22nd-24th Bradwell

3 nights trapping all potentially excellent nights threatened by rain, but as it happens we remain downpour free up here. Light rain with a few moderate bursts spoiled things a bit most nights though. Average species count 70-75 per night. Highlight of the 22nd was 6 Twin-spotted Wainscot my best ever count at home,along with the first Webb’s here this year. The best night was Friday with 3 New macro species for home, which is pretty good considering I started trapping in July 2003. They were; Mullein Wave, Coast Dart and White-spotted Pug. The best moth of Saturday night was Lesser-spotted pinion first seen here last year. The best of the ‘migrants’ Dark Sword-grass and Rush Veneer.
For those of you following actinic success or failure on the night of 23rd, first trap checked, the actinic, had 39 species on a night when 4 traps had 75 species in total.
My trap is a Skinner, which is known to not hold moths so well, however I think the low light over the box probably gets more moths in the trap, whereas the Robinson with the light up in the air has more moths around it. However, placement is also key to good results and taller vegetation, ie shrubs, on at least one side seems to do best for me.

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2 Responses to 22nd-24th Bradwell

  1. Neil says:

    I would agree, the Robinson actinic does normally have quite a few moths resting around the cone, and also all around the trap in the grass and on the fence where I run mine. Probably because the light is not as strong. My actinic has had improved catches recently, and seems very attractive to Tree-lichen beauties with most of my sightings of that moth in the garden at that trap (although this could possibly be because that light is nearer to where they are being drawn in from).
    Despite the warm conditions migrants have been almost non-existent with me, even Silver Y’s. Didn’t trap here on night of 24th as there was torrential rain here for most of the afternoon and evening so you were lucky if you avoided that!

    Neil

    • Raymond Watson says:

      Tree-lichen Beauty is also much more abundant in my actinic Skinner than the robinson MV and in my case it is definitely not the placement. My smaller actinic also catches them.

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