Like others, I took advantage of the lull in the recent wild weather (where yet more trees were blown over at the golf course following the large amount of damage caused by the St Jude storm) to get the traps out. Ran 2 125w MVs up in the woods around the work shed area (well, not so wooded now as many trees have been lost there).9sp, list below.
March moth – 6
Tortricodes alternella – 7
Pale brindled beauty – 10
Dotted border – 3
Oak beauty – 1
Small brindled beauty – 4
Chestnut – 9
Spring usher – 1
Acleris ferrugana – 1
Interesting comparing my results with what others caught and with previous years here. At this site Spring usher is almost over, saw quite a few of these at the end of January, while with Brian it seems to be still around in good numbers. At this time of year I would have expected more alternella, there were very low numbers caught, perhaps it is yet to come out or did it suffer in the cold spring last year? Also I caught a low number of Small brindled beauty, is often at its peak here at this time so again maybe it is running late. The Oak beauty has turned out to be my earliest ever record though.
Also had 2 Agonopterix scopariella attracted to the kitchen window last night, have seen heracliana there too on previous nights.
Looks like the season is now getting going, shouldn’t be too long till the Orthosias make an appearance.
Neil
I’ve noticed that in the past. Many species seem to appear earlier with you down in Ipswich to when they do up here in north Suffolk, especially in the spring.