Ivy still producing in Stutton

For about an hour shortly after dusk last night it was surprisingly mild, so I thought it would be rude not to check the Ivy along Lower Street. I wasn’t expecting to see many migrants, so was extremely surprised that my first moth was a Vestal. It was in almost exactly the same spot as one I had on the 6th, which made me think it may have been the same individual. Too much of a coincidence surely? In all, in a little under an hour I had 36 moths of 10 species. 11 were Angle Shades and 9 were Chestnuts. Common Marbled Carpet took bronze with 4; there were only two Dark Sword-grass. Incredibly, as I returned to the start point I had another Vestal!

The point made about hibernating Chestnuts is interesting. We have only found two Dark Chestnuts (22 Sept and 4 Oct) whilst Chestnuts didn’t start until the 3 October. Behaviourally, we tend to find them on the back of ivy flowers which would suggest that they have crawled out from within. The same tends to apply with Setaceous Hebrew Characters.

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