widespread in Scotland in recent years but has a patchy distribution through the Lothians and Borders. The stonefly is rather common and widespread, but as the first stonefly I have ever had a go at identifying (with help) it is a nice addition to the list.

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[Thanks to @bugsymac and @riverflyflint on Twitter, and Adrian Sumner on Earth for ID help]