Six of the group turned up for the meeting despite the afternoon’s showers damping things down a bit. We were trying a new part of the forest on this night, along the Icknield Way further north than we have tried in the past. Four MV and 2 actinic lights were put out on the forest tracks and along the Icknield Way track itself – the more open areas were avoided due to a rather cool breeze.
Green Carpets were the most common moth flying as dusk fell and throughout the night. The moth species count slowly built up with Apomyelois bistriatella, Treble Bar, Clay Triple-lines. A trap round added quite a few more to the list including Pale-shouldered Brocade, Epinotia rubiginosana, Narrow-winged Pug, Cream-spot Tiger, Eulia ministrana and Sharp-angled Carpet.
New moths continued to trickle in for a while before we called it a day – White Colon, Barred Hook-tip, Pale Oak Beauty, Brown Rustic, Eyed Hawk-moth, Birch Mocha and Great Prominent - with over sixty species recorded by the end of the night. None of the usual Breck ‘specials’ appeared and with the slow season it may have been too early for them. We return to the Brecks in two weeks so they may appear then.
Tony
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- Pale-shouldered Brocade
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- Peacock Moth
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- White Colon
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- Common White Wave
Tony forgot to mention that the bird people out on the night had a treat at dusk whilst setting up. 2 Nightjars showed very well hunting for insects above us for a short while as well as ‘churring’ a bit too.