Thanks Heavens for Little Moths

I've been rather lax about posting since Small Skipper got me over the 1,000 mark a while back. I would apologise, but that would imply that someone out there was bothered, which I doubt. Pressure of work and the usual disappointing nature of August have slowed me down anyway but like most of you I enjoyed the July moth rush. We've been in the house for a shocking 17 years: when we moved in I (only half-jokingly) stated that we would move on when a whole year went by without a macro-moth tick for the garden. Astonishingly this nightmare has yet to arrive but this year has been the best for firsts since 2006 partly because this strange challenge encouraged me to check the trap at night rather than just in the morning. The mighty eight were: water carpet, varied coronet, dark umber, brown-veined wainscot, large emerald, buff footman, dark brocade and ear. Micro-moth ticks have been too numerous to list but Palpita vitrealis was well received. I had hoped to get to 300 moths for the year, it might be 400 with a bit of luck. Plants have also over-performed: target 200, reality 320 and I'm still getting new ones, most recently Phalaris canariensis and Juncus tenuis. Unfortunately the most popular pigeon-feeding spots are just outside the aquare, excluding exciting plants such as Niger, Sunflower, Pea and a variety of grasses. Bird highlight of the year was undoubtedly Green Sandpiper, three of them flying over: thanks to them for calling incessantly. Now I'm waiting for a few fungi to appear so I can fail to identify them.