Old and young in the garden.

The garden moth trap hasn't produced much of interest this year and today was no exception. Two Old Lady and a Blood-vein were the pick of the routine fare. The Blood-vein didn't cooperate with my attempts to photograph it unlike the Old Lady moths. Old Lady is one of those stupid names that leaves you wondering why it was used to name a moth and what the correct plural form of the name should be. The moth was apparently given its common name in the 18th century when its drab appearance was likened to the attire of the old ladies of that time. As for the correct plural form I generally stick to Old Lady but adding the word moths after the name sometimes reads better.

Face of an Old Lady

Old Lady (Mormo Maura).
Both individuals were quite worn, living up to their name in more ways than one.

The garden feeders have been attracting an increasing number of juvenile Goldfinches recently so I decided to put a net up for a couple of hours while I did some chores around the house. This resulted in 25 birds being caught and ringed including 12 Goldfinches. Hopefully this flock of Goldfinches will continue to increase as it has done in previous autumns.

Juvenile Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Juvenile Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)

Totals for the garden were:
Goldfinch 12
Blue Tit 4
Dunnock 3
Chaffinch 1
House Sparrow 1
Coal Tit 1
Collared Dove 1
Greenfinch 1
Great Tit 1
Total 25

I plan to go back to the Swallow roost site this evening but may go a couple hours earlier to try and try and catch a few warblers before the roost forms. Hopefully the attention of the Hobby won't have put the Swallows off but I will keep you posted in due course.