A short post from Pwll...

A quick, `in between jobs`, post. I had two traps out in the garden last night (19/2) with a limited variety of moths greeting me at first light. The MV had no moths at all, though a nice Acleris cristana outside the trap was compensation.
The actinic fared better, holding a mottled grey, a small quaker and three common quakers; an oak beauty was on an adjacent wall (and, somehow - my window was closed - a dotted border was in my bedroom).

                                                                Above: mottled grey.

                                                  Above: a handsome Acleris cristana.

                                                               Above: small quaker.

The very variable Acleris cristana is associated with blackthorn thickets and, talking of blackthorn, I noticed a blackthorn `look-alike` in flower along the coast road at Machynys, Llanelli this morning. It is cherry plum Prunus cerasifera, which some people mistake for the later flowering blackthorn Prunus spinosa.