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Packed out my new 15W blacklight and 12V battery on a bivouac trip to Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest on Thursday night. Miles from nearest road where cougars and bears roam - thought I might see a couple of new moths. This was the view from my hammock spot about 500m up on the valley-side.
Ectropis crepuscularia - Small Engrailed
Cladara limitaria - Mottled Grey Carpet much less green than the individual that turned up at the house early May.
Venusia sp. (pearsalli or obsoleta - differentiation is beyond me and would seem to require DNA analysis)
Eupithecia sp.
Triphosa haesitata
The light worked, in spite of persistent drizzle, bringing in a couple of dozen moths. Alas, it was the usual suspects - various grey-brown geometers, and little diversity, all recorded in Seattle some weeks earlier but tailing off now: Western Carpet, Tissue Moth, a Venusia, one or possibly two Eupithecia species and the Small Engrailed. But this was interesting in itself. Spring has been slow coming and at this altitude many of the understorey herbs flowering in the Puget trough late April, early May were just out now.
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