Puffling in the moth trap

I should not have been surprised really but when I went to the mothtrap on the 30th I got the almost jumped out of my skin when a fledged puffin (puffling) jumped out from behind the mothtrap. Birds are attracted to light or sound after they emerge out of their burrows. We pick up to 4 a day this year so far with the first one being last Wednesday. This bird was ringed and released safely from the west cliffs at dusk.

The mothtrap is put out every night. This year the mothing has been very poor. Day after day there have been very few entries in log. Hopefully our moth catching will improve and we'll post more pictures soon. We can catch over 300 in some nights. We've caught our first Dark Arches of the season which is easily our most numerous moth.

The entry on the 30th

Here is the puffling. It was a very lively bird in good condition. It was not at all happy being caught after being dazzled by the traps light.

This moth is a Bright line Brown Eye. A regular visitor to our trap.

 Can you see this Netted Pug on the wall of where we put the mothtrap?



Mark later turned up with a Guillemot he'd found in one of the Heligoland traps

Also not too happy about being caught! See the lovely yellow throat and  it's not cause he's squeezing it!